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Breaking the Mold: How Zechariah Thomas Is Disrupting the Hockey Stick Industry with Swift Hockey
0 Playsin 17 hours
What does it take to disrupt a $500 hockey stick market dominated by global giants?
At just 22 years old, Zechariah Thomas is rewriting the rules with Swift Hockey—an elite stick brand that's affordable, player-first, and unapologetically bold.
In this episode, Zechariah shares how he turned a personal frustration into a fast-growing startup, his roots in drop shipping, and what it takes to stand out against CCM, Bauer, and Reebok.
From starting at 12 -years-old by re-selling products purchased at the Dollar Store hats to being featured on Dragon’s Den, his journey is a masterclass in speed, resilience, and scrappy entrepreneurship.
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Transcript
From Frustration to Inspiration
00:00:10
Speaker
There's a moment in every entrepreneur's journey when frustration turns into inspiration, when a problem becomes a product and a personal challenge becomes a business opportunity. For Zachariah Thomas, that moment happened in a hockey rink. Born in Jamaica and raised in Oshawa, Ontario, Zachariah is a lifetime hockey player and he was all too familiar with the sports price tag, especially when it came to high performance sticks.
Challenging Industry Norms
00:00:37
Speaker
And he started asking a simple question. Why do quality sticks cost so much? And what would it take to make them more accessible without sacrificing performance? As a hockey player, I might add, why do high-performance sticks break so easily and so quickly? The answer to Zechariah's entrepreneurial quest became Swift Hockey, a brand that's breaking the rules by offering elite-level sticks at a fraction of the usual cost.
00:01:02
Speaker
However, like any startup story, Swift wasn't an overnight success. It took a lot of testing, iteration, setbacks, and bold decisions to reach its current position.
Entrepreneurial Beginnings
00:01:12
Speaker
In this episode of Marketing Spark, we'll delve into Zachariah's entrepreneurial journey from launching multiple ventures to breaking into a competitive, brand-loyal industry with a product that challenges the status quo.
00:01:24
Speaker
Welcome to Marketing Spark. I love the name. At 22 years old, you have a lot of business and entrepreneurial experience. I'd love to go back to the start of your entrepreneurial career.
00:01:37
Speaker
Walk me through the different businesses that you had. It looks as if they were some dropshipping things that you saw as a seize the moment opportunity and also be interested in some of the big lessons that you learned along the way.
00:01:50
Speaker
As weird as this sounds, my entrepreneurship started at, I would say, the age of 12. Even I was in elementary school selling hats, wristbands I would find from the dollar store or dollar tree for that at that time.
00:02:06
Speaker
And I was doing whatever. I just loved selling things. That was my biggest thing. So I started doing everything I can at a 13-year-old buy drink at the convenience store, do whatever was possible.
00:02:18
Speaker
And i would say that's where my entrepreneurship started
Parental Influence
00:02:22
Speaker
from. was a young age. My mom... Always supporting me at a very young age, helping me get to, I guess, bringing me to the dollar store, buy some of these items and helping me reach out one more.
00:02:33
Speaker
Always encouraging me on that. As well as that, i would say, i guess the true entrepreneurship business side i started around 19, 17 years old or so, 16. sixteen That's when I would say I really started getting into business, doing a lot of online, dropshipping, doing whatever I could to make a dollar during, especially during those COVID times as well.
00:02:54
Speaker
Were your parents entrepreneurs? Did you draw inspiration from what they did to make a living? or were they doing nine to five jobs and you just somehow, maybe it was nature, maybe it's nurture, you embraced entrepreneurship and became the super salesman at a very young age.
00:03:12
Speaker
What influence did they have on you and and did you follow in their footsteps? I would say have definitely had ah big and reason to wear out, to be honest.
00:03:23
Speaker
My dad i was he still is the hardest worker I know. And I see him still at 57 years old, put in 12, 15 hour days still. My mom is also very hard worker. I would say they're both entrepreneurs.
