Masked Legends: The Legacy of Warwick Goalie Masks

When I go back and think about, about how Jacques

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Plante got injured in a game.

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This would have been in the later 50s.

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Re entered the game with a face

with a goalie mask that he made.

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He was one of the early innovators in it.

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Took a little bit of heat from his coach.

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Because obviously now you're looking

through a fiberglass facial plate with

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basically smaller eye holes cut into it.

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So your vision is obstructed a little bit.

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And the coaches did not like that.

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Cliff Duvernois: Hello, everyone and

welcome back to Total Michigan where

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we interview ordinary Michiganders

doing some pretty extraordinary things.

13

I'm your host, Cliff DuVernois.

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I hate to break it to you but

Michigan is a hockey state.

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And I'm rather embarrassed because

I haven't had anybody really on the

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show, to talk about Michigan's part

in defining this really great sport.

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But I could not believe it when

I was going through my notes the

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other day being in Port Huron.

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And it one of the biggest names in goalie

masks is actually here in Michigan.

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Actually in Port Huron.

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And so ladies and gentlemen to talk

about the story the legacy of this great

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family business I've got Gary Warwick

from Warwick Goalie Mask with us today.

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Gary.

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How are you?

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Gary Warwick: Very good, Cliff, and

thanks for showing a little interest

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in the business and coming in and

setting up your, uh microphones

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and lights today and interview me.

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I appreciate it.

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Cliff Duvernois: Yeah, no problem.

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And I will tell you this right now.

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Your shop is colorful.

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I am loving the paint jobs and

we're going to, we're going to be

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talking about that in just a second.

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But before we jump in, if you would please

just tell us what is Warwick Goalie Mask?

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Gary Warwick: Well, we manufacture

high end, custom masks built

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for typical head sizes.

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We have many different molds.

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when a person calls up and wants

to order a mask, we like to get,

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the head circumference measurement,

which is done, right above the

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eyebrow with a, a small tape measure.

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We like a headshot.

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we like their preferences,

height and weight is, important.

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Some masks are made with a longer chin.

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Some are made with a shorter chin,

depending on the height of the goaltender.

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Some goaltenders like a facial

opening that's a little smaller

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and some like it cut down lower,

so they can easily drink water and

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talk to their players, yell at their

defensemen to get them out of the way.

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And stuff like that.

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So there's quite a bit of

questions that go on and we like

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as much feedback as we can get.

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And then, based on our

different styles, we have a few

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different styles to pick from.

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You know, we can normally lead

them in the right direction

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and if they're from Michigan.

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And they can actually drive to the

store, and actually try on our various

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masks that we have in the shop.

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You know, that's always really nice, too.

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So, the people that live in Michigan,

I guess you'd say, have a little

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bit of an advantage over somebody

that's ordering from out of state.

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Cliff Duvernois: You're seeing them

being used at all level of hockey

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play, from NHL all the way down.

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Gary Warwick: Yes.

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We make a lot of masks for beer

leaguers, kids that are 16, 17

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years old playing at a high level,

trying to get into the junior ranks.

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And then hopefully maybe getting

to, go to a college on a partial

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scholarship or anything like that.

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A lot of our goalies that we

work with, end up getting, maybe

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it's a D3 position at a college.

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And they're 21 22 years old like

this stuff isn't happening at 18

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or 19 fresh out of high school.

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It's a it's a tough road for them.

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At that level you're starting

to get, 60 70 mile an hour

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shots being fired at your head.

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And you know That's when you can call me

up I can you know work with you get you

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into one of these custom masks that are

Eight or nine layers thick of different,

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of various, materials, be it carbon

fiber, high end fiberglass, Kevlar, which

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is the yellow material put in certain

high impact areas you know, we can get

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you into either a stainless steel grill

that goes on the outside of it called

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cage or titanium, which is lighter.

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stronger and obviously more expensive too.

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So we've got, a couple different options

for cages and as far as paint colors we

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send out mostly white or black, but we

can also get any kind of a, a colored

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paint job that a customer may want, be

it red, blue, or anything like that.

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Cliff Duvernois: And it's something

that we were talking about before

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the microphones got turned on.

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In that.

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When hockey first started out, I

mean, you're talking about a puck

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that weighs five ounces, like you just

said, going 60, 75, 60 miles an hour,

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Lot of times straight at your head.

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When hockey first started out, there

was no protection for the goalie.

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Gary Warwick: No, there wasn't.

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And that's what motivated my dad

to learn how to, take a mold of a

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person's face, Um, as I'm looking

at this plaster of paris splints.

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that would be dipped in water

and laid over a person's face.

