The Athletes Podcast
The Athletes Podcast is a leading source of information, inspiration, and education for anyone interested in optimizing physical performance, maintaining good health, and living an active lifestyle. Join David Stark as he interviews some of the world's biggest athletes and fitness professionals, The Athletes Podcast provides practical advice, expert insights, and real-world strategies to help listeners achieve their health and fitness goals.The goal is to entertain, educate & inspire the next generation of athletes!
The Athletes Podcast
Beyond the Rink: Converting Athletic Discipline into Business Success with Doug Lynch - Ep #255
Doug Lynch, former professional hockey player turned entrepreneur, shares his journey from the ice to founding innovative performance apparel company Filium and how the relationships built through sports became the foundation for his business success.
• Began playing hockey at age three in Coquitlam, BC, eventually being drafted by the Edmonton Oilers in the second round
• Won a Memorial Cup with the Red Deer Rebels at age 17, learning the importance of team success for individual growth
• Played professionally in the NHL (Edmonton) and in European leagues, including Austria and Sweden
• Founded Zenkai Sports (now Philium Incorporated) after retiring in Portland and connecting with Nike professionals
• Developed revolutionary technology that transforms natural cotton into high-performance fabric for athletic wear
• Secured investments from professional athletes, including Rickie Fowler, Marty Turco, and the Morris twins
• Established licensing partnerships with major brands like 1764 Golf and O'Neill's rugby apparel
• Emphasizes that relationships are the most valuable asset in business—"you never spend relationship capital, you only reinvest it"
• Currently mentors UBC hockey players and works with athlete transition organizations to help sports professionals prepare for life after competition
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And the coach was mad because we're like we need some more confidence. Henry, you're not helping us here. That's it, hey what's up folks?
Speaker 2:Welcome to the 255th episode of the Athletes Podcast today featuring Doug Lynch, a former professional hockey player, now turned entrepreneur, athlete, investor, someone who I look up to in so many different ways.
Speaker 2:I'm proud to be able to call Doug a friend, someone who I've been able to step on the ice with and who I will be able to work with in the future with our Cookstark Management athletes. Big shout out goes to Doug for coming on the show. It took us so way too long to get him on, but he did not disappoint. Hopefully you folks took a thing or two from that conversation, because I am jazzed up. I want to start my own company. I kind of already have, but you already know we're rocking Zenkai apparel when we are working out, and you should be too. Use the code AP20 to save 20% yourself. You can also save some money on perfect sports supplements. The code here AP15, whether that's collagen, whether that's creatine, whether that's diesel protein. That's in my shake currently, as we speak. It's the best on the market. You can save 15% when you use the code AP15 at checkout. This wouldn't be possible also without Pioneer Auto Group, aldergrove specifically, who helped us out with this Jeep. That's why we have this episode coming to you from the Jeep in Coquitlam region where Doug grew up. Thank you, folks, for tuning in.
Speaker 2:Here's the 255th episode of the Athletes Podcast. Here we go. You're the most decorated racquetball player in US history, world's strongest man, from childhood passion to professional athlete, eight-time Ironman champion. So what was it like making your debut in the NHL? What is your biggest piece of advice for the next generation of athletes, from underdogs to national champions? This is the Athletes Podcast, where high-performance individuals share their triumphs, defeats and life lessons to educate, entertain and inspire the next generation of athletes. Here we go. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:Sunglasses, no sunglasses.
Speaker 2:You can rock sunnies. Okay, I just didn't know it's kind of sunny.
Speaker 1:It's kind of cloudy, it's raining.
Speaker 2:Classic, uh, classic vancouver pnw weather right here, you know just overcast, sometimes sunny literally dropping off my girlfriend.
Speaker 1:Uh, she's having a lunch with her girlfriend. It's pouring rain in port moody.
Speaker 2:I drove like three minutes and it's not raining yet, so and it's kind of sunny, so well, you would have seen weather all over the world and experienced some pretty incredible weather yeah in europe, I imagine well it was so cool in europe is the buildings like the hockey buildings are so much different than north america.
Speaker 1:It's like our home rank. When I was in salzburg there was like um windows around the entire sorry, not me, maybe there's something like this like like the one and a half corners of the rink. Okay, so one of the ends and fully along the side was all windows, so like you'd be practicing at like 10 o'clock in the morning and seeing like the german austrian alps and like the snow and you're like it looks like you're in a post postcard yeah, and I remember hearing your podcast, other ones previously you would go for your morning walks or your pre-game walks and you get to see these postcards.
Speaker 1:It's it's unbelievable. I always just say it's like a snow globe, like living over there. It's like you turn the snow globe over. It's like that's the cities that that I lived and I was fortunate enough to be in europe. But there's just the architecture and everything is just so different than North America. It's the history, history and everything has to be built, like into these old facilities or buildings, like you can't. There's no more land, right, and everything was built for like horse and buggies, yeah, so it's like a lot of places in the old town parts of well, I was in Salzburg specifically was just walking only so you had to park your car outside the city.
Speaker 1:Like Venice is the same way, right, like it's how it's sinking, but you park your car outside the city and walk in. It's like such a cool experience Just be walking around with people and shopping and restaurants. There's no cars. Favorite city to play in. You know what's tough is. It's always the people like city wise and I agree, people in Salzburg, and when you're winning it's always easier. So I love salzburg. I was there for almost six, six to seven years, so it felt like home yeah um, I was in guthenberg, sweden, for for half a season.
Speaker 1:That was incredible. It's probably my favorite city I liked, even better than stockholm. Um, in sweden, I mean playing hockey in canada, like in edmonton and toronto, like that was super fun because it's just the culture and the passion and it's always the people Like. I remember Peoria, illinois, which people might not think is like it's a small city, small Midwest city, unbelievable guys we had on our team. It's like we had so much fun, even though maybe the city didn't offer as much as some of the other big cities and other big markets.