00:03:38
Speaker
My dad owns a company. and My mom owns the company. Well, they were both entrepreneurs. But I think the biggest lesson I've taken from them is we're in completely different field. So it's hard to get a lot of direct lessons, but they work very hard.
Previous Successes and Lessons Learned
00:03:52
Speaker
That's kind of where I get that from. Now, one thing I should make clear to the audience is that you're not just a young, active entrepreneur, but you're a very successful entrepreneur. The business that you started did very well financially, and that allowed you to provide the seed money for Swift Hockey.
00:04:12
Speaker
What did you do right? i said Was it timing? Did you get lucky? Did you find an opportunity and lean into it? What was your recipe for success? No, I think my recipe for success is honestly, it's moving faster than everybody else.
00:04:28
Speaker
That was my biggest thing. If I had an idea, I'd failed so many times. That's obviously not publicized as much, but if I had an idea, I would, I was, I would have it done and set within a day.
00:04:40
Speaker
Where some people, they'll have an idea and it takes them six months to even get that idea going or rolling, I would try and get it done as fast as possible. And obviously that comes with a lot of failing on my end and not a not losses, but I've learned from those losses a lot. So that's the biggest reason I'm worried about it.
00:05:01
Speaker
So instead of curiosity, what was your biggest success as a pre-Swift entrepreneur? And what would you say your biggest failure was?
00:05:10
Speaker
My biggest failure is not moving fast enough on things. Even though I try to move fast on everything, I think there's so many opportunities where the faster I moved, or if I moved even a little couple seconds faster, and I guess I learned this from hockey, and I guess my coaches have always instilled in players from day one to just move fast or do things a little quicker.
00:05:33
Speaker
especially moving up the levels, that was always the biggest thing. So I wish I moved a little bit faster. would say that's my biggest failure throughout everything. My biggest success through business was definitely in the dropshipping.
00:05:46
Speaker
I had a lot of early success when dropshipping was new and I could do a lot of organic and bring a lot of organic traffic in without doing a very high volume of paid ads. And i think what helped as well is I had a pretty, I'd like to say a worldwide network in a sense.
Passion for Hockey
00:06:04
Speaker
where I had, i played all over the globe. So I had friends that were everywhere and they would help push the product word of mouth and they were getting stuff out word mouth a lot. and And so that's one of my biggest obsoleses as well where I built those connections where I'm getting seen in Europe when we're not even, we're not trying to be in Europe in a sense because we're not a place that's out of the Was there any product that really took off for you that even surprised you by how well it did?
00:06:33
Speaker
ah We sold teddy bears a couple times as well. i would say that's the weirdest thing I have done. We have tried but we've tried everything. We've tried kids' toys. We've tried girls' clothing as well. And even as a male, I don't know anything really about girls' clothing. And after I was trying everything.
00:06:53
Speaker
A lot of them saw pretty decent success as I understood how to market certain items. But it still wasn't, the best way to put it, it wasn't actually market. um It was still, it was a business at the end of the day, but wasn't something where was super passionate about playing more.
00:07:13
Speaker
I put things in context. You have been playing hockey most of your life. you have You are very good at hockey. Did you play semi-professionally, professionally? How far did you go in your hockey career?
00:07:27
Speaker
worship And where did you play? A little on my hockey career. When I first started, i actually started late, and which is weird in hockey. I started at 10 years old and they consider that really late on starting hockey. know um But overall, I made it through all the ranks. Started at house league and went all the way up through the ranks of pro.
00:07:47
Speaker
Played a little bit of junior hockey and then played a little bit in Quebec for Acadia Bathurst. in a QMJHL and then I played in New York for the Watertown Wolves, which was the semi-production of Given your passion for a hockey and your entrepreneurial experience, what was that moment when you realized there was a real business opportunity in combining your love for hockey with a product like Swift? If you think about it, the hockey stick industry is super competitive. There's big brands, there's Reebok, CCM, and Bauer competing with big budgets.
