By Jill Saftel, News Staff and Christina Bivona, News Correspondent 

What was just an idea in a freshman dorm room turned into a thriving business when men’s hockey players Jake Hoefler and Zak Stone created their hockey apparel company, Hoffzaz.

The two sophomores, Stone a forward and Hoefler a defender, started the company last summer when they came up with the idea to make hockey skate lace bracelets with buckles on them.

Hoefler, the creator of the company and environmental studies major with a minor in business, was tossing around ideas with his roommate, Stone, a sociology major, when they decided to make it a reality.

Hockey players are known for wearing skate laces around their wrists to practice as a symbol of good luck, but the functionality of getting them on and off was always tricky, Hoefler said. Common solutions like melting the fibers together or sewing the bracelet on make the lace nearly impossible to get off.

“We came up with the idea of putting the buckle on it so you could easily snap it off and put it back on during practice,” Hoefler said.

Hoefler and Stone then created sketches for the logo of Hoffzaz. After coming up with a few different designs, the two finally decided on the image of a dinosaur with the letters “h” and “z” as the logo.

“It was mostly [Hoefler’s] idea, I just tagged along,” Stone said. “He came up with the idea and to fit our names together with the dinosaur, so we just ran with it. I knew a lot of my friends back home would like it and so I started telling them about it and once [the product] came out it just spread.”

Since neither of them had previously run a company, there were several things the new businessmen had to learn.

“I pretty much just did it all myself. I did a lot of research and then made the website myself, I didn’t really go for any outside help,” Hoefler said. “It just took off from there, we started taking it to different pro shops and started to get some big orders and that’s when we started the website and started to really push some products.”

The store’s newest additions include men’s and women’s t-shirts and tank tops ($10-$14), as well as hats ($10), all manufactured overseas.

“Last month we had a bunch of big orders from hockey pro shops. We just sold a couple thousand bracelets to companies like TSR Hockey, Commonwealth Lacrosse and others,” Hoefler said. “We’re getting a bunch of retail stores out in New Jersey and there’s also word of mouth so that has helped make a lot of sales too.”

That word of mouth recently got Stone and Hoefler a sale for bracelets to be used as gifts at a girls’ hockey tournament in Canada. For now, their marketing strategy is made up of buzz in the hockey community and on social media combined with sending samples to hockey players. Hoefler said he hopes to run advertisements in hockey magazines as soon as they start to make a profit.

He estimates they’ve invested a couple thousand dollars into the company, and expect to see a profit within the next few months.

Hoffzaz’s bracelets are available in eight different colors and can often be custom designed as well.

“Most of the orders have been custom orders … we received one for a bunch of bracelets for a girl’s hockey tournament,” Hoefler said. “They were fundraising for breast cancer so they ordered pink bracelets with the name of the tournament on them. Stuff like that is good too because it’s for a good cause.”

In addition to putting time and effort into their business and schoolwork, Hoefler and Stone are dedicated to the hockey team.

“What I’m observing overall about Northeastern students – and I’m sure it applies to hockey players as well – is they come to Northeastern because it’s a great place to learn about the working world and start your career before you graduate,” said Dan Gregory, faculty adviser for Northeastern’s venture accelerator, Idea, who has no involvement in Hoffzaz. “I see students spending 20 to 30 hours a week working on their ventures while getting straight A’s or playing a sport.”

Busy practice schedules can often make it challenging for the student athletes to keep all of their commitments, but Stone and Hoefler say they’re dedicated to the success of Hoffzaz.

“It was really hard at first but then it just became a part of what I do,” Stone said. “I’m always trying to help spread it, let people know about it. On the way to practice I’ll head over to the post office, sift things out, give the receipts to Jake but he does most of the work, so a lot of the credit goes to him.”

Although the team of two is working alone, they said they’re happy to continue working to keep the business growing.

“It can be really tough when you get a bunch of orders and have to go to the post office and you have to mail everything out and you don’t have a lot of people helping you,” Hoefler said. “In the end its worth it.”

In the next few months, Hoefler and Stone plan on releasing some new products to customers.

“Our whole thing is to do stuff differently. The t-shirts have armpit vents and pockets and we put a different twist on the wristbands,” Hoefler said. “That’s Zak’s and my motto – when we make stuff, we don’t want to make something everyone else has, we want to make something a little bit different.”