Speaker 2:Incredible time there for two years and an amazing experience because the people I was with teammates I was with so well. Now that you don't have to be a professional athlete, you can kind of tailor your workouts a bit more yeah, probably right. You're not just training to be the best hockey player you can be yeah, and it's what I have to do.
Speaker 1:It's funny I did a mobility class yesterday which is literally just stretching for an hour. Now as, like it's your point, I just want to work out to, to stay lean, I can't have the same muscle mass. I'm not looking to increase muscle mass, but like I don't stretch, like I should no show up lift weights. 45 minutes sauna done, yeah, like I don't spend 30 minutes rolling out and stretching which of course, I should do. So even yesterday doing a mobility class for an hour, I'm like I have to start implementing this. Like can't just be throwing the weights around.
Speaker 2:It's amazing for me to hear because I hear it weekly that I should be stretching, doing all of these things, and I also, you know, spend my 45 minutes hammering the weights, my 20 minutes in the sauna and I say see you later.
Speaker 2:It's tough to incorporate an hour and a half two hours into your day when you are an entrepreneur. When you do have other responsibilities, you've probably been able to manage this. I'm trying to manage this conversation over the next 30, 45 minutes how we're going to get all of this in, because you got a lot that we can cover.
Speaker 2:You're kind of the ideal individual when I think of the athletes podcast and bringing someone on. Oh, thank you. Not only from the athletic standpoint, from the knowledge, the ability to apply what you've learned as an athlete now post career, to entrepreneurship. So I figured we'd break it into three periods.
Speaker 2:We'll go the athletics route since you're a hockey player drafted in the second round to the NHL Edmonton Oilers. No big deal. No big deal. Three chips over in europe over six, seven, eight years. Mem cup winner as well. So we'll cover the athletics, okay, then we'll go into the entrepreneurship and then the third period, to close things out, we'll just talk advice for the next gen. Okay, identify kind of how you would maybe do things differently or what you've learned throughout the process, what advice you would provide. So things differently, or what you've learned throughout the process, what advice you would provide. So first period athletics you start playing hockey at the age of three. Your dad's a professional lacrosse player. How the heck do you come to be drafted to the NHL? What were those kind of 16 years, 15 years in between? What did they look like?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I grew up in Coquitlam BC. Born on the North Shore in North Vancouver, Grew up in Coquitlam BC, when we're driving right now when we're driving right now buddy In home In home.
Speaker 1:Actually, I don't spend a lot of time out here, so it's actually really fun being out here and seeing how much it's changed and how different it looks. I got my two little brothers to live out here with to soccer and, obviously, in Canada, playing ice hockey. Took a liking to ice hockey, played since I was three years old. All my brothers played. My parents were incredible, never pushed us, but also recognized that athletics is such an important part of character building for any young, young, young person and, uh, loved my teammates. I've always gravitated towards the team sports um as much. I love golf now and I play golf, of course, with my buddies, but, like I loved all the team sports and um, being from vancouver, we don't have outdoor ice.
Speaker 1:I remember going red deer my first time as a 16 year old and seeing outdoor rinks. The kids would just go play on all day long. I'm like, oh my god, I would have never come home if I grew up in Vancouver, the outdoor right. So my upbringing, david, like was it was a ton of ball hockey, street hockey, in the driveway, in the garage, stick handling my basement, like doing whatever you could to stay within the sport and I, at the end of the day, whatever it's that malcolm gladwell 10 000 hour rule, whatever you kind of subscribe to, but I was never, ever work like. It was never like, oh god, I gotta go shoot pucks today in the garage against a plywood piece of plywood my dad would put up against the wall like I love doing. It didn't feel like a job, never, never felt like a job.
Speaker 1:And you know most athletes to get to those highest levels, like everybody works extremely hard but it doesn't feel like work. It doesn't feel like you're got punching the clock. It's like you're doing it because you love it. And I think Steve jobs had a great saying and I always butcher it but basically, whatever you do, if to get to this type of level, if you don't love it, it just looks like you're crazy. Because, like I would be the kid I'd be like four or five years old, I'd watch a three-hour canuck game, like with my dad on the couch and my dad's like yeah, I don't think it was common to have. Like you'd be three or four years old and you'd sit there and watch a three-hour hockey game, like your attention span, like I was just mesmerized by it. So, like you can tell early on that, that you definitely take a gravitate towards something, and for me it was sports and ultimately hockey so you take this hockey career.
Speaker 2:I start playing at the age of three, you're drafted by the red deer rebels at 15. You end up winning the Mem Cup with that team. As a 17-year-old I believe Yep First championship experience with a team I know. You said you grew up in an association that wasn't familiar with winning Yep so you were able to sharpen both ends of the stick we'll say Yep and get familiar with losing when you're young and also experience winning at a young age.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, no, it's. It's interesting you said that because I obviously wouldn't change anything but growing up in coquitlam like there's so many good hockey players in our small area, like between coquitlam, port moody and poco like, we had three triple a teams in that small area where you go to teams some other places, and they'd have 10 times the population of one triple a team. So we had so much competition. But it's also watered down because there's three separate triple a programs growing up and we were never particularly good and I remember one scout said, uh, that they want, they wanted to draft me and I end up going to red deer.
Speaker 1:But they were going to draft me later on and said, like the reason we love the way you play is, even if you're losing a game, six or seven one, you're still that kid. That was like blocking a shot or finishing your check in the corner or back checking. Yeah, and that's that's the character we like to see. And again, even if you are in a losing environment, sometimes, as it, as every organization goes through look in the nhl, look in every pro sport you're going to go through the doldrums of not having those top end guys to win championships and it doesn't matter, because there's still people watching every day and you're still learning from that experience and building the characters as a young adult.
