VIDEO: P.A. company looks to protect hockey players, police

“During a warmup one of [the] players lost an edge and ended up slicing him badly above his knee. It was probably an eighth of an inch away from cutting his main artery that runs up the side of your leg, and at that time I was petrified even watching him play hockey.”

That’s when Pasloski began researching different products, and people who could make a type of clothing that could protect against things like skate blades, but couldn’t find anything available at the time.

He then began to research fibers like Kevlar because most people think of Kevlar when it comes to cut resistance, but that wasn’t exactly what Pasloski wanted.

“I ended up finding a company in Germany that manufactured a fiber that’s used a lot with the German militia and German police, it’s a fiber called Dyneema,” Pasloski explained.

Dyneema is the world’s most expensive and strongest fibre and the German company was able to make a fabric based on the characteristic that Pasloski was looking for.

He needed the fabric to be antibacterial so the company had silver sewn into the fabric.

Silver helps eliminate 99.8 per cent of bacteria in the fabric which is the major cause of odour in hockey gear.

Dyneema is also lighter then water, but stronger than steel and does not break down like Kevlar products.

“I can throw my [Dyneema] clothing in the washing machine and wash it every single day and 20 years down the road it will be exactly the same as it is today. Whereas with Kevlar, the more you wash it, the more it breaks down,” he explained.

“You know, you think about having a child wearing a Kevlar neck guard, you never know when that Kevlar will break down …. Dyneema doesn’t.”

He said he’s had a lot of kids around Prince Albert trying out the product and some that use it on a regular basis.

The product Pasloski created is all patented by his company and he has it manufactured in Germany because of quality control.

“It’s something totally different in the market,” he said.

Despite Dyneema being expensive to work with, Pasloski was wanting to keep the quality up, “It’s very close and very similar in price to other cut resistant products but it’s much different.”

He said their products are quite comfortable.

They have a line of cut-proof clothing for corrections and police.

His hockey line includes goalie shirts, player shirts, neck guards, lower leg guards, shorts and two different styles of pants.

He offers two types of wrist guards, one that is just made of the Dyneema and one that includes even more protection. The wrist guards with protection are made with a high density foam that’s used in Europe for soccer players to protect their shins.

“For defencemen that take slashes across the wrist a lot this is designed to not break your wrist.”

Blade Buster and the NHL

There are a few NHL teams that have shown some interest in Pasloski’s gear, including the Washington Capitals and the Winnipeg Jets.

Both the Capitals and Jets have ordered some samples already.

“[The Phoenix Coyotes] are using it right now, they use the fabric itself, and they’ve sewn it into the pant legs of their players. What they’ve got is a lot of players who want to put their skates on and then put their pants on and they end up slicing the inside of the pants all the time.”

The first order they’ve officially received was made just recently by the Dallas Stars.

“They ordered a bunch of wrist guards and leg guards, shirts and pants to let the players start trying them out. The game is getting so much faster, guys are getting bigger and skates are getting sharper. It’s like a life insurance policy, you hope you don’t ever see it, but it’s there in case something happens.”

The Minnesota Wild have also been talking about the product as well, but the Dallas Stars as so far the only team ordering a large quantity.

Paz Performance Clothing Ltd.

Paz Performance Clothing Ltd. was created by Pasloski, who is originally from Prince Albert, because of his research into creating cut-resistance clothes.

But now the company is making more than just hockey products.

“We do other clothing, we have shirts made for police and corrections that you can actually take a razorblade or knife and you will not slice them. We have fireproof clothing as well.”

To Pasloski, it’s not about making money, it’s about helping mitigate deaths due to things that his clothing can help curb, like stab wounds.

A few city police officers and correctional workers are currently testing out Pasloski’s product.

swallace@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahthesquid

by Sarah Wallace

VIDEO: P.A. company looks to protect hockey players, police

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