Hockey skate will increase speed and reduce injury

Jeffrey Azzolin has a plan to give Canada's grand old game a bit of a lift and he’s got at least two former NHL players behind him.

A recent University of Waterloo graduate in mechanical engineering, Azzolin has invented a spring-loaded hockey skate. He says it should improve both speed and acceleration while also reducing knee injuries.

"One thing skate manufacturers have been doing is making skates lighter,'' says Azzolin, president and chief executive officer of Bladetech Hockey Inc. "What I wanted to do is move ahead with that and find room for optimization in the blade."

Former Montreal Canadien Greg Stewart added a testimonial to Bladetech’s website after trying the skates. He said they had a cushioning effect that will reduce knee injuries. Stewart added, “All the power is coming from the balls of your feet and it felt like I could really generate a lot of power in the skates and get the explosion I need to quickly come out of corners.” Former New York Ranger and Waterloo Warrior Chris Chappell also tried the skates and said they give him more power.

Azzolin has customized a conventional skate by installing a spring-loaded assembly in the plastic blade support below the toe. The setup allows for dynamic motion between the blade and the holder, allowing the mechanism to capture and harness energy which otherwise would have been wasted.   

The spring allows the blade to deflect up at the front end of the boot and can be fully customized to each player’s desires. By keeping a larger portion of the blade on the ice for a longer period of time, players will be able to transfer more energy. This will be highly advantageous, says Azzolin, especially during races to the puck and breakaways.

Azzolin played rep hockey in Ajax, Ont. for several years. The idea for a spring-fitted skate had been on his mind long before it became a project to wrap up his engineering degree.

More testing ahead

Bladetech, meanwhile, has bench strength. John McPhee, the Waterloo engineering professor who helped found Hockey Robotics Inc., is Azzolin's advisor. The commercial offshoot of another fourth-year engineering project, Hockey Robotics tests hockey-stick designs in a lab on Colby Drive, Waterloo.

Azzolin earned one of 11 Ontario Scientists and Engineers in Business Commercialization Fellowships -- each worth $60,000 -- awarded in 2012-2013. The fellowship is a University of Waterloo program supported by the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario) to promising entrepreneurs who want to commercialize their innovations and start high-tech businesses.This allows Bladetech to do more product development.

Kaitlyn McDonell, a second-year kinesiology student and member of the Waterloo Warriors women's varsity hockey team, will use an electronic insole to measure how feet respond to skates fitted with Bladetech assemblies. Members of the team will be among the test subjects. 

"It's been very busy and very challenging," Azzolin says of being an entrepreneur. "But it's also very rewarding to develop a product and see it reach these milestones.