Geared up for shinny Entrepreneur crafts bespoke pack for backyard rink rats By: David Sanderson Posted: 6:00 AM CST Saturday, Nov. 19, 2022

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/11/2022 (1222 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Big league scouts on the hunt for the next Great One might want to sneak a peek over their neighbour’s fence.

According to RinkWatch, an Ontario-based environmental initiative that tracks the number of outdoor skating surfaces fashioned annually in Canada and as far away as Sweden and Finland, backyard rinks — the sort Wayne Gretzky has often credited for helping to develop his skills at an early age — regained their sheen at the height of the pandemic, when most indoor facilities were closed to the general public.

One Facebook group devoted to the how-tos of maintaining an expertly manicured, backyard sheet of ice saw its membership more than double, from 10,000 to 21,000, between January 2020 and January 2021. Meanwhile, those in the business of marketing rink kits that contain plastic liners, boards and nets, could hardly keep up with demand last winter, and, judging from pre-orders this fall, expect to be just as flooded with sales, this season.

On that note, meet Eric Morrish, founder of Pigeon Hockey Supply Co., a Winnipeg venture specifically aimed at the outdoor rink, or, as he puts it, ODR, crowd.

Let’s say you’re getting together with pals for a casual game of shinny in somebody’s backyard or, as he is wont to do, on the human-made lake behind his parents’ Bridgwater home. In those situations, there’s little call for a large, cumbersome hockey bag, he contends, as you won’t require equipment such as shoulder pads and hockey pants. At the same time, a knapsack, lacking the space for essentials such as gloves and a helmet, isn’t a great option, either.

So, stealing a page out of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, the 28-year-old mechanical engineer has come up with a durable, polyester carryall that is neither too big nor too small, but rather, just right.

“I’m a big fan of shows like Dragon’s Den and Shark Tank and was always trying to think of a unique product that might prove successful,” he says, seated in a downtown food court, where he’s sporting a black Pigeon Hockey ball cap — more about his business moniker in a sec — and matching crew-neck. “I’ve also been playing hockey for about as long as I can remember, so this has definitely been a labour of love.”

The story behind what Morrish has dubbed the “pigeon pack,” which, besides having space for skates, pucks, tape and such, also has separate, padded compartments for a phone, laptop and a few bevvies, actually begins in The Pas, where he lived with his family until they moved to Winnipeg in 2010.

There is a good-sized pond on his paternal grandfather’s property, near Clearwater Lake, and he has fond memories of long afternoon games, on the frozen body of water.

“My buddies and I would be out for three to four hours, almost every Saturday,” he says. “Before the age of every kid having a cellphone, I would spend half an hour calling everybody’s house, to organize a game. I enjoyed spending time outdoors with my friends, all of whom I am still close with to this day.”

Morrish, who pulled for the New Jersey Devils before the Jets returned to town in 2011, says it was during his senior year at St. John’s-Ravenscourt, where he played left wing for the high school hockey team, that he began tossing around the idea of an alternatively sized sports bag.

“University, work… hobbies” ultimately got in the way of his dream, he says, but when COVID-19 struck in March 2020, like so many others, he suddenly found himself with spare time on his hands.

Using a pencil and pad of paper along with his engineering chops, he came up with a design that suited his eye. Next, he bounced the sketches off his brother and his girlfriend’s brother, asking if they could think of anything he was missing. Following a bit of tinkering — one of them suggested a sleeve for a clipboard or rulebook, which would make the bag appealing to coaches and referees — he began reaching out to different manufacturers.

Of course, his fledgling enterprise needed a name. Morrish was familiar with the term “pigeon,” which, according to a YouTube channel called Hockey Slang 101, jokingly refers to a player lacking in skill. And because he was never the star of any of the teams he played on — far from it, he says with a laugh — he chose Pigeon Hockey Supply Co. as a nod to “fourth-liners, everywhere.”

His initial prototype arrived in the mail in January 2021. Everything was as just as he had envisioned, people loved it when he showed it off at the rink, yet he still paused and took a deep breath before hitting “send” for a preliminary order of 500 bags, the minimum number accepted.

“The cost was everything I had, pretty much, but because my girlfriend — now my fiancée — and my parents were so supportive, I figured, ‘OK, it’s now or never.’”

Despite the fact the shipment didn’t arrive before July 2021, not exactly the height of hockey season, he managed to register for a few pop-up markets in the Gimli-area that summer. Additionally, he took a trip to The Pas, where the owner of an apparel store, Funky Threadz, had agreed to carry his bags, as well as his Pigeon-branded hats, T-shirts and hoodies.

“Creating a lifestyle brand was kind of a goal of mine, all along, even though I knew it was a pretty saturated market,” he says, mentioning he’ll be introducing a Pigeon Hockey Supply Co. hockey jersey to the mix, the same black-and-white model he dons for games with his beer-league squad. “Toques were actually the first things we were able to make available but it’s the bag that definitely sets us apart from the pack.”

Elisha Dacey is the communications manager for CAA Manitoba, which recently added Morrish’s line of goods to its retail website, shop.caamanitoba.com. Dacey says the automobile association set a goal during the pandemic to shine a light on locally made goods and services, and hooking up with Pigeon Hockey Supply Co. seemed like a natural fit.

“CAA Manitoba regional manager Susan Postma came across Pigeon Hockey Supply Co. on social media and was impressed with the pigeon pack’s unique design and versatility,” Dacey says, when reached at work. “We encourage our members to be outdoors and active, and we also know Manitobans love their outdoor rinks and skating ponds. We thought this product would resonate with them.”

This weekend, Pigeon Hockey Supply Co. will be putting the bird in Third & Bird, where Morrish is a registered vendor for the three-day Christmas market, being held at Red River Exhibition Place. He’s introverted by nature, he says, so learning how to be an effective salesperson, one who isn’t shy about tooting his own horn, has probably been the toughest part of entrepreneurship.

That said, he does try to be a walking, uh, skating advertisement as often as possible during the winter months, by slinging his pigeon pack over his shoulders if he’s headed to a community club rink down the street or the Nestaweya River Trail along the Red and Assiniboine rivers.

“There’s always a few people who’ll stop to ask about the bag, saying how it would be perfect for their son or daughter. To which I usually say something like, ‘What? This thing? Here, why don’t I show you exactly how it works.’”

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca