Quick answer
Better Hockey is a Swedish brand, and its off-ice training gear is designed in Sweden to recreate ice-like conditions, tested to the highest durability standards, and sold direct so the prices stay accessible. Key product groups are made in Europe: passers, rebounders, stickhandling trainers, flooring tiles and shooting targets. The ambassadors who help test the gear include many well-known NHL players, among them Swedish pros. The three core design principles are durability (gear that survives daily use in the garden, on the terrace or in the garage, all year round), ice-like feel (surfaces, pucks and trainers that behave close to real ice) and snap-together simplicity (no tools, no installation, no wasted time before you start training).
Key takeaways
- Every product starts with a hockey problem — a specific skill or training gap that existing tools do not solve well enough.
- Swedish design, tested to the highest durability standards: rain, frost, sun, hard shots and constant use are the baseline, not the exception.
- Passers, rebounders, stickhandling trainers, flooring tiles and shooting targets are made in Europe — European quality you can feel the first time you use them.
- Ice-like feel is the hardest requirement to meet and the one Better Hockey tests most rigorously.
- The gear is used by many well-known NHL players, including Swedish pros (as ambassadors), and by tens of thousands of youth players and families — that volume of real-world feedback shapes every update.
- Direct-to-player sales (no distributor markups) is what makes premium quality available at accessible prices.
- The product line covers shooting, stickhandling, passing, flooring, sauce games, conditioning and complete kits.
The Swedish design philosophy
Better Hockey is a Swedish brand, and the way products are developed follows a very Swedish idea: start from a real need, remove everything that does not help, and build it to last. Three principles guide every product from first sketch to final production.
1. Ice-like feel. The hardest problem in off-ice training is that the puck doesn't behave like it does on ice. Most garage and terrace surfaces kill glide completely, which changes weight transfer, release timing and blade angle — all of which then have to be unlearned when the player gets back on the ice. Better Hockey shooting pads and flooring tiles are engineered to give pucks the low-friction glide needed for technique to transfer to actual ice. "It needs to feel like ice" is not a marketing phrase — it is the specific technical standard a surface must hit before it ships.
2. Durability. A garden training setup is not a gym environment. It gets rained on, frozen, left in the sun, knocked over by bikes and used on concrete, paving stones, asphalt and grass. Swedish design, tested to the highest durability standards, means products are evaluated against these real conditions — not a controlled lab surface — because that's where they actually get used. The goal is gear that handles years of daily training and still performs.
3. Snap-together simplicity. If setup takes 20 minutes, the player trains less. Better Hockey flooring tiles snap together without tools. Sauce catchers arrive fully assembled. Shooting pads unroll and are ready immediately. The friction of setup is a real barrier to consistent training, and minimising it is part of the product design, not an afterthought.
Made in Europe
Quality starts with where and how a product is built. Five of Better Hockey's core product groups are made in Europe:
- Passers — such as the Clamp-On Pro Passer (€91.26) and the Xtreme Passer (€82.96)
- Rebounders — such as the Rebounder (€66.36)
- Stickhandling trainers — the Stickhandling Trainer (€41.46) and Trainer Pro (€66.36)
- Flooring tiles — from the 10-pack (€116.16, 2 m²) up to the 60-pack
- Shooting targets — Shooting Targets (€33.16) and Pro Shooting Targets (€41.46)
For European players that means European quality and shorter routes from production to your door. The Pro Shooting Targets were developed in collaboration with the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation.
Testing with real players
Products are not tested in isolation. Better Hockey works with ambassadors — many of them well-known NHL players, including Swedish pros — whose feedback on feel, durability and training relevance shapes the product before it reaches the public. That is not a list built from endorsement deals: it reflects products that serious players choose because they actually work.
Youth players and families are equally important to the testing process, because the conditions they train in are harder to engineer for than elite facilities. A kid training in a damp cellar with a cracked concrete floor puts more real-world stress on a product than a controlled shooting facility does.
Coach Erik's tip: When I evaluate a training product, the first question I ask is: does this make the player better at hockey specifically, or just better at using this product? The best gear closes that gap as much as possible — the skill you build in the garage should transfer directly to the ice. That's what separates a real training tool from a novelty.
Why direct-to-player pricing matters
Traditional sports equipment goes through multiple layers — manufacturer to importer to distributor to retailer — and each layer adds margin. By the time a product hits a shop shelf, the retail price can be 2–4 times the manufacturing cost. The player pays for a supply chain, not the product itself.
Better Hockey sells directly, which eliminates those layers. Combined with large purchasing volumes, that structure makes it possible to offer products at prices that don't exclude the players who need them most. A family with one kid in hockey and a garden to train in should be able to set up a real training environment without spending as much as a season of ice-time packages.
This is the practical reason Better Hockey exists: world-class off-ice training should be accessible to every player, not just the ones at clubs with big budgets.