00:08:24
Speaker
It must be a tough place to play. Why did you think this was a good opportunity? And what did you think would make you successful, given that you're a David playing against many Goliaths?
00:08:37
Speaker
When I first started, i was still new to business, so I wasn't thinking of it as a competitive thing. At the beginning, where I saw Bauer and CCM, and now obviously experience a lot of those big guys are trying to take this down every day.
00:08:51
Speaker
At the beginning, it was more of a situation where I wanted to do something for myself. Throughout my whole life, I was doing whatever I could. worked at SportCheck a lot of my life. I was, I guess, a sporting store, if you understand them. And they gave me discounts. And that's how I was getting my sticks at a very young age for a long period of time.
00:09:11
Speaker
And as soon as I had the opportunity to create a product that I would use over the day. That was the biggest thing about it. And i think that's why we've seen a lot of success is because I personally and i love using the product and I would, I use it
Branding and Differentiation
00:09:26
Speaker
every day.
00:09:26
Speaker
I would never go back to another stick or anything like that. I love the product. um So I use the product every single day trying to, and I think that's why it's seen a lot of success because it's a product built by me, built by player for players.
00:09:43
Speaker
Sticks are very personal things. It's the touch. It's not only the price, but it's also the way it makes you feel or make it play. When you play the game, you've got a real sense of what the market wants. How did you envision Swift being different from all the other sticks out there? I spent a lot of time talking about brand position and differentiation.
00:09:59
Speaker
So how did you envision making Swift a different type of stick? I think on my side of things, I always wanted the stick to be I guess the graphics are important. On the kids' side, always wanted the graphics to be different.
00:10:14
Speaker
I would say we have a white and light blue stick we released that everybody seems to love because it's so different and it aligns with a lot of teams' colors and aligns with a lot of how people feel like thinking.
00:10:27
Speaker
On the stick side of the thing, i really wanted it to be, brand positioning-wise, I wanted it have a different feel compared to any other stick. That was my biggest thing where I wanted somebody to grab a swift stick and they're not able to, they can't go anywhere else. They're stuck with us.
00:10:46
Speaker
So that was my biggest thing where I wanted to create a product that was completely different and feels completely different. Anybody who has felt our stick or used our stick They can feel the difference. Some people love it, some people don't like it, but i really wanted to stick that I was gonna, it was built for me, in my opinion. And then we started tweaking it all her time to build for more general consumers. Now you mentioned you did very well selling teddy bears.
00:11:12
Speaker
Selling teddy bears is a lot different from selling hockey sticks. And building a physical product is a different ball game. What were some of the toughest challenges that you faced early on and how did you pitch through? Obviously going to market with a physical product that people can touch and feel and has a big part of the purchase journey.
00:11:32
Speaker
Did anything surprise you in terms of trying to develop a hockey stick from scratch? There's so many things. I think on the business side of things, the hardest thing I had to deal with was starting a brand.
00:11:44
Speaker
Before I was drop shipping, i was selling a lot of other people's brands or really general products where I didn't have to sit there, brand and do everything possible to create more content and brand it itself. So was biggest seen from any other business I've done in the past where I've had to spend a lot of time learning how to brand product so it's going to get the most benefit.
00:12:08
Speaker
Walk us through that branding process a lot of entrepreneurs... Especially in my world, B2B SaaS, software is fairly easy, relatively speaking, to create, but actually branding it, make driving awareness, making people um i aware that you exist is the hard part. What are some of the keys to branding success for Swift? What did you do that allowed you to stand up from the crowd?
00:12:31
Speaker
I think what we did, which was a little bit differently, our goal at the beginning was to be seen everywhere. and seen everywhere in a good way. We really wanted to be seen by the best players locally. Obviously we can't reach the Conor McDavid's, Austin Matthews, but we wanted to see the best players locally in our products.
00:12:51
Speaker
That was our branding positioning. We really wanted to be one of the cheapest sticks. And we also wanted to be, we wanted to be the enemy.