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you were able to, after it dried for say

10 minutes, you're able to remove that.

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maybe the next day or two, let

it set up a little bit and then

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start, you know, laying your

fiberglass over top of that mold.

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And once that hardened up, you could

remove that trim it and start cutting

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your holes, finding a harness strap.

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And maybe a little back plate and,

you know, you were off to the races.

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And, uh, when they came out with the

facial plate, maybe in late 50s, early

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60s, a lot of the goalies, whether

it was Jacques Plante Terry Sawchuck

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or anybody like that, Roger Crozier.

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You know, They loved having something

on their skin to protect them from

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just taking the puck right in and

getting a nasty cut out of it, so.

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We'll but they've come a long way

over the last, 50 years as well too.

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So,

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Cliff Duvernois: So let's talk a

little bit about your backstory.

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Gary, where are you from?

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Where did you grow up?

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Gary Warwick: from Port Huron

and my dad and I were both,

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union construction workers.

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and he always enjoyed

doing this as his hobby.

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And then, being guys that started in the,

construction trades at a young age, we

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were able to also leave the field at,

in our early 50s In my dad's case, he

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basically operated out of his basement

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to get a storefront close to his house.

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We're in our third location now.

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And my brother Chad got involved in it

as well, another construction worker.

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He has since moved to Colorado and

continued on making masks for his hobby

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out there, you know, in a part time

type job for him, but, that's kind of

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how the family got into it right there.

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Cliff Duvernois: What made your dad all

of a sudden one day say, you know, I

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want to start working with goalie mask?

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Gary Warwick: working with goalie masks?

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Well, a young goalie in the early 60s,

he had to go out there and played the

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position with nothing on his head.

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And, as he went across to the Blue Water

Bridge and played a lot of hockey in

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Canada, being a Yankee, as they call us

going over there and playing, the Canadian

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guys would like to come in and get that

puck and shoot it as hard as they could

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and try to put it right through ya.

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But they also did that,

over on this side too.

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But luckily goaltender

for the Port Heron Flags.

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Norm Jocks, and Norm had a

mask made by Lefty Wilson,

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the Detroit Red Wings trainer.

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They got together, and Norm showed my

dad the process, and in a very short

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amount of time, he was making his

own fiberglass facial plates, and,

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uh, and doing a real good job of it.

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And word spread.

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and all of a sudden, he had a

pretty good clientele going on.

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Cliff Duvernois: So I understand

that he's making his own mask.

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Yes, because he doesn't want uh, that puck

He doesn't want that puck to rearrange

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his eyeballs or his face or anything.

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So You're talking about

like the word spread.

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At what point in time did he sit

there and say, you know There

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might be a little business here,

even if it's like a side hustle.

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But at one point in time did he say, you

know, I could do this for other people

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Gary Warwick: do this for other people

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Um, eventually, he started to get, high

end, high caliber goalies coming his way.

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I remember, a goalie from the

Sarnia area named, uh, Robbie Moore.

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And Robbie was a smaller goaltender,

but really, really good and, uh, ended

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up playing for the Philadelphia Flyers.

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At that time, he was still

wearing the full, facial plate.

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They hadn't started to cut the face out

of the mask and install the cage yet.

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So as he started to acquire and

get You know, better goalies, like

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Robbie and maybe Eddie Johnston

and, and Doug Grant, Mike Liut.

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some of the bigger name guys, as soon

as, they started to become clients,

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then, of course, all the amateurs that

follow these people were calling him

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up and, So it turned into a pretty

good side hustle for him as he was

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finishing up his career in construction.

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Cliff Duvernois: Now, at what

point did you decide that you

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wanted to be a part of this too?

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Are you also in hockey?

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Gary Warwick: Yes.

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I, uh, I still play, you know, at

age 60, I'm a center or a winger.

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My, even myself and my brother,

Chad, we were never, big goaltenders.

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But we loved playing hockey, and,

you know, my dad was the goaltender.

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you know, he played in his

leagues until he was in his 40s.

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We really got involved with him in

the early 90s when he, got quite busy.

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You know, he attracted

goaltenders like, Eddie Balfour.

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Ryan Miller was coming up through

Michigan State at the time.

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You're talking about some

big name goalies right there.

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And so when he landed those guys as his

customers, Chad and I got involved just

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due to the demand for the Warwick mask.

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Yeah.

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So he needed help constructing them.

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Yeah.

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cutting them out, sanding them,

and and prepping them for paint.

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And then when they came back from

paint, he taught us how to install

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the, uh, the foam liners in them

to, fit different size faces.

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And you could, so we had to have all

different thicknesses of padding.

