Two years ago researchers at Bauer were told to ignore cost and convention in order to create the best hockey equipment possible. The result was equipment that allows hockey players to move easier and skate faster.
Six of the NHL's top players are now expected to use the state of the art equipment during the Sochi Olympics, and Bauer hopes that in as little as two years the gear could be available to the masses.
"We're using materials that have never been used in protective equipment before," Craig Desjardins, general manager of Bauer ice hockey equipment, told CTV's Canada AM on Friday.
The newly designed equipment, which was unveiled Thursday, was specifically designed for six NHL players: Patrick Kane, Nicklas Backstrom, Alex Ovechkin and Henrik Lundqvist, along with Canadians Jonathan Toews and Claude Giroux.
Desjardins said the fully customized protective body suit, which was created using an optical scan, is four pounds lighter than traditional equipment.
He said the ultra-light-weight goal pads save more than 180 pounds of lifted weight over the course of a game, while the skates are the lightest ever developed -- one-third less weight than average skates.
"That's going to allow the player to get to the puck almost a foot faster," Desjardins said. "That's absolutely significant."
He said within the next two to four years, Bauer hopes to take the cost of the material and technology down to a price-point that would make it available to hockey players of all ages.
"We are absolutely looking at the future of hockey," he said.
