If you're of the mind that the most exciting moments in football are when that capricious prolate spheroid starts bouncing around, then do we ever have the hockey puck for you. Meet the Aalto Puck. It can be yours for free.
Part art project, part research project, the Aalto Puck aims to question why no one has experimented with the shape of a hockey puck since the middle ages. It's a collaboration between the Nordic Society for Invention and Design R&D lab and Finnish design brand Iittala. The puck is named after Finnish architect and designer Alvar Aalto, the shape taken from his iconic 1937 vase.
So—what's the point of a non-round puck? Unpredictability, of course. From the press release:
The Aalto Puck is made in the same material as a regular hockey puck and behaves in the same way on ice with one fundamental difference - it has a built in randomness, it doesn't bounce as a regular puck, it can, depending on how it's hit, speed off in different ways. And more importantly, by adding an element of chance it's the most equal puck produced. Advantages are randomly given to either of the two competing teams.
While the NHL is probably just fine with its current puck design, the Aalto Puck would certainly bring a new dimension to shinny. But here's the thing: As an experimental project, the designers don't yet know how the Aalto Puck will perform in action. That's where you come in.
By getting in touch with the makers of the Aalto Puck at their website, they'll send you one free of charge. All they ask is that you take photos or video of the puck in action. Not a bad deal.