Recap of TENDYFEST 2016

After taking a number of years off running our annual goalie demo day, our goal team put a lot of thought into how to throw the biggest and best goaltending event possible. This is where the TENDYFEST concept was born. We wanted to build an event that would bring goalies from all over to experience the latest and greatest gear for the upcoming year. This is an event where goalies could gather and share their personal experiences from the crease.

Fast forward to the big day, June 12th. The Hockey Shop crew arrives early in the morning to start setting up only to find out the rink has no power. No electrical at all. Not good.

But as the old saying goes, "when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade". After a bit of scrambling and a quick weather check we decided to proceed with the trade show portion of the event in the parking lot. We gathered tables as the suppliers unpacked all the latest goodies.

I think the coolest thing about our unfortunate bad luck was that many of our customers jumped in to help us set up. And even though it's an understatement to say that holding the event outside wasn't what we had planned, everybody was really understanding and supportive of "the show must go on" game plan.

And then the sun came out. Good vibes. I swear I could hear the Beach Boys playing on the radio. Sunscreen and smiles for everybody.

Mask painters scrambled to hook up generators for live mask painting demos, Laurent Brossoit of the Edmonton Oilers swung by the Vaughn booth and took photos with fans, KVG worked his charm in the Bauer booth, Cody Porter of the Calgary Hitmen represented at the CCM booth, the Brian's booth was buzzing as expected, Kirk from Warrior unveiled the new G3 line, and Kevin Woodley and Dave Hutchinson from InGoal Magazine were on hand covering anything and everything goalie.

We were still on stand by for the power to come back on, being told the ice might not be good to go after sitting without cooling for an extended period of time. All we could do at that point was cross our fingers and hope for the best.

Finally the good news came. At around 1pm we received word that the ice was good to go. It was on. TENDYFEST was officially in full swing as goalies scrambled to gear up and hit the ice. The pictures tell the story the best. Lots of happy goalies.