Speaker 1:And then going to red deer, we came in my first year. I think we had 13 first year players I think it was six 16 year olds and like four, five, six, seven, 17 year olds and generally very uncommon at that level to have so many young players. And Brent Sutter was our head coach then and he just instilled us as this work ethic, this drive, no complacency. So a 16-year-old year was a tough year.
Speaker 1:We didn't do a lot of winning. We got beat up physically, we got beat up emotionally, like we got beat up literally in that league. It's a tough league to play in and then coming in as a 17 year old, all of us now we're we're so much. I feel like I was so much older. I was only one year older, but because of what we went through the year before and the trust that brent put into us and then for us to kind of run through that league that year, uh, win, win the wto championship and ultimately win the memorial cup, like really taught me how important the team is.
Speaker 1:In fact, that if you can come as a group of people and businesses, we'll get to it in the third period. The same way, if you can be a group of people and win, everybody wins as an individual and everybody's role is different. You need to have specific roles and everyone might be competing for something different. It might be, uh, to get drafted in NHL. It might be to sign a something different. It might be to get drafted in the NHL. It might be to sign a pro contract, it might just to have a spot on the team for next year, but it doesn't really matter what the individual goal is, as long as the collective is aligned, and that's what I learned as a 17-year-old my second year in the Western Hockey League.
Speaker 2:So interesting. You say that because it makes me think. Even doing the podcast here for five plus years because it makes me think. Even doing the podcast here for five plus years. It's like adding partners, sponsors, like perfect sports supplements. Who powers the athletes podcast, like pioneer auto group, who's providing us this jeep for us to do conversations in cars with people like yourself. And if you have people who you bring together to one common goal, it's so cool to see everyone align towards that vision. You see it in sport at a young age and you don't really realize it as a kid. But then you apply it in business. You're like whoa, I have all these skills that I've learned as a kid through sport that I can now apply later on. You probably have that tenfold from all the experience. Um winning dub, you get drafted to your kind of almost hometown team in the senseands Red Deer, edmonton, only a couple hours away. That's got to know some emotions.
Speaker 1:It was unbelievable. I remember you kind of have a feeling teams are watching throughout the year but you're really just trying to focus on your game Because you know there's people every night watching you play and you're just as an athlete. You're just focusing on the team, the structure, the system and have it have having success as a group and knowing that that, like I alluded to a second ago, all the other stuff will take care of itself if you focus on the success as a group. And um finished that year with the cup and going to the draft and I had, um, you know, at the combine, 20 or interviews or whatever it was, because I was rated in the second round so every team had a chance to kind of take me. So I had lots of interviews and just getting to talk to different teams how different cultures were I could tell just in these tiny little hotel rooms different cultures. And some of the interviews I had were terrible and like maybe I was terrible, maybe it was a wrong fit for the team, and like it's so funny then, looking back, like I had such an incredible interview with edmonton amazing people hockey guys, I mean rich just down the road.
Speaker 1:I'm a western canadian kid so I remember, um, that year one of our best players was kyle wanvig. He didn't sign so he went back in the draft. So I knew there's three or four of us that played in red deer that were rated in the top couple rounds, and so the minnesota wild came to pick like I think like 36 somewhere in there, like like mid 30s, and they go from the red deer rebels and like the two of my buddies I believe had already gone the first round or one for sure, colby armstrong and jeff waywick, I think two guys went in the first round already and I was kind of next up on the list and minister wild stepped up, said you know, for mr wild, for the red deer rebels like to draft, I'm like my heart like like it just starts beating so fast like oh my god, I'm going to minnesota. Like I'm like I did, I'm trying to think like that quickly, like what was the interview? Like what was Minnesota? Like I've only been there a couple times. And then they go, kyle Wanvig, yeah, because no one kind of we all kind of forgot that he'd gone back in the draft and didn't know where he was going to go, and so it was such a funny thing. It was like an up and down over the course of like 10 seconds and I was like, oh okay, wow, okay, well, okay. So I thought it was memissoula, wasn't. And then, sure enough, four or five picks later, whatever it was, uh, edmonton comes up and says, from the red deer rebels, I'm like, oh man, I don't think there's anybody else, I think it's gonna be me and I'm having so excited.
Speaker 1:Kevin lowe, scott hausen, craig mctavish guys you'd watched growing up playing, yeah, yeah, rooting for um, uh, I mean just being just again the oilers, the dynasties they had. I was obviously very, very young, but hearing the stories and it's incredible to go to edmonton and what an amazing culture and again it's, you know, once an oiler, always an oiler, and I still cheer for them. I still cheer for my friends that are in the front office and in the training staff and the coach I know when the coaching staff anymore, but training staff, the doctors and things like that. It's just really, really special to a have that chance. Whether you play an nhl game or not, being drafted is just that real nice culmination of that junior career that you had starting at three years old, yeah, well, and you can say you played in the nhl buddy two wins yeah, undefeated.
Speaker 1:I'm defeating the.
Speaker 2:NHL come on yeah let's go. That was. That can never be taken away and I know it's probably you talked about in a previous podcast all about, like the transition to Europe, how it's. You didn't make the NHL. There's some ego associated with that, but clearly you were able to win games no matter where you played, and you probably played well enough to deserve to be there. But, like you mentioned, there's not always an opportunity for people to slide into those roles.