00:13:02
Speaker
That's the best way to put it, the bad guys. And trying to take down the big guys. And that's been our brand positioning where people fall in love with that story.
Overcoming Challenges
00:13:11
Speaker
Where the reason why I started is to make a more affordable hockey stick and people fell in love with that story.
00:13:17
Speaker
And that's been our biggest brand positioning from any position. Like everybody knows for Swift, we're a more affordable product and we're seeing everywhere. So and even from day one, it's the same situation.
00:13:30
Speaker
What do you see as your brand personality? Are you the Darth Vader of the hockey stick world? Are you the rat who's always poking his nose in other people's business? How did you develop that brand personality?
00:13:42
Speaker
I would say it it took a bit. A lot of our ads even were sitting there, were breaking other brand sticks. We're really trying to cause as much havoc and make a difference as well.
00:13:54
Speaker
But would say we're the bad guys. We're the enemies to the other brands. Even some of the other biggest brands out here in the hockey industry have us blocked on all social media because we really come we're really coming for everybody is the best way to put it.
00:14:09
Speaker
Even, for example, a lot of other with on social media, everybody, when new company drops a new product, other opposite companies, everybody's commenting, oh, another $500 stick, what a waste of money, and I could buy a new car with this and all this type of stuff.
00:14:27
Speaker
And that's where we step in and where we're supporting those people that want that difference. Now, these days, most hockey sticks are made in Asia, China, Vietnam, I think Thailand as well.
00:14:43
Speaker
What was it like to build a physical product when production is thousands of miles away? How do you pick a supplier? How do you do quality control?
00:14:54
Speaker
how do you navigate cross-ocean shipping? And i guess one of the biggest challenges right now might be the tariffs that have been imposed. What was that experience like? And how did you manage just to handle your way through all those obstacles?
00:15:09
Speaker
It's been extremely difficult. On my end, seem to figure out everything pretty decently by reading, watching YouTube, doing whatever I can to learn as I don't have a background in product design. I don't have a background in anything like that.
00:15:24
Speaker
So I do as best as I can to learn. And I would say that was a really difficult situation where we've spent a lot of money to getting the stick to where it's at currently. And i would say that's one of our biggest reasons on why we haven't released even a gold stick because we're really trying to make it different and perfect at the same time.
00:15:44
Speaker
So it's been a lot of, we do a lot of testing, a lot of rigorous testing to make the product great. And it's made in China? Yes. Have you been to China to meet with your manufacturers there, your manufacturing partners?
00:15:57
Speaker
No, I haven't as of yet. Definitely a plan pretty soon. ah are We had a pretty good relationship with Zoom calls, everything we can do to connect, but I'll definitely have to make the trip up soon enough. So as every entrepreneur does, still make that trip eventually.
Impact of Dragon's Den
00:16:14
Speaker
In 2023, you pitched on Dragon's Den. But before we talk about that experience, I'd love to get some insight into that early traction. How did you know when Swift had actually made it?
00:16:26
Speaker
You'd found that product market fit. There was an audience for what you were trying to sell. Your brand was resonating with people and that you started to see sales. How long did it take for that to happen? And what do you think made you successful and from a sales perspective?
00:16:43
Speaker
I would say even before Dragons End, we were in a weird situation as well where we're growing pretty fast before Dragons End. I would say Dragons End didn't bring in a lot of sales from, I guess, then the initial episode I would have thought initially, to be honest. But overall, it gave us a stand of approval in the market.
00:17:06
Speaker
where people are can trust our brand and they're willing to buy our product now because they know we're a legit company and there's a face behind it. All these other autistic companies will pop up here and there, but it's very hard to succeed without having somebody repping the brand and has that face behind it. As you see in marketing, I'm pretty much the face of the company and you can see me everywhere and all the ads and everything.
00:17:30
Speaker
And I think that's probably the biggest thing on harvesting to the people. Pre-Dragon's Den, when it's just you doing the marketing and you're this scrappy brand, what was the first sign that you you said to yourself, this thing is going to work?
