Wildlife Biologist Shoots, Scores With Pond Hockey Gloves

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

Episode 999. Welcome, this is the penultimate episode to number 1000. And this is a great story on its own. In this story, a wildlife biologist comes across an opportunity he can't pass up. That opportunity is to be the only person with a brand that caters to the outdoor hockey community. Outdoor hockey is also known as pond hockey, and it sounds like an extreme

sport to me. If you think hockey is a challenging sport and the rink is cold, just try spending all day outdoors in temperatures as low as zero degrees Fahrenheit. That's one inherent problem of the sport. It can't get too warm, or else it's not safe to play. In true Satasool school fashion, the problem leads to an opportunity. Hockey gloves are actually

designed to keep your hands cool so that they don't get sweaty when you're playing indoors like most players do. Hardcore pond hockey players, however, are in the freezing cold all day. So they definitely need warm gloves. That's what this wildlife biologist sets out to create. It's now earning several thousand dollars a month, and he's at a crossroads trying to decide what to do next. I'm so glad you're out there today. My name is Chris Guillebeau. Stay tuned for this story. It's coming right up. Christopher DeVore loves his work as a wildlife biologist, but he's also always had a bit of an entrepreneurial spirit. For a project in college, he planned and executed a successful Kickstarter campaign that raised $20,000 to launch an outdoor blanket called Father Nature Outdoors. Not long after,

however, Chris learned how hard it can be to maintain the hype of a new business. Father Nature Outdoors was still getting sales, but revenue was dropping quickly. He didn't have time to dedicate to marketing, and the brand wasn't really differentiated enough to generate interest on its own. It was just one among many outdoor blanket companies. As he thought about winding it down, he came across a vendor who made all kinds of outdoor gear, not just blankets, and this made him wonder about an idea he'd had as a kid. Growing up in Alaska,

outdoor pond hockey was a frequent winter pastime, and this was a hobby not made for the week. Hockey gloves are made for indoor hockey, where the goal is to keep players' hands cool so they don't sweat. But when you're outdoors, and you're in negative temperatures, you don't need to stay cool, you need to stay warm. Even years later, Chris remembered how much his hands would sting from the cold while playing outdoors. He did a quick Google search and found something that surprised him. Nobody had really solved

this issue. Decades later, all the hockey gloves for sale were meant for indoor hockey, which meant pond hockey players everywhere were still dealing with freezing cold hands. The go for it excitement caught hold of him, so he reached out to that vendor who sold outdoor gear, worked on a simple way to make hockey gloves warmer, in order to sample with fur lining the inside. That sample cost $100, but when Chris got it in the mail, he knew it had been worth it. The glove was fantastic, with a perfect fit, and, best of all, warm.

To test whether the idea really had any weight, he then bought a $10 domain and spent $100 in Google ads. He used the ads to generate traffic to a website he made with Weebly. At first, just to see if visitors really would be interested in the product, which he listed on the site for just over $100. A week went by, and nothing. Another week. Nothing. Chris

had hoped someone would bite by then. But finally, on week number four, he got his first test sale, and then another shortly thereafter. It seemed the test was a success, even with just two sales. Doing the bare minimum, Chris had essentially demonstrated that he could make his investment back. For now, he refunded both customers, telling them he was out of stock but that more were coming soon. Then he went back to the manufacturer and placed

a 50 pair order for a little over $2,000. A few weeks later, he had plenty of gloves, first in time for pond hockey season. This time, it didn't take four weeks to get his first sale. Only a couple of days. He's not sure how that person found his site, but more followed. People were already searching for pond hockey gloves. A lot of people out

there had cold fingers. And as the only person in North America making them, he quickly ranked high for several search terms. By the following March, when pond hockey season came to a close, his new brand that he called Third Assist was already profitable, having sold over 50% of the gloves. Chris knew he was onto something, and now it was time to prep for the next season. He took his winter profits and reinvested them into a bigger glove order. Now it was time to reach more buyers. He got in touch with outdoor hockey

tournament companies and offered to give away gloves. He reached out to partners on social media and set up sponsored posts for the fall. It was all an experiment, but Chris knew that each pair of gloves would only cost him $50 to send to a partner. If the partnership could lead to just two or three sales, he'd make his money back. If he could get 10 to 20, it'd be easy money. But he had to be careful. He didn't have thousands of gloves to sell

if he got really popular. He only had 100 at this point, so he specifically targeted smaller influencers. And sure enough, sales in the season grew, and by quite a bit. Since then he's continued to experiment while continuing to work his day job. He's created a second type of gloves that's more expensive, began offering custom hockey sticks, and recently started making personalized jerseys as well. Now he's at a crossroads. He can continue

the trend of slow, mindful growth, which generates as much as $3,000 a month in extra income during high season. Or he can try to supercharge growth by getting a loan and scaling faster with more products, more ads, and more partnerships. There's even the possibility of being a sponsor for EA Sports' pond hockey game. But that's definitely not cheap. He's going to take the next season to decide which direction to take. Either way, he loves

it he's been able to reconnect with one of his favorite communities in a meaningful way. And that his is the only brand out there serving that community with useful products. What my experience with hockey, indoor or outdoor, is pretty limited. Once in a while I'll be in a bar and they're showing indoor hockey on the television. That's about as close as I come. So I can't imagine people willingly spending all day in freezing temperatures.

If anybody out there practices this sport, I take my hat off to you. And I also hope you have a warm hat of your own. Maybe Chris can get into the hat business next. Now with any kind of extreme sport or lesser known activity, there's often a tight-knit community that forms around it. So naturally, when I went to check out the messaging behind Third Assist, this brand that Chris started, I wasn't surprised to see that right on the home page there's a story being told that emphasizes the bond forged among pond hockey players. And here's what he says right on the home page, "You have just managed to

stumble upon the only site on this world wide web that is exclusively devoted to outdoor hockey. Pond hockey is the only game on earth that is truly defined by the elements. Dependence on nature makes for one of the most cherished activities for those flowing with the same hockey blood. In fact, this game is in our blood." And it goes on a bit to say, "We can all remember layering up, shoveling the ice, spending hours skating, only to have our feet feel like bricks at the end of it all. We can all remember leaving the pond hoping to go back as early as possible the next day." Et cetera, et cetera. At the end,

it says, "This site is devoted to that game and to those who grew up with it." So really strong narrative there, really trying to connect with that tight-knit community. And a dedicated community needs products and services from people who understand and relate, people who are authority figures or at least can connect or speak the same language. So in this case, pond hockey players clearly need different gloves and other equipment than indoor hockey players do. But as Chris learned, nobody was catering to that market. Friends, listeners, community, thank you again for being out there. Inspiration is good,

but inspiration with action is better. Now, check out the show notes. Well, guess where you can go? It is sidehustleschool.com/999, episode 999. Be sure to do something today to get closer to a goal that you believe in. Much more is on the way, including, of course,

our historic episode tomorrow. All right, that's all for now. I'm Chris Guillebeau. This is Siteiselschool.