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and you know, you can, you can shave

padding down with Dremel tools and, and

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custom make the pad pieces so they conform

to a person's narrow face, wide face.

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So there's a lot to learn in doing that.

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Cliff Duvernois: It also

seems like there's a high

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level of customization, too,

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Gary Warwick: Yes.

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that can be done.

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Yeah, and that's what sets Warwick apart

from maybe some of the other makers

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is, because we've done this for so

long and worked with so many different,

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goalies and size, size faces and size

heads, that we're able to get a little

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bit better fit than maybe some of the

other ones that are made, pre made.

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And sitting on a shelf where

a goaltender's got to go up,

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get something that fits him

the best, yet it's not perfect.

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Then he's got to go out and

try to stop pucks with it.

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And after a year's use on the

ice, a lot of these masks become,

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They start to have problems.

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they might break some things on them.

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And if the padding needs to

be replaced, there's not a lot

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of help to get them serviced.

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You know, after the fact,

That's what makes us special.

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We can re pad them, re paint them,

supply all the parts that go with them.

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Cliff Duvernois: Do you find that there's

a lot of people that have a Warwick

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mask, but they've had it for decades?

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Gary Warwick: Yeah, we just got a mask in

from a former U of M goaltender, Al Logis.

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And he played in the early 90's

with goalies like Steve Shields

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and, um, Marty Turco and even Greg

Malachy was part of that group.

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Al is, hadn't used his mask in quite some

time, and when he centered in recently,

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it had all the original, padding in it.

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Maybe the cage had been changed out.

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But we were able to re pad it,

put a new cage on it for him.

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And he's gonna be able to get back

in the net, you know, in this.

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You know, whatever, 30 years

later and still use that mask.

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It's, it was in pretty good shape.

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Cliff Duvernois: For our

audience, we're gonna take a quick

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break and thank our sponsors.

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When we come back, we're gonna talk to

Gary a lot more about, uh, the family

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business taking over, what that story is.

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We'll see you after the break.

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Hello everyone and welcome back to

Total Michigan where we interview

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ordinary Michiganders doing some

pretty extraordinary things.

235

I'm your host, Cliff Duvernois.

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Today, we're talking with Gary

Warwick of Warwick Goalie Mask.

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And Gary before the break, we were

talking about how your dad basically just

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didn't want to get his face rearranged.

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Started coming up with

his own hockey mask.

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And next thing you know, we've

got NHL players, which in turn, of

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course, made everybody on the planet

come and say, I want a Warwick mask.

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At what point did you start

taking over the business and

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your father started to step back?

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Gary Warwick: When we moved in this

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my dad was, Oh, I'm trying to

remember how old he would have been.

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Maybe in his later forties or something,

but, uh, you know, after I was getting

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closer, to my retirement, which happened

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a lot of time in here with him, uh,

watching him, on the weekends, after

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work, I always worked out of town,

most of the time I got to spend in

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here would have been on Saturdays

and Sundays and, just really helping

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him out, fulfilling all the orders.

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I mean, it's not unusual for us to

have, 20 to 30 orders, on the board.

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People typically waiting.

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two to three months for their masks.

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we like to, get the orders and, and

try to fulfill them the best we can,

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in a short amount of time as possible.

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Cliff Duvernois: And then at what point

did you take over the family business?

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Gary Warwick: When I left

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my dad's health wasn't the best.

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So, I took over full time

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And he was still able to come in and,

and uh, we had great conversations and

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he was still able to do a little bit.

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But I've been, for the last let's say nine

years, I've been running it full time with

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my wife Shelly, office manager, does a

great job, answering the phone, um, taking

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all the orders for you know, a lot of the

masks and a lot of the cages and different

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things that we ship out, custom straps.

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Because the one thing about goalie masks

is the items on them definitely, whether

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it's a cage being dented, the straps

getting sweat soaked and just losing their

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elasticity, stuff needs to be replaced.

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Including the hardware,

that holds a cage in place.

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we sell all stainless steel items.

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So they're not rusting, unlike, some of

the masks that you find in your stores.

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They use steel hardware.

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So in a year or two, you know, you've

got some rusty hardware and it's very

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difficult to change out a cage, so.

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Cliff Duvernois: What were some of the

in, in taking over the family businesses?

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What was, what were some of

the challenges that you came

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across that you had to overcome?

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Gary Warwick: Well, after my

dad passed away, it it was,

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first several months were hard.

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we always enjoyed doing

it together as a team.

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And then, you know, once you realize

that, that team aspect, isn't

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around, isn't available for me.

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I either had to make a decision to

continue to do the work on my own

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or possibly bring somebody else in

and, because, I really, it's a small

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store and, my wife and I kind of

like to do it, you know, ourselves.

