The hockey gift guide: buying a stick for somebody else

A hockey stick as a gift comes down to three decisions: size, which hand goes low, and color. Size you can usually get from their height and weight. Color is the fun part. Handedness is the one you cannot work out by looking at them, so ask somebody who has seen them play. Ours run $142.99 to $214.99 by size, with free US shipping.

Three decisions, and only one of them is a real guess

Every Maila stick is 100% carbon fiber, designed and tested in Finland, with one flex and one build per size. There is no model range to read up on and no upgrade tier to agonize over. Pick a size, pick a hand, pick a color, and you are done.

That is good news for a gift. It means the only way to get this wrong is to get one of those three wrong, and two of the three you can check before you order. How to choose a hockey stick walks a player through all three in order. This page is for the person buying it for them, which is a different job.

Handedness is the one you cannot guess

A left-handed stick and a right-handed stick are the same stick, mirrored. Same flex, same weight, same length, same price. We build every stick both ways.

What you cannot do is work out which one somebody shoots by looking at them. It does not reliably follow the hand they write with, and plenty of right-handed people shoot left. There is no tell on a person standing still.

So ask. Ask them, ask whoever drives them to practice, or find a photo of them holding a stick and look at which hand sits lower on the shaft. That bottom hand names the stick. Left-handed or right-handed: how to tell has two tests you can run on somebody without explaining why you are handing them a broom.

If you genuinely cannot find out, buy them something else and let them choose the stick themselves. A coin flip on the most expensive part of the gift is not a plan.

Size goes by the body, not the birthday

We make three, and these numbers are the whole range:

• Junior: 20 flex, 260 grams, 58 in (147 cm). Younger and lighter players.
• Intermediate: 50 flex, 320 grams, 62 in (157 cm). Growing players, and lighter adults who want an easier flex.
• Senior: 77 flex, 385 grams, 65 in (165 cm). Adult players.

Age is the wrong axis and it is the one people reach for first. Two players born the same year can be a foot apart. Height and weight tell you more than a birthday does.

We are not going to tell you which one fits the person you are buying for, because we have never met them. If you know their height and weight, put both into the size finder and it names a class. If you only know their height, or you are honestly guessing at both, the size chart lays out what separates the three so you can make a judgment with your eyes open.

Color is the part they will actually notice

Ten sticks, eight colors, three sizes. Senior comes in pink, blue, green and orange. Intermediate comes in pink, red, yellow and blue. Junior comes in light pink and light blue.

Color changes nothing else. Same flex, same weight, same length, and the same price in every color of a size. It is the only decision here with no wrong answer, which is exactly why it is worth thinking about. It is the thing they see every time they pull it out of the bag.

Hockey has looked the same for a long time. A rack of black sticks with a different sticker on each one is not really a choice. Colored hockey sticks is the longer version of that argument, and the lineup is here if you would rather just look at them.

What it costs, and what that number includes

Senior is $214.99. Intermediate is $166.99. Junior is $142.99. Shipping to the US is free, and duties and taxes are already inside the price, so the number at checkout is the number you pay.

That matters more on a gift than on a stick you buy yourself. Nothing arrives later with a customs bill attached, and nobody has to be told the present came with homework. Shipping, in full.

It turns up with a velvet bag and a puck

Every stick ships with a velvet bag and a regulation puck. Neither is there to pad the order. A bare stick is an awkward thing to hand somebody, and those two turn it into something that reads as a gift before anybody has wrapped anything.

Orders leave us in 2 to 4 business days, then it is about 1 to 2 weeks in transit to the US, tracked the whole way. It ships from Finland.

Both clocks start when it arrives, not when it is opened

This is the part a gift buyer needs and no gift guide prints, so here it is first and plainly. Our return window is 30 calendar days from the day the parcel arrives. The 30-day play promise runs from delivery too. Neither one waits for the paper to come off.

So a stick that lands in early November and gets opened in late December has already spent both of those. That is not an argument for ordering late. It is an argument for knowing the dates before you order instead of after.

Two other things on returns, because they are easier to read now than in January. The stick has to come back unused and in its original packaging, which means a stick that has been on the ice counts as used. And you cover the return shipping unless it arrived faulty or we sent the wrong one. If the timing on your date is tight, email hello@supermaila.com before you order.

We are not printing a last-order date

Plenty of shops will put a countdown on the page in November. We have not set a cutoff, so we are not going to invent one and let you plan your December around a number we made up.

Here is the real arithmetic instead, which is the same arithmetic we would do: 2 to 4 business days to pack, about 1 to 2 weeks in transit to the US, tracked. Count back from your own date and leave yourself room on top. If you want a person to look at a specific date with you, hello@supermaila.com.

If a stick is more than you had in mind

There are two tees, and they are the cheapest way into this. The Logo Tee is $29.99, a bamboo and cotton blend, true to size, S to XL. The IHANA MAILA Tee is $26.99 and 100% cotton. Ihana maila is Finnish for lovely stick, which is the whole brand written on a shirt.

One warning on the second one, and it is the same warning as the rest of this page. It runs a little small, and the colors and sizes it comes in move around, so read the product page rather than trusting your memory of somebody’s t-shirt size.

Common questions

Is a hockey stick a good gift? It is a good gift if you can get the hand right, and a frustrating one if you cannot. Everything else on the list is recoverable. Size you can work out from height and weight, color has no wrong answer, and a stick that is slightly long can be cut. Handedness is the single thing that has to be correct on the day.

What happens if I get it wrong? You have 30 calendar days from the day it arrives to send an unused stick back for a refund. Email hello@supermaila.com with the order number and we will set it up. Return shipping is on you unless it arrived faulty or we sent the wrong thing.

Do the brighter colors cost more? No. Every color in a size is the same price, because the color does not change what the stick is. A pink Senior and a blue Senior are both $214.99 and both 385 grams.

Will it arrive by a specific date? We will not promise one. What we publish is 2 to 4 business days to pack and about 1 to 2 weeks in transit to the US, tracked, and nothing we can say about a courier in December is better information than that.

Can I buy a stick without knowing their size? You can, and the finder will get you close on height and weight alone. If you are not confident, the tees are $26.99 and $29.99 and nobody has ever had to return a shirt because it was the wrong hand.

Buy the hand right and the rest is easy

Get which hand goes low, get roughly the right size, and then enjoy the only part of this with no wrong answer. Height and weight into the size finder settles the class. How to choose a hockey stick covers all three decisions if you want to read the whole thing before you commit.

Then pick a color. Ten sticks, eight colors, three sizes, every one of them 100% carbon fiber, designed and tested in Finland, shipping free to the US with a velvet bag and a puck in the box. Not one of them is black, which is rather the point.