Walking Stick

Caitlin Moscatello

December 10, 2007

IT'S HOCKEY'S VERSION of the Louisville Slugger—the Sher-Wood stick, which the Sherwood-Drolet company has made of birch and aspen at its Sherbrooke, Que., factory since 1949. But no more. Next month the company will begin outsourcing production of its wooden sticks (it sells a million each year) to China and Estonia. "The wood sticks will still be our top sellers for many more years," says company president Denis Drolet. "In China they make them for cheaper." Sherwood will turn its factory over to more profitable composite sticks. (They sell for around $180; wood costs $40.) Only 5% of NHL players still use wood sticks, and composites are gaining popularity among youth players, but some pros don't like the outsourcing. Senators center Jason Spezza convinced Sherwood to keep making his woods in Quebec. "If I was going to continue using their sticks, I wanted to make sure they were still made in the same place," he told the Ottawa Citizen.