Renting pads you are interested in

[Bensmith_31]

Hey everyone, 

I'm just curious, would anyone be interested in a company that rented you goalie pads that you are looking into buying so you can try them out before you actually buy that model?

has anyone heard of a company that does this?

thanks 

[coopaloop1234]

14 minutes ago, Bensmith_31 said:

Hey everyone, 

I'm just curious, would anyone be interested in a company that rented you goalie pads that you are looking into buying so you can try them out before you actually buy that model?

has anyone heard of a company that does this?

thanks 

A lot of major gear suppliers did to this prior to covid.

My local behemoth of a shop (the hockey shop) had a rental program and has yearly sales of the left over equipment that was rented.

https://www.thehockeyshop.com/collections/demo-sale

It's not exactly an untapped market.

[Puckstopper]

Plus a lot of shops do it for free.   Peranis had multiple sets of Axis loaner pads available this year.

[ZeroGravitas]

That would be a brutal business to run.

Having to buy sets of gear across various sizes and brands, dealing with shipping and lost or late packages, theft, having to rotate half of your fleet every year as new pads come out...

Unless you have an in with a manufacturer and can get them at less than wholesale, there's no way it can be profitable.

[Urabus33]

52 minutes ago, Puckstopper said:

Plus a lot of shops do it for free.   Peranis had multiple sets of Axis loaner pads available this year.

When I worked at Pure Hockey we did this as well. 1 week loaners for free, with CC on file. It was an awesome program

[Charlie T]

Many companies and stores do this, I've been able to try axis and ultrasonic, the one disappointing thing is that I really want to try 20.1s before I pull the trigger, but lefevre does not do demos

[ZeroGravitas]

31 minutes ago, Urabus33 said:

When I worked at Pure Hockey we did this as well. 1 week loaners for free, with CC on file. It was an awesome program

When my shop did this, they put a pending charge on the customer's card - the amount of which depending on the pieces being demoed - and released it when the gear was returned. Customers weren't out of pocket anything. People seemed to really like the program.

I feel like it led directly to sales of sets, both off the shelf and custom orders. Sucks that my store got rid of the program.

[Chenner29]

7 hours ago, ZeroGravitas said:

That would be a brutal business to run.

Having to buy sets of gear across various sizes and brands, dealing with shipping and lost or late packages, theft, having to rotate half of your fleet every year as new pads come out...

Unless you have an in with a manufacturer and can get them at less than wholesale, there's no way it can be profitable.

I used to work for Enterprise Rent a Car and there's a lot of crossover here. Fun thread so I'll jump in

Repairing damaged gear from use/abuse, wear/tear, loss of use/lost revenue associated with repair times
Shipping costs for repairing said damaged gear
Damage disputes, wear and tear disputes ('well, I heard on GGSU this gear wears down quickly and this must be the case')
Third party liability - renter decides to give their pal the gear for a couple days, pal damages the gear, who's at fault?
"Acts of god" - customer's basement floods, gear is damaged, who's at fault?
Theft - customer leaves your gear in their car overnight, car is broken into and gear goes missing, who's at fault?
Replacing lost (or "lost") buckles/straps/velcro and lost revenue while waiting for replacements
Replacing customer swapped parts that wore out (ie. customer needs knee lock elastic, rents yours and swaps them so you're left with their shitty elastic)
Misrepresentation of renter credentials (stolen CC, falsified ID and/or address)
Litigation from injury or unsanitized gear
Timing the resale market

Finally, never forget the power and motivation behind crazed hockey parents who feel their child has been wronged...