Former NHL and Team Canada World Cup player Rick Hampton is the original inspiration and driving force behind QuikBlade.
Rick is a native of the Toronto area, and now lives just north of Toronto in King City.
The Origins of QuikBlade
Rick Hampton
Rick was playing hockey in Switzerland and coudn’t find anyone that could sharpen his skates to his liking. He therefore came up with the idea of a replaceable runner whcih would allow him to carry extras to every game. He built the original prototype in his garage.
Since then, QuikBlade has transitioned through a series of significant developments, resulting in the design now available.
Key contributors to the design and development of the current QuikBlade system include:
- George T Smith II (Crow Smith) who contributed the basic design of the holder. Crow Smith is the original designer of the TUUK plastic holder that started the shift away from steel holders in the 1970’s. His wealth of experience designing and manufacturing plastic holders has been applied to the QuikBlade project.
- M
ultimatic, a leading Canadian innovation and technology company, has engineered and developed the current QuikBlade. Multimatic’s contributions include the design and development of the replaceable runner and related latching system, as well as the optimization of the system to meet performance and durability targets.