00:17:44
Speaker
I'm actually selling sticks and I've got some revenue coming in and I think this business is going to make it. I really loved those times where at the very beginning, it was me and my friends.
00:17:56
Speaker
My friends were running the social media for... Little to nothing, just trying to support $5 year and a year because we weren't making a lot of that time. Before all of our success, we didn we've done everything to stay relevant and get into people's fans. When we were parking lots, selling sticks, we were bringing sticks to the arena, we would bring many sticks to everywhere and run those photo shoots with whoever we could get at those times to get as much content.
00:18:24
Speaker
I think those were the good times. I always look back on us being, we used to work out of at a storage unit, a very small storage unit for the longest period of time. And that's where we started to where we're at now. 2023, you're 20 years old.
00:18:38
Speaker
You appear on Dragon's Den and you secure a $70,000 deal for about 15 to 20% of the company from Arlene Dickinson, Michelle Romano, and Wes Paul, did that investment actually happen? What was that experience like? A lot of entrepreneurs go through the motions and it really works out to be a marketing exercise more than a financial exercise.
00:19:00
Speaker
Talk to me about that Dragon's Den journey and what, as you said, it had impact on the brand. It raised brand awareness and helped make Swift legit. But what was that experience like? And did you actually get the money from the investors?
00:19:12
Speaker
I guess I could go through the whole experience quite quickly. a lot of people, it's very hard to get on Dragons then from my understanding, the way they said it to me where, they have ah over a hundred thousand people apply every year and they only pick 150 to actually take, do the taking of the show. And then only a hundred people get aired off a lot.
00:19:33
Speaker
So it's very difficult to get on there. and think what people think, like after the show, you're just, you're being handed a briefcase of money.
00:19:45
Speaker
That process through it very long and rigorous. and I guess what happened with us is we didn't hear from an investor for around eight months or so.
00:19:57
Speaker
The show was taken. By that time, we were at a completely different situation in the company where we were big. We were big at that time.
00:20:08
Speaker
We took the deal from West Hall, but we were little too big and we didn't need those financials at that time to give up that sort of the company. And obviously not hear from the investor. And then when we do hear from the investors, the investors team and It's not as it wasn't too appealing to me.
00:20:26
Speaker
ah He's on the show. A lot of things were said that wasn't aired, but it wasn't too appealing to me at all. or for that so So I think that's probably a common experience for a lot of entrepreneurs is that it's a good show, but in the end of the day, the business changes.
00:20:44
Speaker
Curious about the impact that appearing on Dragons that had on sales. Did you just see a surge in sales? And as important, were you able to handle the demand from all the interest in Swift?
00:20:55
Speaker
We've definitely seen surge in sales in a sense. When we saw the biggest surge of sales is when we took the Dragons and clips and made videos around it.
00:21:06
Speaker
That's when I would say we went from... Nothing to something. Pretty quickly. That's when we were... We saw maybe 50 sales on that Dragon Zen Bay, which was a lot. It was a really good day overall.
00:21:21
Speaker
We took those clips and made... 20, 30 videos with those clips. And that's where we saw extreme success in my opinion. But yeah, on the Dragon's End episode, we weren't able to keep up with the man.
00:21:33
Speaker
That was our biggest thing since day one. We were never able to keep up with the amount of sticks that we need. Even now, we're still we still can't keep up with how many people need sticks. It was really difficult to deal with that demand and we really wanted to grow and give six to everybody, but we just couldn't.
Future Aspirations and Advice
00:21:50
Speaker
You're few years into the business, you're an established, albeit smaller brand. You've got a loyal following, brand awareness. It sounds like you've got some capital challenges because there's more demand that you can handle.
00:22:05
Speaker
Are you at the point where you're seeking outside investment? Have you been approached by investors or other hockey stick companies interested in either investing or buying the company?
00:22:16
Speaker
How are you going to position this company for growth? Because at some point in time, you're going to need growth capital and move beyond this grassroots bootstrapping stage that you're in. What are your thoughts on that and how are you going to navigate that?
