HITIQ (ASX: HIQ) has launched its North American market entry strategy through the appointment of former Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League chair Rick Shultz as exclusive distributor for its PROTEQT concussion-management mouthguards across Canada, with non-exclusive rights extending into the US.
The partnership delivers immediate access to Canada’s hockey ecosystem — the world’s second-largest, with more than 600,000 registered players — and includes an initial founding order that provides early revenue traction for HITIQ.
The company said the agreement forms the cornerstone of a broader dual-channel strategy targeting both institutional customers such as leagues and clubs and consumer markets including families and individual athletes.
Canadian Partnership Anchors North American Expansion
HITIQ said Mr Shultz and his associates bring deep, long-standing relationships across all levels of Canadian hockey, enabling PROTEQT to enter a market with an entrenched safety culture and growing demand for objective concussion-monitoring tools.
The partnership allows teams and leagues to deploy PROTEQT at scale while also enabling consumer-level adoption in community and recreational programs, where access to advanced concussion management has traditionally been limited.
Executive chair Earl Eddings said the appointment represents a major milestone in the company’s strategy to “establish a meaningful footprint in one of the world’s most hockey-focused nations,” adding that the dual-channel model creates a powerful mechanism to supply PROTEQT both broadly and efficiently.
He said the Canadian hockey market’s size, visibility, and emphasis on player welfare make it an ideal launch point for HITIQ’s wider North American ambitions.
The distribution structure includes long-term revenue arrangements designed to support sustained expansion across the territory, and the company expects additional development opportunities to emerge as PROTEQT adoption grows and concussion-prevention standards continue to evolve across contact sports worldwide.
Immediate Commercial Momentum and Market Opportunity
HITIQ said Canada presents a significant commercial opportunity, with the distributor’s network spanning junior, elite, and grassroots tiers, providing a pathway into parallel sports interested in advanced safety measures.
Demand for proactive concussion-management tools is growing across both ice hockey and other contact sports, as organisations face increased expectations for player-welfare protocols.
Mr Shultz said PROTEQT offers the type of evidence-based safety technology that Canadian teams and families have been seeking as concussion awareness continues to rise.
PROTEQT builds on HITIQ’s Nexus technology, which integrates hardware, analytics, and risk-assessment tools into a single mouthguard-based system.
The company has already commenced production for 2025 and is scaling manufacturing capacity to support up to 100,000 units in 2026, a growth trajectory HITIQ says ensures it can meet anticipated demand from both institutional and consumer channels as North American expansion progresses.