Speaker 1:There is a business side of everything and there's a business side to sports and at that level you've got contracts. You've got there's only 50 contracts allowed per team within the nhl and the minors. So you not only have to be good enough to play at that level, which I was for a short period of time, but the cards didn't align where I was good enough to stay in the nhl for an extended period of time and success is relative david and we'll get to probably that a little bit later into the business stuff. But I played two NHL games. I obviously wouldn't change anything for the world, but I look back sometimes and, man, my career, I was a failure. Like I didn't play 20 years, I wasn't a Hall of Famer, because that's the goals you set for yourselves. Like you have to set these incredibly hard-to-attain goals. I mean less than 1% of 1% of kids that play hockey ever make it to any NHL game and so that's an incredible accomplishment. But at the time I felt like I was a failure because I didn't have the career that I dreamt of as a kid.
Speaker 1:And then obviously you alluded to like the soft skills you learned during that whole journey and again it really comes back down to people and relationships and I learned that early on from my parents.
Speaker 1:Having three younger brothers, having a big family and being the eldest so taking on maybe a more of a not a leader type role, but just having three younger brothers, you gotta look out for them, you gotta not protect them. They're all big, strong kids but like yeah, they're my little brothers, like don't mess with those kids. And it's like you learn how important teammates are, family is and every team I've played on all the teams that won, we were a family. Like I still talk to all not all of them but close friends on every one of the teams I won that won a championship, because there's something special about a group that can come together and win. And for me, winning in the NHL for two games I played incredible experience, never changed it for the world. And then, of course, moving on in my career and then winning the Kelly Cup in the East Coast Hockey League and winning the championships in Europe, never forgetting that you're really playing for each other and the more you like each other, the easier it is to battle for each other.
Speaker 2:And just the ability to have friends from so many different places. Now too, I think that on its own, like just the network you've been able to build, probably, you know, as we enter the intermission here, move into the second period, it's like now, having built a business, you probably would not be able to scale it to where you're at currently if you had stayed in one. You're in the gym. You don't feel good.
Speaker 1:You're traveling, you're battling, you're injured, you're sore, you're coming together. You earn that trust and respect from a group and then, 20 years later, people don't forget that. And so then, starting a business career after retiring, picking up the phone, I was so overwhelmed and and appreciative that all these guys would still take my calls and, like some of these guys I haven't seen in 10, 12, 15 years, but, like dougie, we battle together like yeah and like same thing for me. Like guys will call I played with, take, I'll take their call any day of the week, give them advice, uh, whatever, whatever small role I could play in their success. I'm happy to do it because I know what kind of character they have and I'm so fortunate because then, even in the business world, you have a little bit of built in street cred to make it to a level like that.
Speaker 1:People know that you can battle and show up on time and be accountable, take criticism, work as a team. And I'm just such a proponent If you can't hear already in my voice of sports as a young person. What it teaches you for the rest of your life is, I think, one of the greatest life skills you can learn. You can learn how to do PowerPoints, you can learn how to do spreadsheets and and all of that stuff, but to really learn what it's like to work with a group of people and battle and compete, uh it, it. It can serve you for your entire life, no matter what business you're in. Compete.
Speaker 2:It can serve you for your entire life, no matter what business you're in. I've been trying to stress that for five plus years now on the pod getting every kind of athlete on, because I think that's also important for them to see not only hockey players but to see javelin throwers, to see shot putters, to see gymnasts and the fact that whether you're five foot, six feet or seven feet, you can still play probably the majority of sports and there's going to be value that you obtain from playing those other ones 100 to the main sport that you're actually trying to get to. But even then, that might not be the end goal. Maybe it's just overall longevity, health, wellness. Uh, can I wellness one of our other sponsors here?
Speaker 1:love can I wellness. I'm a big fan. I've been using them for years.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we're going to get a little boost in uh boost me up right, why not? I figure it helps me focus. I take it before I play games and you're familiar with their sleep and their refresh. I take that one. Yeah, there you go, there you go.
Speaker 1:Look at that. The sleep one sleep one's great. Uh, there's three of them that I've taken. There's a Relax One, a Sleep One and a Boost.
Speaker 2:One right, yeah. And then Men, for those who like to get after it, yes, which we don't. No, no, never, never, only on special occasions, like when I win Beer League Championship tonight. I'm not playing an alumni game like yourself.
Speaker 1:Champions are champions. This is true.
Speaker 2:Let's go game like yourself, champions are champions. Okay, this is true, let's go, it doesn't matter coming off a three.
Speaker 1:Nothing shutout last night.
Speaker 2:Uh, ashl, you know it's okay, we're okay, I gotta. I gotta make sure my game's at the level that it needs to be, so that when mules invites me out, or jeff on wednesday mornings, monday nights, friday afternoons, yeah I gotta be ready for those games, because they're intense you gotta be ready, and there's some skaters out there, there's players, well, you don't.
Speaker 1:Yes, the stakes are obviously a lot lower when you're just playing for fun, but the competitive juices don't turn off never. And what I find now is I can only play with a certain group of people, uh, that have also played at these high levels because, like there's, they're like everything levels. Because, like there's, like everything's safe, everyone is there's no, there's no BS. But like you're, you're competing, yeah.
Speaker 1:Like you're not just mailing it in. You make a bad patch. You float around like no guys are still battling, like there's some pride on the line and uh, I get you man, you gotta stay too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is the.
Speaker 1:Uh, you know you got 16 guys that are all battling out there and if you don't stop that, puck oh there's nothing worse than you've been battling, and battling, and battling, and there's a soft goal from the half wall that sneaks through the seven hole and it just deflates the whole team.
Speaker 2:Don't be that guy trust me don't be that guy if nothing else in life, I strive towards avoiding being that guy at all costs. That is my goal in life, if nothing else. And but it brings up a good point. I asked linus last week. I was like who are some of the best goalies that you played against? Like you gotta have some. That couldn't, you couldn't get anything past, or that you guys had trouble.
