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The best way for hockey players to develop individual skills such as toe drags, saucer passes or increase shooting accuracy, is to create an at-home training area with dryland hockey tiles. These tiles are designed to be worn with shoes, socks or barefoot (i.e. NOT to skateable tiles), and can be set up in the basement, garage, or backyard. The tiles should at a minimum have a slick surface, protect sticks and floors, and help a player with shooting, stickhandling and passing at home.
But with so many brands on the market, how can you buy with confidence and know your player is getting the best available product?
In this week’s article, we break down five separate ways to evaluate which dryland hockey tiles brand is best for your family.
1) Product Quality.
Most reputable companies such as Better Hockey, Hockey Shot and Snipers Edge Hockey sell dryland hockey tiles that achieve the basics: slick surface, protect sticks and floors. These companies are committed to the hockey category and have refined their products over the years through both player and customer feedback. In contrast, there are many plastic manufacturers from China and other imitators who recently entered the category selling cheap plastic squares in the US and calling them hockey tiles. You might like the price, but will not like the playing experience, and good luck getting a warranty or making a return. Just like with other products, you get what you pay for opting for a Made in China product.
Slickness should absolutely be a factor, but how can you know what will be the most slippery based on company’s websites and product descriptions alone? You might consider buying multiple different brands and testing for yourself, but that gets expensive and time-consuming, and the brands might not have easy returns policies to allow this. So absent your own testing, we believe the best way to judge product quality and slipperiness is by doing your brand research and reading the historical brand reviews, which we discuss below. Most tiles get more slippery over time with use as the time layer is wicked away from feet, pucks and sticks.
In future articles, we will set up to demonstrate differences in slipperiness between the top brands to settle the debate on this.
2) Brand Research.
In the digital age there are many ways to research whether a brand is reputable or not within a few minutes. The first test is by visiting a company’s website and Amazon listings. Does the website have high-quality images and content? Does the company seem sophisticated and customer-centric, or is there evidence of keywords being written by AI or someone overseas?
Next, do they have reviews on their website and on Amazon, and what do they say? Brands that are proud of their products and sales history are happy to share the information. Keeping in mind that most reviewers are there to share negative experiences, consider what the reviewers say about ease of use, installation, durability, shipping times, and customer service. A platform like Reddit is also good for chatting with other customers about their experience. A brand like Snipers Edge Hockey that has been selling dryland tiles for 20+ years will attract more reviews over time.
Next, does the brand have social media followers and engagement? This is additional social proofing for how customers and hockey community at large perceives the brand. Social media posts might also allow you to see players using the product, and perhaps even talking about the product and what they think of them.
Another test is going to Facebook Marketplace or Ebay and seeing if there are used products for sale? Even if you’re not in the market for used products, per se, the existence of a secondary market will evidence whether the goods are holding up over time.
Read a company’s online reviews and those through Amazon. Are there common complaints? How many reviews do they have on Amazon? That will give you an indication of how many they have sold over time.
3) Which Dryland Hockey Tiles Features to Look For.
A follow-up to evaluating product quality is to understand the different features offered by each tile product.
For example, do you plan to use your tiles indoors or outdoors, and therefore is UV protection or all-weather resilience important to you? Brands such as Snipers Edge Hockey have tested their products and know they can stand up to the elements such as moisture, cold Alberta winters and hot Arizona summers. Consider whether other brands can make such claims.
Is color a factor? Do you prefer the sleek look of white, or would ice blue tiles help to conceal scuff marks from pucks or sticks over time. Do you want to accessorize with dark blue or red lines? Some brands such as Snipers Edge offer multiple different colors to help a customer design the training area with a splash of color, whereas others just offer a standard white.
Some brands highlight that having larger-sized tiles can reduce the amount of seams. While technically true, our experience is that this doesn’t really matter, since the difference in installation time is negligible, and once assembled all the reputable brands have connection systems with similar degree of “seamless” puck play.
Do companies suggest or encourage the use of sprays with their tiles? This may seem like an opportunity to help customers improve their experience, but it is also an admission that their tiles might not offer the surface slickness that a customer desires.
Do you require edging for your space, either for ease of retrieving the puck or to create a clean aesthetic around the outside? A few brands like Snipers Edge and HockeyShot offer different types of edging, but keep in mind that they are only compatible for that particular brand of tiles.
4) Price per Square Foot.
Once you are satisfied about quality and reputation, the next major consideration is making sure you are getting the best deal.
Each company sells tiles that have different sizes, and in packages with a different number of tiles. As you consider your options you will want to figure out your price on a per square foot basis.
For some companies the number of tiles and boxes are easy to calculate. Snipers Edge Hockey, for example, sells tiles that are each 12”x12” (1 SF) and sells in a box of 20 tiles…so take your total square feet divided by 20 and that is your number of boxes you will need. Having 1 SF tiles also fits more room dimensions. In contrast, other companies might offer tiles that are sized at 18” x 18”, and ship in boxes of 10 tiles or some other number, so doing the math for how many boxes you need to cover your desired training area requires a calculator. Even then, you could end up with an unusual amount of finished tiles (15 SF or 22.5 SF, for example), and you might either have gaps between tiles and wall or you will need to cut the tiles to help fit a room.
Some rooms have unusual shapes and might need just 2-3 more tiles to complete the space instead of an entire extra box. Consider whether the brand will sell you individual tiles for this purpose, or whether you need to purchase an entire different box.
Next, you will want to consider how shipping costs and sales taxes factor into your total purchase cost. Each brand will have different a different philosophy. Some offer free shipping over $200 order size, whereas or others such as Snipers Edge offer free shipping to US customers for $50+ orders (meaning tiles will ship for free). Amazon might offer free shipping but they charge sales tax in all 50 states, whereas some brands only collect sales taxes on their website where it’s absolutely necessary.
Lastly, you will want to consider whether brands will share with you a coupon code or discount code if you sign-up for their email marketing list. An e-commerce trick is to visit the website and go all the way to the cart, then exit the cart and wait a few days. Some companies will follow-up with emails sharing discount codes, if you are willing to wait a few days. Some companies might even just offer you a discount if you email their customer service team. If you are willing to be patient for a few days to make the purchase you can often get a deal.
So once you take all these factors into account, you can then consider the total purchase cost for each brand, then divide by your square footage, to ensure that you are getting the best deal on a price per square foot basis.
5) Post-Purchase Experience.
Despite all your research, sometimes things happen after the purchase that require adjustment. Perhaps you ordered too many boxes, or don’t like the color, or your player changes his/her mind. Consider whether you will be buying from a company that allows free returns within a certain period of time. Do they offer a product replacement in case product is lost or damaged in shipping, and/or do they offer a warranty in case something breaks early in its life? The most reputable companies will be forthright about their policies on their website, and have a bias towards taking care of the customer to ensure they can earn a customer for life. It is generally not a good sign if companies are silent on these points. If in doubt, send an email to their customer service to see how timely and helpful are their responses.
For big investment like hockey flooring, you will want to buy with confidence from a brand who can stand behind their product. Doing so will ensure that your family will have a hockey training space at home that your players, and will result in improvement in their hockey development. Elite skills are created by individuals putting in the work while away from practice, and creating a home hockey training area is an important part of their hockey journey.