Product line overview
| Category | What it does | Key products | Made in Europe | Starting price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shooting Pads | Ice-like surface for wrist shot, snap shot and one-timer reps | Shooting Pad 120×60 cm, Pro 150×75 cm, Roll-Up 260×122 cm | — | €49.76 |
| Flooring Tiles | Snap-together training surface for a full garage or garden zone | 10-pack (2 m²) through 60-pack (12 m²) | Yes | €116.16 |
| Stickhandling | Ball-and-obstacle trainers for puck control, hand speed and vision | Stickhandling Trainer, Trainer Pro, Game Changer | Yes (trainers) | €41.46 |
| Passing | Return devices for solo pass-and-receive reps | Rebounder, Xtreme Passer, Clamp-On Pro Passer | Yes | €66.36 |
| Sauce | Saucer pass training and garden games | Sauce Combo Single, Combo Double, Catcher | — | €33.16 |
| Shooting Targets | Net targets for accuracy training and game-situation shooting | Shooting Targets, Pro Shooting Targets | Yes | €33.16 |
| Conditioning | Slide boards and resistance tools for skating-specific fitness | Slide Board Pro, Speed Chute, Speed Radar | — | €33.16 |
| Kits & Bundles | Complete setups combining the most commonly paired products | Start-Up Shooting Kit, Skills Kit, Super Skills Kit | — | €181.77 |
Quality standards in practice
Better Hockey has been in operation for over 10 years. That timeline reflects what quality standards actually mean: products get used, the problems that show up in real training get fixed, and the catalogue gets refined based on what works. Swedish design, tested to the highest durability standards, and European quality in the product groups made in Europe — that is the benchmark every new product has to meet.
The practical benchmarks the product line is held to:
- Shooting pad surfaces maintain ice-like puck glide on rough concrete and in temperatures from below freezing to summer heat
- Flooring tiles hold their interlocking connection under skating loads, stick impacts and repeated assembly and disassembly
- Passing rebounders maintain their return-angle accuracy across thousands of repetitions
- Sauce catchers and launch pads arrive fully assembled and stay assembled through transport and repeated outdoor use
Coach Erik's tip: The products I recommend to players are the ones I'd use for my own training. The test I apply is simple: does this make the session better than it would be without it? For a shooting pad, a passing rebounder or a set of targets, the answer is clearly yes — you get more reps, better reps and measurable feedback. That's what a training tool is supposed to do.
Common mistakes
- Choosing based on price alone. The cheapest shooting pad on the market is often a flat plastic sheet with no real glide. The difference in puck behaviour is significant and transfers negatively — technique built on a bad surface has to be rebuilt on ice. Invest in a surface that actually slides.
- Underestimating snap-together value. A setup that takes 30 minutes to assemble doesn't get used consistently. Products designed to be ready in under 5 minutes see 3–4 times more training sessions per month.
- Treating off-ice gear as secondary. Most elite development now happens off the ice. The on-ice hour is for applying what was built in the garden or garage. Better off-ice gear directly translates to better on-ice results.
FAQ
Who actually uses Better Hockey products?
Better Hockey gear is used by many well-known NHL players, including Swedish pros, who act as ambassadors, along with tens of thousands of youth players and families worldwide. The products are also used at hockey programmes and clubs that rely on them for off-ice training setups.
Are Better Hockey products made for beginners or advanced players?
Both. The same shooting pad that an 8-year-old uses to learn a wrist shot is the same product used by NHL-level ambassadors for daily stickhandling and shooting reps. The skill level doesn't change what makes a training tool effective — ice-like feel, durability and training relevance matter at every level.
Which Better Hockey products are made in Europe?
Passers, rebounders, stickhandling trainers, flooring tiles and shooting targets are made in Europe. All of Better Hockey's gear is designed as a Swedish brand and tested to the highest durability standards, whatever the product group.
Why is direct-to-player selling important?
It removes the distributor and retailer layers from the price chain. Better Hockey's direct model, combined with large purchasing volumes, means the player pays for the product, not the supply chain. That's how a genuine training-quality shooting pad is available for €49.76 rather than €100+.
How long has Better Hockey been operating?
Better Hockey has over 10 years of experience in off-ice training equipment. The product catalogue has been refined over that period based on feedback from real players, coaches and hockey families across Europe and North America.
Where is Better Hockey based?
Better Hockey is headquartered in Sweden and serves players across Europe through betterhockey.eu, with regional sites for the USA (betterhockey.com) and Canada (betterhockeycanada.com). Customer support is available via betterhockey.eu.
Summary
Better Hockey products are built on three principles — ice-like feel, durability and snap-together simplicity — designed as a Swedish brand, tested to the highest durability standards and priced accessibly through a direct-to-player model. Passers, rebounders, stickhandling trainers, flooring tiles and shooting targets are made in Europe, and the whole range is used by NHL-level ambassadors and youth players alike.
Browse the full product line at best sellers, see how to set up a complete training zone in the home hockey training setup guide, or explore all equipment guides. Follow us @betterhockeysweden on YouTube and Instagram for new product tests and training videos.