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I've been able to maintain and

keep going with the business

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and just doing it by myself.

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I've got a couple of people that,

help me produce the shells and,

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uh, of course I've got a, a great

manufacturer that produces cages, a

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couple of different manufacturers, so.

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It does take quite a few people,

helping me out to, to make this happen.

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And, big part of the success is when

you get, these goaltenders nowadays,

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you know, have goalie coaches that

help them and teach them the game.

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And, you know, when you've got,

great goalie coaches that recommend

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Warwick Masks, whether it's Matt

Wierzba, He's a Michigan goalie coach.

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You've got Steve McKichan and

Jeff Lerg that own Future Pro.

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Both of those two guys are

ex, professional goalies.

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But, when you've got a number of goalie

coaches, all over, basically, I would

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say the United States, that recommend

Warwick Mass to their goalies, that's,

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that plays a huge part in us being busy.

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so it's great.

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And we've had recently, we had a,

a customer from Chicago that, uh,

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got a recommendation from Petr

Mrazek, who's the current starting

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goaltender for the Blackhawks.

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Cliff Duvernois: Nice.

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Gary Warwick: So that was,

that was great to hear.

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Cliff Duvernois: One of the things that

I would like to explore, and I think this

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is a great time to do this, is that one of

the things that I've learned, especially

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when it comes to goalie mask, right?

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This isn't like baseball, where you

can just put a plastic helmet on your

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head, go out there and hit the bat.

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When it comes to goalie helmets, and we,

we hit a little bit on this before, but

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there's like a high level of customization

that goes into the helmets from The field

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of vision that the goalie has versus like

how far down the chin they want protection

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or if they need it up a little bit more

the back plate on the side of the head.

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There's a lot of custom.

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So it's not like they can really

go and buy something off the shelf.

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They really need something that's

almost like an extension of them.

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Gary Warwick: them

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Right.

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A good example was like yesterday evening.

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I had a goalie stop in and

he's a rec goal tender.

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I don't know if he's, I would

assume he was in his mid forties.

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And, he's had his mask now for a

year, maybe two years at the most.

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And he needed a new cage.

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He took, uh, probably a 60 or 70

mile an hour shot up there in his

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cat eye cage, which, a lot of these

guys like to wear the cat eye cage.

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It's what the pros wear and it's got

the large eye openings, for the best

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field of vision, best sight lines.

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He just was tickled to death that he, you

know, made the step up, spent the extra

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money that it takes, but got something

that, in his words, when he gets hit in

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the head, he doesn't really feel the shot.

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He smells a little bit of burnt rubber

from the rubber hitting the the cage,

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But uh, no ear ringing It's just great

to hear that kind of feedback and,

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and, you start to realize that by using

all these different, high end foam

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liners and, and installing, a special

padding like a D3O, which is, which

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was made and developed in England.

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It's an orange padding that's,

absorbs noise, impact, force.

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you know, It's nice to get the

positive feedback from these goalies.

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Then you know you're

making a quality product.

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Cliff Duvernois: It is and kind of go

back to what we were talking about at

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the very beginning of this interview I

mean we think we think about the span of

345

lifetime so when we When we first start

out Goalies aren't even wearing helmets.

346

The puck is traveling 70 miles

an hour straight at their head.

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No protection

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Now you've got somebody who has

come back to you and said man.

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I got zinged 70 miles an hour

didn't feel it Hardly heard it.

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Gary Warwick: Right, yeah, it's when

I go back and think about, know,

351

reading stories about how Jacques

Plante got injured in a game.

352

This would have been in the later 50s.

353

Re entered the game with a face

with a goalie mask that he made.

354

He was one of the early innovators

in it Took a little bit of heat

355

from the coaches or from his coach.

356

Because obviously now you're looking

through a fiberglass facial plate with

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basically smaller eye holes cut into it.

358

So your vision is obstructed a little bit.

359

And the coaches did not like that.

360

So, the high level goalies, NHL

goalies, had to, put up with this kind

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of thought and, and listen to these

comments where, like today, after,

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uh, a goalie like Bernie Parent got

his eye injured from a stick in 79.

363

And they basically outlawed, the

facial plate style goalie mask,

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that's when the faces started to

get cut out of the shells and these,

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stainless steel grills got attached.

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Some of the early pioneers that did

that was like Tony Esposito even

367

did it on his facial plate when

he was playing for the Blackhawks.

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He attached a grid style over his eye

holes for, just for safety reasons.

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But the evolution of these masks

is, has been incredible and the

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padding has gotten better and better.

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So has the materials.

