Paralympic hockey players struggle to find affordable equipment

By EHRIN LOPEZ

Finding pre-owned specialty equipment for Paralympic hockey is rare in Metro Vancouver, leaving most players to buy their gear online.

Matteo Pellizzari, 18, plays para hockey, formerly known as sledge hockey, with Team BC and Team Canada.

Pellizzari said the basic equipment for para hockey, such as gloves and helmets, is the same as what’s used in stand-up hockey and is very accessible in Vancouver. Specialty gear on the other hand, is much harder to find.

“The specialty equipment, so the sticks, the sleds…the blades and stuff like that, that’s from a company called Unique Inventions…in Ontario,” Pellizzari said. “It’s such a specialty thing, you have to go through Unique.”

While para hockey is on the pricier end, Pellizzari said there are grants for eligible players and there are gear renting alternatives for anyone wanting to play.

Rissa Wilson, from KidSport Tri-Cities said she’d never seen a para hockey sled before March of this year at their used-equipment sale in Port Coquitlam.

“This is the first time I’ve seen that here at a sale and…we started the sale in 2009,” Wilson said.

Wilson said para hockey equipment in Vancouver is “extremely difficult to source.”

“Each stick is around…$100 to $150 and you have to have two of them because it’s sledge hockey. So, definitely things add up,” said Pellizzari.

While para hockey gear is expensive and less accessible locally, ice hockey is a pricey sport all around, forcing Vancouver parents to find alternatives to buying new gear.

Nelson Fong, father of a Vancouver junior hockey player, said he only buys his son’s equipment on Facebook Marketplace.

“I have never purchased new [skates] — never ever,” Fong said. With a child growing out of his skates every six months, it’s too expensive to buy new, he said.

Patrick Bull, the owner of consignment store Cheapskates Sporting Goods in Dunbar, said the store receives more gear than it can handle.

Items are priced at 50 per cent of their retail price, then adjusted depending on the gear’s condition.

“We’ll kind of give some guidance of what a market price would be or what things in a similar brand or style or condition would sell for,” Bull said.

Davis Smith, a Cheapskates employee, said prices for used hockey equipment have increased faster than inflation since 2020. Before then, buying second-hand meant fewer upfront costs making hockey more accessible for parents.

Ben Ludwig, owner of The Sports Exchange in Kitsilano, said a factor in rising prices is equipment companies focusing on the one per cent of elite children’s hockey rather than the recreational 99 per cent.

In addition to the rising costs of equipment, a barrier keeping kids from playing recreationally is the lack of spaces to play in Metro Vancouver. Ludwig said the city has allowed development of towers and housing but hasn’t expanded public spaces for kids to play sports.

“I’m not just mad because it affects our sales,” Ludwig said. “I think that we’re taking the opportunity away from kids, and young adults.”