Hockey season is right around the corner, but the Pittsburgh Penguins and materials maker Covestro are already winners.
On Sept. 28, the Penguins won a Stanley Award for sponsorship activation from the National Hockey League. The awards are presented annually in honor of club business and marketing achievements.
The Penguins’ “Rethink the Rink” partnership with Covestro was the winning entry in the sponsorship activation category.
“We are proud to work with our partners at Covestro and Carnegie Mellon [University] to use the power of sports, materials science and innovation to help make our game safer and more enjoyable,” Penguins President of Business Operations Kevin Acklin said in a news release.
“Together, we developed hockey dasher boards and helmets that promote better player safety, and we thank you [the NHL] for recognizing our creative Penguins staff and our partners who worked hard to make this a success.”
The Penguins and Covestro began their partnership in 2018 and are now in the sixth year of their “Rethink the Rink” program. Every year, Carnegie Mellon students collaborate with Covestro engineers and Penguins experts to conceptualize innovative safety solutions for rinks and player equipment in a week-long activation.
The enhanced dasher boards are made by high density polyethylene board producer Athletica. Previous projects include a goalie mask prototype that’s in development with Bauer Hockey.
Covestro is based in Leverkusen, Germany, with North American headquarters in Pittsburgh. The firm is a global supplier of polycarbonate resins and films, thermoplastic polyurethane, PU materials and foams, and other specialty chemicals and materials.