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including, you know, really good

epoxy resins that we use nowadays.

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Um, so the, these shells are able to

withstand multiple hits from a puck

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at high speeds without breaking.

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You do get some, a little bit of

paint chipping, even if you're

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using and, you know, spending

big bucks on these paint jobs.

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Cause these are not cheap.

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These painters put 40, 50 hours into it

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Yeah.

380

You've got to pay for their hourly, hourly

labor, which is, it's a pretty penny.

381

Cliff Duvernois: And then goalies

love to have that individualized,

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totally unique as a fingerprint

paint job on their helmets.

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Gary Warwick: Sure.

384

And as I, you know, as I look at, the

table here, and I'm looking at Eddie

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Belfour's Eagle Mass, wherever, whatever

team Eddie played with, he had his eagle

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heads painted up top, with his wishbone

on the chin, and he always had his, he was

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born in, in Carman, Manitoba, so he always

had Carman Racing on his back plate.

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I also am looking at, and, marveling

at, uh, the work by a local Michigan

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artist, Ray Bishop, who has been

painting, oh, I don't know, I'm assuming

390

Ray's got 25 plus years into it.

391

And I remember when, this particular

mask has the Sparty face on it for

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one of the Michigan State goalies.

393

But, one of Ray's first

customers was, uh, Ryan Miller.

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When Ryan, played for Michigan State.

395

and then had a long career with

the Buffalo Sabres and Anaheim

396

Ducks and a couple other teams.

397

Ray painted his mask

through his whole career.

398

And then I'm looking at another

mask that I got in just yesterday

399

from another, Michigan artist, Marty

LaValle, who works with Ray on occasion.

400

They team up on projects.

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Marty's work is also beautiful.

402

And, he's, He also specializes in

painting the Eddie Belfort masks.

403

He's a, he's probably one of the

biggest Belfort fans out there and

404

he also does beautiful paintwork too.

405

So, it's nice having local guys that

you can ship these masks off to.

406

Another one is Bob Driesbach in St.

407

Clair Shores.

408

Goes under the, the,

painting name of Detroit Air.

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So, he's got a catchy name He helps

out a lot of the younger goalies.

410

Takes care of the people

that are in the St.

411

Clair Shores area.

412

Cliff Duvernois: And what would you say

would be maybe like one or two of the

413

biggest advancements that you've seen,

in goalie hockey mask, like when you were

414

starting out versus where we are today?

415

today

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Gary Warwick: Well, the quality cages

that are being made now out of, like

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I said before, stainless steel or

titanium, are um, are just exceptional.

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They started out using

smaller, skinnier wire.

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And, the, the cages would

become dented easily.

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But now using a little bit, you

know, heavier gauge stainless

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steel, primarily, the cages are

able to withstand quite a shot.

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They still bend.

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And they need to be replaced, especially

if you're playing at a high level,

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but, uh, and also the, uh, materials.

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the different cloth materials, rather

than, being made primarily out of a

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fiberglass with a, a polyester resin.

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We've advanced into, we've advanced into

other materials like Kevlar, carbon fiber.

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Lighter materials that are stronger

when they're used together.

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And also, you know, you've got

to spend the money and get the

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good resins, the epoxy resins.

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And, So I think that's what's

been the biggest advancement.

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Of course, the foam padding, you

know, you've got to seek out and use,

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dual or triple density paddings, too.

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So you have a harder with

a softer type padding.

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You know, and they work

together perfectly.

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Cliff Duvernois: Nice.

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And I know before you mentioned, the

phone number, but Gary, if somebody

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is listening to this and they want to,

you know, connect with you, reach out

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with any questions, find you online,

what's the best way for them to do that?

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Gary Warwick: Go to

Warwick mask at comcast.

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net And you can see our website.

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And you can read about the Warwick story.

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You can see our mask for sale.

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Our We have our cages online.

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We have everything that you need

to know about a custom goalie mask.

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And it also will tell you how to

you know, get our phone number.

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Give us a call and uh, hopefully

You Either take the information

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over the phone, or stop in the

store for a, a custom fitting.

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Cliff Duvernois: Gary, thank you so much

for taking time to talk with us today.

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Really appreciate

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Gary Warwick: Yeah, thanks Cliff for

stopping in and I really appreciate

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you coming in and finding out

about the Warwick Mask story.

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Cliff Duvernois: It's this has been great.

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Super educational, so

thank you for that Gary

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For our audience You can always

roll on over to Total Michigan.

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com click on Gary's interview and get

the links that he mentioned above.

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We will see you next time when we

talk to another Michigander doing

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some pretty extraordinary things.

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We'll see you then.