00:22:28
Speaker
Yeah, day in, day out, we're consistently trying to grow the brand. And growing the brand obviously comes from us getting as much capital as possible. And my end goal is to beat, is honestly to beat Bauer and CCM yeah and all the other brands in between there. My goal is to be as big as possible around them.
00:22:49
Speaker
and But they have, they're dealing with $10, $15 million dollars of sick inventory when it's very hard to get that without profitable. So we yes, we're looking for, we're raising, we've had lots of best of reach out.
00:23:04
Speaker
think it has to be a really great fit for, I would lose a little bit more percentage to have a great mentor. As I turned a little bit, I don't have a school background, legal stuff on the business. I'm really starting to learn to me.
00:23:20
Speaker
Everything a really good mentor that's worth a little bit more percent. I'll put stuff there. How would you feel if an NHL star, an Austin Matthews, Connor McDavid found your sticks and said, Zachary, I'd love to be an investor. Would you, is that something you'd be interested in It'd definitely be a great thing. yeah think it's weird to say that a lot of hockey players like after their career have tried something like those and it never ends up being successful because it's, it still comes down to the capital.
00:23:50
Speaker
The capital in the marketing is that somebody, nobody can get ahold of us, but Yeah, i think that'd be a great thing to be in touch with somebody like that as well. If someone listening wants to build something around their passion, whether hockey or baseball or baking or clothing, what's the most important thing that you'd want them to know?
00:24:12
Speaker
I'd say no matter what you do, the biggest thing is to actually do it. Do it as fast as you can and try and get out as much in the business, whatever your caution is.
00:24:24
Speaker
You have to do it as fast as you can and don't procrastinate around it. I would say that's the reason why I've done a lot and I've done the business at of such a young age where most people have the same ideas at my age, but they procrastinate and they wait until they're in a better situation.
00:24:42
Speaker
You have to do it when you have nothing and do it no matter what. i Push for it. Given the fact that you've started a lot of businesses since you were 13, I don't have any businesses you started, it but it sounds like many.
00:24:55
Speaker
How do you keep yourself disciplined? While you're growing Swift and you're focused on Swift, you've clearly got a lot of ideas running through your head about different opportunities and things that you could possibly sell, but part of entrepreneurial sex comes from discipline and focus. So how do you keep yourself focused on Swift and the task at hand rather than being distracted by maybe a shiny object somewhere else?
00:25:21
Speaker
would like to say it's a really difficult situation, though, to be able start building down everything that comes down the face when it comes to cryptocurrency. And you see all of these kids, 13-year-old kids making millions millions of dollars on cryptocurrency or different fields of the business.
00:25:39
Speaker
and it It gets difficult. I believe that if I put in more work, more time, and more energy than everybody else at my one craft, my one business, It will end up beating everything.
00:25:50
Speaker
Just because if you're splitting all your time up, you're never going to be successful between multiple businesses. Final question is, where can people learn more about you and Swift Hockey?
00:26:02
Speaker
You can check us out on all social media, Swift Hockey. On the platform, you'll find us somewhere. As for me, can check me out on LinkedIn, Zachary Thomas. You can check me out on Instagram, as well as Zachary Thomas. Follow ah Swift Toffee was everywhere, and we're going to continue to grow.
00:26:20
Speaker
Thanks for being on MarketingSpark and to Zachariah for sharing his insights about entrepreneurship and making hockey sticks. If you found this episode valuable, I'd love it if you could leave a review or share it with a colleague. MarketingSpark is all about helping entrepreneurs, marketing leaders, and BDB SaaS founders uncover what's working, what's changing, and what's next in the world of growth and entrepreneurship.
00:26:43
Speaker
If you're B2B SaaS marketer, founder, or entrepreneur with a unique story or a fresh take on marketing, growth, or leadership, I'd love to hear from you. Reach out to me on LinkedIn, and let's talk about getting you on the show. Until next time, thanks again for listening to Marketing Spark.