So, sticks and skates as more equipment than football. Although, someone pointed out elsewhere that good skates can be expensive and requires maintenance. I di

So, sticks and skates as more equipment than football. Although, someone pointed out elsewhere that good skates can be expensive and requires maintenance. I didn't consider costs of keeping skates sharp. But I'm still curious as to why high-quality expensive equipment is required specifically for hockey when it seems to me that every other sport has a large number of kids with substandard equipment. Do hockey players not use hand-me-downs or used equipment?