To keep alert while making pizza dough, owner of Baffo’s Pizza Aldo Buccioni, “The Pizza King of Bolton”, used to dream up ideas and designs to improve his sports equipment. Aldo was particularly frustrated with the design of his ice hockey bag, and thought that hockey gear should be organized on shelves instead of being thrown haphazardly into a bag. This dissatisfaction led Aldo to the construction of the first prototype of what would become the Grit Hockey Tower. These first designs made of pizza boxes, progressed into wire and canvas constructions as Aldo translated his dream into a reality. Convinced by this progress that his idea was sound, Aldo applied for a patent for his hockey bag design and, in 1999, he received it.
With a patent in place, and prototype in hand, Aldo marketed his dream to various sporting goods companies, but was repeatedly turned down. Discouraged by this rejection, Aldo realized the need for design expertise to refine his project. After much searching he eventually hired Greg Collins, an industrial designer with many years experience in the sporting goods industry.
A graduate of the industrial design program at the Ontario College of Art and Design, Greg proceeded to work for Cooper Canada after graduation, before becoming a freelancer under his company, Pace Design. With Pace, Greg provided creative direction for such clients as; Rollerblade, Hespeler, Bauer, Schutt Sports and Rawlings. Working for these companies Greg, distinguished himself by adding graphics, colour and visual depth to the equipment he designed.
What began of as another design job for Greg grew into a partnership with Aldo and the formation of a successful sporting goods company called Grit Inc. Ironically, this partnership satisfied Greg’s life-long dream for independence, by allowing him to found his own sporting goods company. Greg made Aldo’s dream into a reality by redesigning the structure, simplifying the design and reducing the cost. He also helped Grit make the transition, from design firm to a product focused business, by sourcing manufacturing, courting investor capital, and developing long term strategies for the brand.
Six years later, thousands of drawings, hundreds of prototypes and many pizza dinners later, Grit Inc. is ready to launch its second generation of hockey bags. Grit Inc. is now selling its bags in over 10 countries and has sales in the millions.
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