What comes in the box with a hockey stick

Three things. The stick, a velvet bag, and a regulation puck. That is the whole published list, and it is the same list in every color and every size. Nothing to assemble, and no tape on the blade. If you have ordered one and you are waiting on it, that is what is going to be inside.

The list is three items long, and that is on purpose

Every Maila stick is 100% carbon fiber, designed and tested in Finland, with one flex and one build per size. There is no model tier, no accessory bundle, and no upgrade box. The shipping page puts it the same way: what the price covers is the stick, its velvet bag, a regulation-size puck, and US duties and taxes.

So the unboxing is short. That is not a complaint about it. A stick you have to assemble is a stick somebody has shipped you in pieces, and the one thing you actually want on the day it lands is to pick it up.

The stick, and the two things worth checking first

Check the hand before you check anything else. A left-handed stick and a right-handed stick are the same stick mirrored, so a box that reads correct in every other way can still hold the wrong one. Stand it up, put your hands on it, and see which one wants to sit lower. If that feels wrong, it is wrong. Left-handed or right-handed: how to tell has the tests.

Then check the size against what you ordered. Here are all three, and these numbers do not move with color:

• Senior: 77 flex, 385 grams, 65 in (165 cm).
• Intermediate: 50 flex, 320 grams, 62 in (157 cm).
• Junior: 20 flex, 260 grams, 58 in (147 cm).

Stand the stick on its blade next to the player, in their shoes or their skates, and you will know inside ten seconds whether the class is right. Hockey stick length covers where the top should land and what cutting does to the flex, because those two are the same decision.

The velvet bag, and what we are not going to claim about it

It is a cloth bag the length of the stick, and the stick arrives inside it. You can keep using it, and most people do, because a bare shaft rattling around loose in a hockey bag is an annoying thing to live with.

What we will not tell you is that it is armor. It is velvet. It will not stop a skate blade, it will not stop a car door, and anybody selling you a cloth bag as protection is selling you a cloth bag. Think of it as the difference between a stick in your bag and a stick loose in your bag, and nothing more than that.

The puck, and what “regulation” actually means

Regulation is a size, not a grade. A regulation puck is about 3 inches across, 1 inch thick, and 5.5 to 6 ounces of vulcanized rubber, and that is the standard the word points at in every league that uses it. We publish ours as a regulation puck, so that is the size to expect.

What we have not done is put the one in your box on a scale this morning, so we are telling you what we ship it as rather than what a measurement said. It is a real puck. Use it on real ice.

What is not in the box

The published list is three items, so everything that is not on it is not in there. No tape. No wax. No spare end plug, no instructions, and nothing to fill a second layer of cardboard with.

Tape is the one people actually notice, because a new blade comes to you bare and most players do not leave it that way. Tape is cheap and every rink shop sells it, and it is also a preference, which is exactly why we do not pick it for you. Players argue about tape jobs the way they argue about sticks.

How it travels, in the one sentence we can stand behind

Our shipping page says this: “A hockey stick is long, about 1.2 meters, so it travels in a proper long box, not folded into a flat parcel. Carrier is DHL, FedEx or UPS, always tracked.”

That is the whole of what we publish about it, and we are going to leave it there. We are not going to describe the padding, name the board grade, or tell you the box is built to survive something we have not tested it against. You will see the box before we do. If it turns up damaged, email hello@supermaila.com with a photo and we will sort it out.

The clocks start the day it lands

One thing to know on arrival day rather than in January: the 30-day return window and the 30-day play promise both run from delivery. Not from the day you open it, and not from the day you first get on the ice. If this one is going under a tree, the gift guide works through what those dates do to a December plan.

The first ten minutes

Check the hand. Check the length against the player. Then stop reading and go use it. There is nothing to break in, no setup, and no settling period we could honestly describe, because one flex and one build per size means the stick that came out of the bag is the finished article.

If the size turns out to be wrong, it is easier to fix now than after a session. Returns run 30 days from delivery on an unused stick in its original packaging, and a stick that has been on the ice counts as used. The size finder takes height and weight and names a class, which is the fastest way to settle an argument with yourself before you tape it.

Common questions

Is the blade taped when it arrives? No. Tape is not on the list of what ships, and tape jobs are personal enough that choosing one for you would be a strange thing to do.

Does the bag come in the stick’s color? We do not publish a color for it, so we are not going to promise one. What we publish is a velvet bag with every stick.

Is the puck a real puck or a souvenir? A regulation puck. It is the standard size, it is rubber, and it is meant to be shot.

Will I owe anything on delivery? No. Duties and taxes are inside the price and US shipping is free, so the number at checkout is the number you pay.

Does a more expensive color come with more in the box? There is no more expensive color. Every color in a size is the same price and the same box, because color does not change what the stick is.

Three things, and one of them is the point

The bag is useful and the puck is a nice thing to find, but neither is why you ordered. How to choose a hockey stick is the long version of the decision you already made, and it is worth a read if you are now wondering whether you made it right.

Otherwise the box has done its job. Take the stick out, check which hand sits low, and go. The rest of the lineup is there when this one has earned a second.