Hockey players know to skate where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.
A trio of entrepreneurs are hoping that they’ll be able to apply that maxim — true in business as it is on the ice — to their new training-shoe venture, Unsung. It’s a new company with Reebok DNA: Two of the cofounders worked at the Boston sneaker company, and they’ve recruited former Reebok chief executive Paul Fireman to lead their board of strategic advisors.
This week, Unsung starts selling its first product, the $188 Snapback Trainer, designed with hockey and lacrosse players in mind. Most trainers geared for running or lifting are made to assist with forward motion. What makes theirs different: The Snapback is aimed at helping with lateral motions.
“Seeing what these kids are doing in the gym, it’s very dynamic,” cofounder Dennis Baldwin said. “The explosiveness they’re developing is really very different. It requires footwear that can really react and respond to what’s going on.”
Cofounders of the Dedham-based venture Dennis Baldwin and Brianna Henley have both been executives at Reebok. The third Unsung cofounder, Jody O’Neill, has worked with Baldwin at his venture capital firm, Breakaway Ventures, and also with Tom Brady’s former fitness business, TB12.
Fireman isn’t the only big name among Unsung’s advisers. Others include retired Bruins star Patrice Bergeron, former top Reebok and Hasbro executive John Frascotti, and former TB12 chief executive John Burns.
But the cofounders are also taking their cues from the scholar-athletes and athletic trainers who have been trying out their first shoe line, the Snapback. The shoes are made by a third-party supplier in Vietnam, and feature a carbon-fiber plate to drive propulsion, “stability wings” to support the foot in multidirectional movement, and high-tech foam for cushioning and energy return.
Breakaway was Unsung’s first investor, with a $3 million seed round over the summer, enough to support a six-person staff. Baldwin is stepping away from making more new investments at Breakaway to focus on leading Unsung, and hopes to line up more investors in the coming months.
O’Neill said he originally thought of the idea for a hockey-specific training shoe while he played goalie at Dartmouth College nearly two decades ago.
“We never had the right shoe to train on,” O’Neill said. “When I hung up the skates, I hung up that idea as well.”
More recently, though, he has been talking with athletes who have been clamoring for such a product, and so convinced Baldwin and Henley there could be a good market for one. Initially, they’re selling their shoes direct to consumers via their website but hope to eventually work with specialty retailers such as Pure Hockey and Lacrosse Unlimited.
Bergeron retired from the B’s in 2023, after 19 seasons in Boston, and he’s due to be inducted in the Hockey Hall of Fame on Nov. 9. But he’s got something else on his mind, too: Helping Unsung achieve liftoff, with his strategic advisory role. (Unsung won’t rule out his involvement in future marketing initiatives, but that’s not his focus now.)
Bergeron says he first met with Baldwin about the concept around a year ago.
“I was really intrigued after that first meeting [and] over time, I was able to get into the shoes,” Bergeron said. “It was always hard to find a good training shoe that would provide the stability but also the performance you’re looking for.”
Bergeron also appreciated the company’s teamwork ethos embodied in its name. The cofounders chose Unsung in part to underscore the life lessons student-athletes pick up while competing on a sports team, including the importance of hard work and putting the good of the entire group over the needs of an individual.
“Yeah, we wanted to create a better training shoe,” Baldwin said. “But we also wanted to build a brand that could be bigger than that.”
Jon Chesto can be reached at jon.chesto@globe.com. Follow him @jonchesto.