Speaker 1:So I've got two really good. Well, I've got lots, but my two favorite goalie stories is one I played with a gentleman named marty turco. Yeah, I've heard of marty turco absolute legend. Uh, shout out, he's got a great uh beer company yeah, now check it out if you guys haven't seen it. Um, so marty came play with us in salzburg for a couple months. We then played in the spanger cup together and then he re-signed back in the nhl, I think with the bruins and marty's obviously legendary for playing the puck.
Speaker 1:Yeah, uh, arguably like I mean right up there with martin broder, like as one of the best of all time, and of course you know that as a player coming in. And so I remember, uh, in practice going, oh my goodness, this is unbelievable. Like I don't have to pivot and go back to the, my own net anymore, I can just like peel off to the, to the boards, and get a breakout pass. Like this is unbelievable. So remember our first game together at home in salzburg, opening draw.
Speaker 1:Uh, the puck is a little scramble off the opening, face off, and gets dumped in, you know, towards our goal, towards marty. Yeah, and I remember, like backpiling, backpiling, pivoting, and I pivot, maybe right at the top of the circle, like, like, like reant line, ish, like a couple strides in front of the blue line. I turn around and this puck just goes right by my face like like a six foot high sauce pass this way for a breakaway for our team. The other way, I'm like, oh, I can get used to this like this, I can get used to this pivoting around. I think I'm gonna pick up the puck behind the net like you do normally. Yeah, and breakout pass is going the other way. I'm like I'll take a plus yeah do anything.
Speaker 1:This is great. So Marty was incredible, one of the best teammates I ever had. We had so much fun together. And then I was also fortunate enough to play in Sweden during the second lockout. So our team was stacked. We had, like, matt Duchesne came over and played and then we had a great group of local guys that were from Gothenburg, sweden, guys that are from gothenburg, sweden, so like henrik lungquist, eric carlson, daniel alfredson, victor stallberg, louis erickson, like, just like are you kidding me? Like it was unbelievable.
Speaker 1:So I remember those guys were all practicing with us. Um, only maddie deshane and I think victor and louis got into some games. The rest of the guys were just waiting to see what the locket was gonna happen, but they practiced with us, right, and I remember our, our king, henrik, was our third, third string goalie and, uh, one practice. I think one of our guys either was sick with the flu or got injured prior to practice. We our second guy couldn't, couldn't practice. So henrik came in and was our second goalie for practice. And everything's in swedish over there and there's only there's only three or four imports allowed. We had a Norwegian guy, a Finnish guy, a Danish guy and then me. Me and Matt were the only English-speaking guys. Everything's in Swedish. All the guys are incredible. They try to make you feel a part of it, but it's kind of hard when every coach is in Swedish.
Speaker 1:I remember we were going through a little bit of a tough spell six or seven-game losing streak or maybe one tie in six games, like not doing well, and we're getting called in about you know, 12 minutes. 15 minutes into practice, coach pulls a whistle, brings all the guys together and like in practice you're focused on your, whatever it is you're doing, and like you kind of have an idea of what's happening, but like I don't know if we're scoring goals, not scoring goals, or guys are making good passes, if it's crisp, like I'm kind of focused on me and my defense partner, what we're doing right. So so we get called in and the coach is yelling us in swedish and like this and that, and finally he just stops and kind of says it in english because like I like you're not listening or whatever, and basically he's like henrik, we haven't won in six games. We haven't scored a goal in the first 15 minutes.
Speaker 1:In practice, like we need a little confidence here. Can you let a few in? So I guess and people would appreciate they played hockey like how many shots are taken in a 15, 20 minutes into a practice? Like 100 shots are taken. King Henrik hadn't let in a single goal in practice and the coach was mad because we're like we need some more confidence. Henrik, you're not helping us here.
Speaker 2:That's a tough situation when you're telling your goalie to stop, stop and puck. Yeah, like, come on Like well, you'd appreciate this.
Speaker 1:We'd do like three puck after practice. It'll go for 40 minutes Like nobody could. You'd get maybe one in, but guys, we'd start with 12 players. There'd be seven players left 30 minutes in. We're like, we're exhausted.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, kevin Wood woodley, of course in goal mag, and so I've been fortunate to follow in goal mag's journey over the past decade with kevin's amazing what a hockey guy and he can still play too yeah, well, I play against him on mondays and fridays and, uh, he and hutch obviously hutch being my uncle I've been able to witness that firsthand and how they've grown and seeing all the goalies that they get to talk to and this is kind of an extension in the overlap and when you hear about some how good these goalies are, and when you hear it from the horse's mouth, yeah, like 30, 40 minutes into practice and these guys still can't score, like I don't know to me I'm always curious, especially when you get to see the best of the best during a lockout year like that. Yep, um, transitioning, I guess we're, we're kind of mid second period here we were. We're talking athletics. At what point did you realize playing with all these people yourself competing that? Hey, maybe the apparel I'm wearing I could get into this space.
Speaker 1:You know what, honestly, david, I never really thought much about that specifically while playing.
Speaker 1:It was starting to be more of like okay, my career like I've played 10, 12 years, whatever it kind of was getting near the end and it was more of like okay, life after hockey is coming for me, you've made some decent money, but you're not making money to retire forever like some of the guys that make, and I was never a superstar or anything like that. And so you start thinking about life after hockey and from there you recognize it again I don't know how many times I gotta say it, but I said earlier like relationships and starting recognize that my, my world after hockey will be someone from these relationships. Like that's just the way I was built and the way my mind works, like I'm not really a corporate guy uh, getting a job punching a clock. I'm more of like let's do, let's create, do a project together and have more of an entrepreneurial mindset, where I'm sure I've got it from my parents, who are both very successful entrepreneurs in their own right, and I think that's where I was more just open to like okay, after hockey, what am I interested, what am I looking forward to doing? And I was definitely interested in staying in, like doing what you know right, knowing athletes, knowing sports, knowing competition.
