Kids Love Zamboni Ice-Resurfacers. Now They Can Have One Of Their Own.

Decades ago, comedian W.C. Fields warned of the dangers of working with children and animals. In the social media age, his adage still holds true.

At the 2022 NHL All-Star Game last February, Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos wanted to share as many of the weekend’s events as he could with his two-year-old son. True to form, young Carter put a premature end to his dad’s press availability when he announced in no uncertain terms that he wanted to go drive the ice-resurfacing unit.

“He likes the Zamboni,” chuckled Stamkos. “All right, we’ll go.”

Starting Monday, Carter and other kids his age can enjoy their own version of the mesmerizing machine any time. After years in development, the Zamboni Company and the NHL have collaborated to unveil the first-ever electric Zamboni ride-on toy.

Frank J. Zamboni initially introduced his invention to the world in California in 1949, and his name has since become synonymous with ice-resurfacing technology. Still a family business with branches in North America and Europe, The Zamboni Company has long supplied arenas at all levels. This season, 27 of the NHL’s 32 franchises will be using Zamboni-branded units to care for their ice surfaces.

When the players leave the ice for intermissions, the Zamboni takes center stage, smoothing out the nicks and crevices that accumulated during play. Forceful yet graceful, the Zamboni can only be found in ice rinks. And it has fans, especially among the younger set.

In the early 2000s, the NHL teamed up with The Zamboni Company teamed up to bring Zamboni products into the marketplace. “This was the byproduct of a full understanding that the machine had become so iconic,” said the NHL’s senior vice president of consumer products licensing, James Haskins.

Those products took the form of everything from plush toys to LEGO, T-shirts to Pez dispensers. But for years, the ride-on toy was the white whale. “That would be the top of the mountain for us,” Haskins said.

The challenge was finding a manufacturer who could meet the high standard they expected — for a quality product that included true-to-life details like working headlights, a ‘snow-collection tank’ for storage and the Zamboni’s distinctive horn sound.

Enter Kool Karz Playground, which specializes in kid-sized luxury ride-on vehicles.

“We started and stopped a number of times in the past,” said Paula Coony, brand manager with The Zamboni Company. “We would see designs from people, but we didn’t feel like that partner really was understanding what direction to go.

“Kool Karz has done some really great things for other licensees — Mercedes-Benz and folks that we know pay an awful lot of attention to detail on safety and function.

“They wanted the authentic horn sound, they wanted the machine noise so that the kid could hear that experience. They wanted it to have all kinds of different little bells and whistles that were true to the machine. Even looking at the front, it looks dead-on to what our machine looks like. They did such a great job of executing it while making sure that it was something that the kid was going to have fun on.”

The toys be customized for any of the NHL’s 32 teams.

“It took a long, long time to bring this together,” Haskins said. “But patience has paid off and we think we’re going to market with something that’s going to be really fun and is representative of everything that we wanted it to be.”

Retailing for US$349 and CDN$399, the battery-powered Kool Karz NHL Zamboni Ride-On Toy is available starting Monday at NHLShop.com, NHLShop.ca, store.Zamboni.com and Koolkarzplayground.com, as well as at the flagship NHL Shop NYC at Manhattan West.

“Unique to our flagship store is, starting in the third week of November, we have a rink outside our store,” Haskins said. “Fans who are shopping at the store can take a skate, and our littlest toddler fans will have a chance to do a little Zamboni surfing also.”

Further retail rollout will include Walmart and Macy’s in the U.S., as well as Walmart Canada, Best Buy, Home Depot and Indigo north of the border.

From a marketing point of view, the toy represents a golden opportunity to connect with hockey’s youngest fans.

“That next generation of fans that are three to eight — this is a way to be able to reach them with something that’s super-duper fun,” said Haskins.

Videos of kids riding their mini-Zambonis in their homes and driveways as well as at local street hockey rinks and playgrounds will be also be ideal fodder for social media.

“Who does not love watching a kid have the time of his life?” smiled Coony.