The History
It all started way back in 1990 when my friend's father was throwing out the family ping-pong table. We grabbed it from the trash, brought it back down his basement and cut it into what could be considered a goalie shape--depending on who you asked! We only had a hack saw to work with so cut us some slack! Sadly, no pictures were ever taken of this version 1 goalie but that was the day Stoppin' Shots was invented.
Two years later, in 1992, we decided to make another one. We bought a quality piece of wood
and used a real power tool, a jigsaw, to cut it into a more recognizable shape. I decided to use my art training (I was studying graphic design at Mt. Ida College at the time) to paint a goalie image on it with spray paint and stencils. Andy Moog was the current Boston Bruins goalie at the time, so we named him Moog.
In early Spring of 1994 it was back to the drawing board. Four months of design and stencil work later, v3.0 was born. After finishing two of them I decided to paint goalies on the back side of each...reversible shooter tutors! Over the next 2 years I made a total of five double-sided goalies and sold three of them. I officially named them "Stoppin' Shots" and now it felt like a real business.
v1.0
v2.0
v3.0
v4.0
Twenty-five years later, in April of 2020 (during the early Covid days) I had an urge to make just one more. The design process began. From scratch. I now had the power of a Mac computer, twenty-five years of graphic design under my belt including eighteen years of 3d design experience and of course access to this thing called the internet for unlimited reference images. One year later v4.0 was brought to life (I yelled "It's Alive!!" when I finished it) with eighty-four hand cut Mylar stencils. V3PO was his nickname. V3PO is one of five proprietary techniques I came up with to make these goalies. It stands for "Virtual 3d Perspective Optimization." Ok, it's a Star Wars reference too!
But I still wasn't completely satisfied. Beauty was always my top priority with these beasts so I began a "from the ground up" redesign in December of 2021. I decided to invest in a professional Graphtec Cutting Plotter for cutting the new stencils. It turned out to be a great decision and my tortured right pointy finger thanked me too! (Cutting lots of 7.5 mil Mylar with an X-Acto knife is painful!) Eight months later...Beauty meets Beast...V3PO v5.0 is done and ready for the World.