Speaker 1:And then it just happened stance with me retiring in portland, oregon, um, I started running a hockey program there with so many of the families working for Nike or Intel two largest employers in the state and gravitated towards the Nike people because we'd connect over athletics. And then that really started opening my mind up to the world of textiles which, to be quite honest, if you said it while I was playing that I'd be in the textile business. I'd have said that doesn't make any sense, like it's such a massive world I know nothing about.
Speaker 2:So it's funny how it's exactly what I want to be doing because it's a brand new industry for me, but it still is everything I love in the sports, athletic and performance world. And Zenkai, originally now Philem Incorporated, incorporated tag teaming. Can you break down how those operate? Who's involved? To who you can share is involved?
Speaker 1:I guess from the front facing standpoint, yes of technology behind it too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely so. When I was in portland I got to know some of the highest people at nike if their kids played ice hockey because I was running the hockey program there at the Winterhawk Skating Center and got to meet this gentleman through a mutual friend at Nike that started the technology called Filium, and Filium is this incredible material science that can be applied to any textiles, giving it supernatural performance. So you can't. Generally, guys like me and you grew up wearing cotton t-shirts at gym class or even underneath our hockey equipment for sort of playing. Now you're wearing like these highly synthetic base layers that are have performance properties. However, they're not good for the planet or for your body and so but you can't wear a cotton shirt because it's no performance right it's heavy, it sticks shirt because it's no performance, right, it's heavy, it sticks to you, it's absorbent.
Speaker 1:So, with our, this material science that this scientist created, basically took that and like, well, how can we apply that to something that's better for the environment, better for your skin, better for the health, performance and wellness of the planet and individual? Well, we took that technology and applied it to cotton. So now a cotton shirt, which is a natural, reoccurring thing in nature, could be, now be a performance fabric and so from there that's when that light bulb went off is growing up. You know, as a pro athlete, wearing synthetic base layers or you know, toxic materials for six, seven, eight hours a day, man, I started, started questioning, like, well, I can't be good for you being, you know, having oil and plastic against the largest organ on your body, which is your skin. Yeah, so that's kind of what set us on, him and I together, and we created our own brand called zen kai sports. Uh, drived off the japanese, japanese philosophy of continuous improvement, which is kai zen, and we're the first people to take cotton and put it into base layers for pro athletes. So now, as a hockey player, baseball, lacrosse, and we would say, base layer is where apparel becomes equipment, because now it's you can't like that's. That's the first layer that you put on to go into your sport, and whether it's golf now, golf, basketball, guys are wearing full sleeves, legs for for base layer and compression. So us giving it a natural option, we're the first ones to do it and it's went extremely well and over the course of four or five years.
Speaker 1:We then were acquired by um, you know a group of people, investors my partner, I put together and we created philium corp. So philium corp then acquired zen kai sports, so it's now just our concept brand that we continue to hand out samples. You and I can rock them, look great in them and, uh, wear them around. But our philium corp is a material science company, so we're licensing that technology now the world's biggest brands and it's been an incredible journey for me coming from strictly talking to athletes and we're right now represented in every major sport in the world and NBA, nhl, mlb, bellator, ufc for fighting, pga Golf, ericsson Tour for golf. We just signed Leah, of course, the Ericsson Tour.
Speaker 1:Sorry, ericsson Tour and Ericsson Tour. So for us now validating the technology for pro athletes, now we can take this to the big companies and show that it works. It's not just a test tube Bunsen burner situation going on. It's a commercially viable, scalable product. So that's how Zenkai became Filium Corp. So we're all still owned by the same group of people and we've got some incredible investors like Ricky Fowler invested, and Jonathan Tabes.
Speaker 1:We've got Marty Turkle that I referenced earlier. Again, relationship I've had for 20 years. Never thought he'd want to be involved and I called Marty up and absolutely I'm involved. He brought two business partners in that wrote checks into the company and like that's a relationship that just by showing up every day at the rink and battling with someone, 20 years later invested in my company. Yeah, and that's that's the power of relationships. And showing up every day, being yourself, being unapologetically who you are, you're going to attract the people that want to be around that and some people at the end of the day, you want to be surrounded by people that take your call and want to be a part of what you're doing, and just being yourself is the only way to do that. So we've got some incredible.
Speaker 1:We've got the Morris twins from the NBA, marcus and Markeef, as investors. We've got Cam Talbot, brendan Dillon, nathan Rourke, brent Suter Major League Baseball pitcher Brent Suter, major League Baseball pitcher plus an incredible group of advisors and ambassadors in many other sports. Jasmine Spencer comes to mind. She just signed for the Vancouver Rise, the women's soccer team here in Vancouver. So for us we've got this incredible stable of athletes ambassadors, investors are helped telling our story and it's it's really humbling when you, when people work so hard to make their money and then they want to. They see someone like you and with an idea to want to invest in that. It's humbling, it's nerve wracking and it's pressure.
Speaker 1:But at the end of the day, I love pressure as an athlete, it's a privilege. It's a privilege Like, if you're not playing in the big games, like that means you haven't had success. So if you're nervous going into a big game, yeah, you could be nervous, of course, but if you can't grow and meet it, meet it, you're in the wrong industry. Yeah, like I remember one of our coaches. We'd bag skate and guys would complain this and that and the coach is like, if you don't like skating, like why are you a professional ice hockey player, like that's literally all you do. You do, this is your job, this is your job is to skate. Yeah, it's not fun sometimes when you're getting bagged and you're into practice, but, like you, literally just skating.
