One of the hardest part of playing ice hockey as a young person is that it costs quite a bit of money to always be purchasing new equipment. And while we grow out of our elbow pads pretty much every other season, we often also get an opportunity to try out a number of different brands during that time period. So, when I finally made it to the big show, I simply didn’t have any of the built up brand loyalty that some other players might. As a result, I’ve had no problem getting sponsorships to churn through every couple of seasons. The actual equipment itself doesn’t matter nearly as much to me as the extra funds in my bank account. When you think about it, pretty much every brand that is big enough to be asking me to wear their products in exchange for cold hard cash probably has invested quite a bit of money into developing those items. So I’ll take the extra million or two from the highest bidder and gladly wear their on-ice gear for a season or two until another deal shows up.