November 2012

Product Review: The Tape Tiger by 3M Hockey

November 4, 2012 SDC Leave a comment

Hi folks! The following is a product review done by friend of the blog, Rob Cunning. Rob is a software developer at Thinkingbox, an Athletic Therapist working out of the Langley/Vancouver BC area, and also my brother. He formerly was the AT for the Mt.Royal University Cougars men’s hockey team, and Trinity Western University Spartans men’s soccer team and men’s & women’s volleyball teams. He also played a little puck for Trinity Western University of the BCIHL, and some baseball for the University of Calgary Dinos, Kelowna Jays, Kwantlen Eagles and Burnaby Bulldogs too.

That all being said, Rob recently reviewed 3M’s Tape Tiger, a new hockey tape removal device, and below are his findings. Enjoy!

-SDC

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The Rob Report:

The Tape Tiger by 3M Hockey

The Tape Tiger is a new device from 3M’s Elite Series of hockey products, and is highly effective for easing the hassle of tape removal from a player’s hockey stick blade.

After using it, I was reminded of the “Shark” tape cutter, a tool Athletic Therapists use to remove tape from an athlete’s taped body part – a great tool which we use often in our field.

Upon using the Tape Tiger, I found that it removed hockey tape well, and did not leave any cut marks on the blade afterwards. Also, it did not matter which side of the blade I cut on, it was effectively removed the tape from both faces. However, I think it would be easier to remove tape from the backhand side of more curved blades with this tool, in my opinion.

The Tape Tiger was also able to cut through multiple layers of tape, for those who like to double-wrap (inexcusable, by the way), and have inadvertently thickened their tape removal problem.

It was really easy to cut fresh/more recent tape off of a blade with the Tape Tiger, however it did have some difficulty removing older tape (tape on a stick for 1+ years, maybe from that stick in your basement you haven’t re-taped since minor hockey, for example). That being said, it did get the job done in the end.

If ever necessary, the Tape Tiger’s blade may be a bit time consuming to change, as you have to unscrew it from the body in order to facilitate replacement. Once it’s unscrewed though, the replacement process is pretty easy – it only requires the user to slide the old blade out, slide a new one in its place, and retighten. However, treat it right and its stainless steel blade should serve you well for many seasons before any maintenance is required.

The deluxe version (which I demo’ed) comes equipped with a few handy little extras that the original version does not include:

1) A stone for removing burrs and nicks from skate blades – perfect to tune up an edge in a pinch when you’ve lost one mid-game and a trip to the hockey shop for a sharpening is out of the question.

2) A lace tightener – which is useful, but not something I’d use. Perhaps it would be useful for a younger player still learning to tie their skates, or someone who struggles to tie their skates tight enough, but personally I can tie my skates well enough with my hands at this point. But again, useful if a scenario calls for it.

3) The lace tightener also triples as a bottle opener and a flathead screwdriver–great for beer league hockey, or any sort of post game celebration in the dressing room; and for when some knucklehead brings bottles into the dressing room instead of cans for the post-game.

4) The screwdriver is perfect for tightening or removing helmet screws, and possibly skate screws depending on which brand of skates you own.

5) There’s also a key ring thrown into this Swiss-Army knife-like mix, for, you know, attaching your keys to.

Overall, the Tape Tiger is a great device that does exactly what it says it does – quickly and easily removes hockey tape from a stick blade. Plus, it provides extra tools for situations that all hockey players encounter at some point and need a tool for. It’s especially great for players who already lug around toolbox worth of gadgets in their bag and could use some consolidation. However, if you have one of these, you run the risk of either becoming that guy with all the weird tools in his bag, or else the guy who never gets to use his own sweet stuff because everyone’s always borrowing it. It would be an asset to any team’s equipment manager too.