Speaker 1:So, at the end of the day, the pressure that I feel as an entrepreneur and building a business, it's nothing I this is all I would ever want and I'm used to it. I like it and I will either succeed or not succeed. But keep my head held high and just show up every single day in battle and that's all that I can control. Not to get off topic, but we're dealing with the tariffs, we're dealing with now in our industry, the cross-border different stuff that's happening with our countries. At the end of the day, I can't control any of that. So me bitching and complaining to you or investors or advisors, like that's not going to get us anywhere. So how do you show up every day in battle, can control what you can control and it's every cliche in the book. That's why they're cliches and for me, I'm very overwhelmed and appreciative of the support I've been given and we're looking to make this a big success and going on podcasts like you and having this be able to tell our story is one part of that that I'm grateful for.
Speaker 2:Well, and it's a testament to the fact that you make high quality apparel, too. Right Like you've got not only this new technology that allows Leah John to pour a cup of coffee under her shirt and not be stressed about it actually staining or leaving a mark, but you're also wearing stuff that people want to wear. You can wear it during an athletic event. You can wear it out casually right now, myself during a podcast. Right like that is the versatility that I love from it the fact that it's eco-friendly. I was talking about that with my mom earlier. Right, you're involved with eco-ath, eco athletes. To tell me more sports. What's you've got like three different titles on LinkedIn.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I, I'm a I. I love athletes. I love I don't want to say giving back, that sounds like I've done more than I have but like I, I love to be there to support men and women that have also gone through that journey and recognizing that Olympic athletes, minor pro athletes and it all of us have had the same journey. We've we've had the same disciplines to make it to those types of levels. There's a certain amount of crazy that you have to have and when you retire, it can be really, really challenging. It can be really challenging to.
Speaker 1:It sounds crazy, like it sounds asinine, but I remember retiring and I had nothing but free time and you're like, oh my God, like now, I could kill for not to have to do anything for one day. But I retired from hockey and you're like I have no one telling me where to go, where to be, what my body fat needs to be, what my bench press needs to be, what I need to wear for for some event, when's next time the bus is leaving or flights leaving, I had unlimited options and it was almost like debilitating because you, I could do anything I wanted. Right, like what am I going to do with the rest of my day, I have nothing on the schedule and no one telling me what to do and where to go, and that was actually really hard, yeah you become accustomed to it.
Speaker 1:Like since I was 14, 15, leaving home to play hockey. So for 15 years plus, you always had this goal. You always had this okay, well, next season's coming up, next game's coming up, and it was really challenging. So I worked through it in my own way. And for me to be able to give back to an eco-athlete a member of the Post now, which is this great group out of New York founded by Christian Ponder, the ex-NFL quarterback, and what it's doing is it's just connecting everybody with athletes that sometimes are struggling with mental health.
Speaker 1:You know I've had six undocumented concussions. So when I played it was like you got your bell rung. Oh, now it's called a concussion, but like I've had six of those I can count, if not more and you wake up one day and there is a scary aspect to what I put my body through, just like everybody else out there, to make it to that level, and sometimes you just want to be able to sit and talk to people that have also put their bodies on the line for that long, and then to wake up one day and have that organization not care about you at all. That's the dirty side of pro sports. They care about you when you're winning and you're playing and you're performing and then the second the lights turn off and you can no longer be of service. They're going to go find someone else.
Speaker 1:That's the business and we all know that going in, and it's not some secret. I'm not a victim, I knew all of that. But it's nice to connect with people that have also had those experiences when you retire. And if I could make a phone call to help somebody out or make an introduction to have someone get hired at a business, I would welcome that. So I've joined all these groups to be able to be in that world still. If I can help out in a small way, I'm very, very grateful for the opportunity.
Speaker 2:Oh, let's talk about your new golf line you just released Perfect Golf's coming up. I'm going to be playing Golf season.
Speaker 1:I got room in the back of this Jeep I'll get you some stuff. Yeah, golf season, I got room in the back of this jeep I'll get you some stuff, yeah I'll get you.
Speaker 2:I'll get you some stuff for sure, because I'm gonna be playing lots of golf this summer all around lower mainland. I gotta get my game back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, mules is bugging me, but we gotta get out too. I haven't. I've got three or four golf tournaments this summer. I haven't. Like I'm right now, it's like hockey mode is just finishing yeah, yeah and like it's like now golf clubs I gotta got to dust them off and like so we got to go for some rounds too for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, we'll be up again this year at Kelowna Hockey Fest. Okay, we'll see you there.
Speaker 1:For sure We'll bring the clubs up, bring the clubs up, for sure, and then I'm sure you got a couple other tourneys. I got, I got a few other, and so, anyway, long story short, we got to go play golf this summer and um, what inspired, the?
Speaker 1:the, the release for this new line, yeah, so with us being a material science company, um, and now license our technology. We're extremely excited to announce one of our first major partnerships with a group called 1764 golf. Uh, they own a company called Short Power 4, which is the largest golf subscription company in the world. So we're launching for the Masters here coming up in a couple weeks Hoodie Hawk and Harlow hoodie, men's and women's all Philem activated. So we're extremely excited because now brands are helping tell that story with natural, eco-friendly apparel powered by philium.
Speaker 1:So, uh, maybe we can throw a link in the in the chat when we're for sure at the end of the of the show. And, uh, please go check it, check out um, 1764 golf, graham lux incredible partnership with philium. We've got another major one coming with o'neill's, which is the largest rugby company in the world. Okay, we're doing a full trainer kit with them. Uh, we got a couple other really major ones I can't announce quite yet, but coming up here 2025 you're gonna see philium and lots of different uh retail stores online with brands and every major sports uh, sports, um, vertical in the world.
