Why are hockey sticks black?

Most hockey sticks are black because carbon fiber is black. When composite sticks replaced wood, the color of the material quietly became the color of the whole category, and almost nobody went back to question it. Black isn’t a setting that changes how a stick plays. Ours aren’t black because we think this game has looked the same for long enough.

The material is black, so the stick was black

Carbon fiber comes out of the process dark. Bare filaments, the woven sheets, the finished tube: black or close to it. Wood sticks looked like wood for the same reason. Nobody chose the color. They chose the material and the color came with it.

That’s the whole technical story, and it’s a short one. If you want the longer version of what the material actually is, what 100% carbon fiber means covers it without the marketing.

Then it stuck

A default that nobody has to defend tends to last. Walk along a stick wall and most of what you’ll see is black, with a brand’s graphics on top. A team’s sticks against the boards look like one stick repeated twelve times.

Our own country is no exception. Finland is a hockey country, with rinks in every town, and as our Why Maila page puts it, “almost every stick, at every level, is black.” We grew up with that rack. It never looked wrong until we asked why.

Why does any one brand pick black? We haven’t asked them

You’ll hear guesses. Black looks serious. Black matches every team’s colors. Black is what the pros carry, so it’s what sells. Some of that may be true somewhere.

We don’t know, because we haven’t asked any of them, and we’re not going to put a reason in another company’s mouth to make our point sound better. What we can say is what you can see for yourself: the rack is black, and it’s been black for a long time.

Does a black stick play better?

Not that anyone has shown us. Flex, weight and length come from how a stick is built. Color isn’t on the list.

Our own spec sheet is the evidence we can offer. A Senior Maila is 77 flex, 385 grams and 165 cm (65 in) in every color. Intermediate is 50 flex, 320 grams and 157 cm. Junior is 20 flex, 260 grams and 147 cm. One build per size, left or right handed, and the same price whichever color you pick.

What black does on the ice

The puck is black. Plenty of tape is black. Most gloves and pants are dark. So a black stick sits in a rink full of other black things, and it blends into them. That isn’t a flaw. It’s just what happens when everything matches.

A colored stick does the opposite, and which colors read best depends on what’s behind them. Hockey stick colors on the ice goes through that one color at a time, including what we haven’t measured.

Why ours aren’t

We wanted to bring some color back to a game that’s looked the same for too long. That’s the mission, and it’s the reason Maila exists.

The color isn’t the point on its own, though. It’s how a stick gets noticed in a rack, picked up by a kid after walking past ten black ones, talked about on a bench. Underneath, it has to be a proper stick, or the color is just decoration. So we start with 100% carbon fiber, designed and tested in Finland, and only then give it a color.

And there’s a plain, practical upside. When a dozen sticks lean against the boards, yours is the pink one. You don’t read the butt end. You just grab it.

What a color won’t do for you

It won’t add speed to your shot. It won’t change your flex or your weight. It won’t make you a better player, and we’d be lying if we said otherwise.

Past the practical stuff, it’s preference. Some players want their stick to disappear in their hands. Some want to look down and smile at it. Both are fine reasons to buy a stick.

If you like black, buy black

Seriously. There are good black sticks out there, and if black is the color you want to see for a season, that’s the right call for you. We’re not here to argue anyone out of it.

We’re here for the player who looked at the rack and wished there was another option. And if you already own a black stick you love, can you paint a hockey stick is honest about what that costs you before you try.

Common questions

Is carbon fiber naturally black? Yes. The fiber itself is black. How a maker gets any other color onto a stick is its own process, and that’s a part of ours we don’t publish.

Does a black stick hide the puck? You’ll hear that argued at rinks, usually about tape on the blade. We haven’t seen it tested, so we won’t tell you it’s true or false. Tape is cheap. Try both.

Do colored sticks cost more? Ours don’t cost more by color. Senior is $214.99, Intermediate $166.99 and Junior $142.99, whatever color you pick.

Does color change the flex? No. Each size has one flex and one build, and color never touches it.

Are colored sticks real sticks? Ours are 100% carbon fiber. Colored hockey sticks takes that question on its own.

Get the fit right, then pick the color

Color is the easy part. The size and the hand are what decide whether you’ll like the stick. How to choose a hockey stick walks the fit in order, or find your stick in about a minute. Then go to the sticks and pick the one you’ll spot from across the rink.