The popular MIA hockey brand is about to disappear.

Sort of.

The reasons the Montreal-based manufacturer of gloves, sports bags, pant shells and accessories will lose its name, however, are all good.

Made in America Sports had become a strong brand, particularly in custom design hockey gloves, so much so that Warrior Sports of Warren, Mich. recently acquired the company. Warrior, itself a newcomer to the hockey business, acquired MIA Sports and now plans to roll the company into its Warrior Hockey division.

“By acquiring (MIA), we now have the ability to drastically improve our pro exposure, increase our market share at the high end of the retail business, and improve our custom glove delivery,” says Neil Wensley, director of marketing for Warrior Hockey.

“Warrior is an up and coming company loaded with talent and ambition. I was convinced that warrior will become a force in the industry and making the decision to be part of it was an easy one,” says Michel Paul, owner of MIA.

“Warrior is an up and coming company loaded with talent and ambition. I was convinced that warrior will become a force in the industry and making the decision to be part of it was an easy one,” says Michel Paul, owner of MIA.

Warrior Hockey was created in July, 2005 through the acquisition of Innovative Hockey, a designer and manufacturer of high end graphite sticks, shafts and blades since 1996.

Launched in July, 2005, MIA Sports specialized in high-end, domestically-made, hockey products for retail distribution.

Beginning Oct. 1, Warrior became the prominent brand for previously MIA-branded products, setting up for the full transition into 2008, according to Wensley.

“Consumers will be able go onto the site (miasports.com) and order the same gloves as they always have, but they will be branded Warrior from (October 1) onwards,” he says. “We will likely make some small changes to them, and the current Warrior line of gloves will carry into '08.”

As with the Innovative brand when Warrior absorbed that name and carried an “Inno Design” signature on all sticks, MIA may appear as a secondary mark on the gloves.

“Like Innovative had, there is a sort of cult following for the MIA brand,” says Wensley. “We’ll likely keep the name in some capacity.”

MIA’s strength in custom design gloves, where consumers can visit miasports.com, choose the model and style of gloves and further customize them with their choice of colors and other options, fits well with Warrior’s strategy in sticks, he adds.

“It’s no secret that (customization) is becoming a larger facet of the business,” says Wensley. “Our ability to turn high quality custom sticks quicker and more consistently than our competitors has really driven our success at the NHL level. The goal would be to take that strength to the retail side of our business as well.”