Speaker 2:So we're excited this is why we're getting you on the athletes podcast right now. I mean, what did we meet like six, nine months ago? We snapped a pic, we sent it to brad thorpe talked about isometrics briefly, yep, so many overlaps so many, in fact.
Speaker 1:I talked to thorpey yesterday. How's he doing awesome, yeah, awesome. He's in toronto, guys in like every nba USA Navy. Army, I can't. He shared a few more with him yesterday. I'm not going to release him in case he hasn't finalized the deals yet, but like more NBA teams on the West Coast, he's flying everywhere, so you got to get him on the podcast too. Well, he was episode 175.
Speaker 2:There boom. This is 255, there Boom, this is. This is two 55, two 55.
Speaker 1:I know it's crazy.
Speaker 2:Look at you athletes podcast. It's crazy. It's crazy Thanks to partners, thanks to to you said like a little bit of that craziness Cause I couldn't apply it myself to the professional athlete realm. So here I am just chatting with people and, selfishly, I get to learn from individuals like yourself and then I apply that, I get to train with them. Right, like part of what we're doing here is, like you know, we'll go play hockey or go to the golf course and you know, see what your skills are like on the range. Yeah, I'll be down with finley knox, who's an olympic swimmer. Go into the pool with him.
Speaker 2:Get my ass handed to me out there like you know, just showcase to the world what david stark can do compared to these professional athletes right, we got to get out with leo.
Speaker 1:Go play around with her exactly. She gave me some tips on my short game, which is struggling well, and that's the way you were just talking about.
Speaker 2:You know how, being able to impact athletes, that's what we're trying to do with. Cook stark management too right, and fortunately we have people like yourself who are willing to outfit some of our athletes with incredible philium zen kai apparel. And it's so cool how the sport world works that way. Um, it does. I didn't realize it growing up and I you know to your point now the relationship piece, that's everything it's david, it's everything.
Speaker 1:and if anybody takes anything away from our conversation here we've been rambling on for 30, 40 minutes is relationships are everything. Um, you know, right now I'm I'm fortunate to mentor some of the UBC men's hockey players, and something I love to do. Every year We've got 40 or 50 alumni members that that get every year. Get a new player, take them to dinner, take them to lunch. Just talk to them about life. And every summer, some of them you know, whether it's KPMG or Royal banks, and these major major companies are looking for interns. They're looking for 500 applicants. We'll have a relationship or connection that says, oh, this kid's a great kid, I vouch for him. All of a sudden, they'll get an opportunity to go intern at one of these places.
Speaker 1:Sometimes you hand in these resumes and like it's just, they're just faceless names on a resume. So I just implore everybody out there, if they're looking to build a business, a company, look no further than the closest friends and family that you have in your life. They're the people that will get you those interviews, those jobs, and if you've made some mistakes, that's okay too. Like everyone gets second chances in this life. So just look at yourself in the mirror, own up to whatever has happened and recognize that relationships will change everything, and that's something that's been instrumental for me. You can be the smartest person in the room, but if you don't have the relationships to get you that interview or get you that opportunity, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2:And that's a. It leads perfectly. As we wrap up, two minutes left your third period. Uh, as someone who's listened to the pod, you know we wrap up by asking our guests their biggest piece of advice for the next gen. I know you just gave away that, that tidbit, but from an athletic, entrepreneurship, overall life standpoint, anything else you want to leave our guests with?
Speaker 1:I think, honestly, it's just all of that, and if I could wrap it up in one one phrase one of my closest mentors use this phrase and I'll, and I use it all the time. But if you think of a relationship like capital, you never spend it, you only reinvest it. It's what can I do for you? How can I help you? So if you give me a call to how hey, how can I help you in the athletes podcast and I'm not even looking for anything for me, and then, if it's something comes down the road on the other side, amazing.
Speaker 1:But it's like when you lead first with how can I help someone else, how can I make introduction, not ask for anything, just do that from the goodness of your heart. You'd be amazed at how many times those conversations come back. Those people will call you back. You're looking for a favor six months later and it comes back the other way because you are offering your services first. So that's, to me, is the biggest thing that I I take away from every single day is is just having that integrity and honesty as a person, because that will be the the, the people that you will be responding to in the future.
Speaker 2:So it's all about the people. Servant leader Doug Lynch. Thanks for coming on the Athletes Podcast. Thanks, david.
Speaker 1:Great being here.
Speaker 2:We'll get you on again once we can release all those new brands that you're bringing on, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And next time let's go into overtime and crack some pints.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, we've got to do an overtime segment.
Speaker 1:Okay, there you go, so we finish driving overtime. Segment patio pints.
Speaker 2:I love overtime segment, patio pints. I love it. It'll be, uh, luke gazdik 2.0. Okay, 2.0. You guys know if you've been watching. Thanks for tuning in. Hope you have a great day.
Speaker 2:Just want to say thank you to each and every one of you for coming on watching this episode, consuming it on itunes, spotify, wherever you're listening to the show, it really sincerely means the world to me. We haven't been as consistent as I'd like to be, but ryan and I were on the same page, our producers, putting out amazing stuff. Give him a shout out in the comments for all his hard work and again, pat yourself on the back for doing the hard stuff, which is sometimes sitting down listening or watching a podcast that maybe you're going to benefit from. Maybe you're going to end up being able to take some actionable insights and apply them to your life. I hope this impacted you positively. Share this with another athlete who will benefit. Shout out to our sponsors Perfect Sports Supplements. Can I Wellness right here with our boost spray Might help if I get the full container. And then Pioneer Auto Group Alder Grove for hooking us up with this amazing studio. Thank you, folks, for tuning in. Hope you have a great rest of your day. We'll see you next week. Bye.
