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The NWHL has been promising its fans and players since the launch that the league would provide full equipment–meaning everything from helmets to skates–for every single one of its contracted players, as well as sticks, gear bags and so on.

This would be the first women’s professional league to outfit its players in their entirety. Even practice players, who will skate with the team in the hopes of earning a spot on the roster should a contracted player be unable to make a game, will receive limited equipment, such as gloves, helmets and more.

Tuesday, the public saw the wheels of that promise set in motion. At the Boston Pride’s first practice and media day, players tried on Bauer equipment and figured out what they wanted in custom-made sticks from BASE Hockey.

The league will purchase equipment from Bauer for their players, but have entered into a partnership with BASE Hockey.

“We want to make sure they have everything they need as professional hockey players,” said a league representative at Tuesday’s event.

Garret Kunisaki, son of the founder of BASE Hockey, attended the practice yesterday to professionally fit all players with a custom-made stick.

By talking with the player about what stick they currently use, and what they’re interested in doing, Kunisaki helped players figure out flex, curve, and lie of the stick to give them exactly what they need. He brought a number of shafts and blades to mix and match in order to hit upon the right combination.

Not many will be going far off the beaten path, though.

“For the most part you’re going to see the curves that most retailers sell as the most popular curves because that’s all that’s been offered to (these players) their whole lives,” said Kunisaki.

The women signed with the NWHL generally haven’t had sticks customized for them before, so most are used to off-the-shelf sticks.

“Most of these girls are going to know (the brand, flex, etc.) they want. So I’m merely matching up and we go from there,” said Kunisaki.

While BASE Hockey is a relatively new company, those who are involved in it have been in the business of hockey sticks for decades.

“We’re only five years old as a company,” said Kunisaki. “My dad is the owner. He’s been making hockey sticks since I was five, so he’s been making them for almost 26 years now. He started a company called Innovative, which used to (make) the Bauer Nike graphite sticks, and later sold that company to New Balance shoes, who called it Warrior.”

“We got tired of corporate politics and decided we could do it better a different way,” Kunisaki continued. “We wanted to get out of the standard way of selling your sticks: putting your sticks in a store, having limited options and selling it by paying a bunch of NHL guys to use your brand.”

The founders of BASE Hockey have been long-established as stick-makers among NHL and AHL players; they’re looking to expand to new demographics with the NWHL.

“The coach for the Brooklyn team, Chad Wiseman, he played pro in Japan last year and he used our sticks,” Kunisaki said. “He’s from Toronto, used our sticks, loved them, and one thing led to another.”

“We’re helping this league out, and that will help our brand out, too.”

NWHL players are not required to use BASE Hockey sticks but with sticks customizable not only by curve, flex and lie, but also by grip, name and number, many will likely make the switch from store-bought to individually made.