Eric Breier : a French success story

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Behind every hockey player, there are fins, and behind every fin, there is a man. After 20 years of designing, developing and manufacturing fins, Eric Breier, the father of the company that bears his name, is going to pass the torch. This is an opportunity to look back at the history of this French company and its contribution to the development of underwater hockey.

Did you know that Eric Breier and Steve Jobs have something in common ? That they started their business in a garage. A lover of water and water sports, his initial desire was quite simple. « I just wanted to make a bodysurfing fin. » One thing led to another and after studying engineering, Eric Breier created his company in the Paris region before moving to Vannes in 2000. It was in his new Breton headquarters that Eric made his first underwater hockey fins. Fins made at the request of well-known figures in French underwater hockey, the recent world champions of the time (1998) : Jacques Bréchaire and Thomas de Trébons. « Their fins were made of fibreglass and only lasted a few months. They asked me to make some that would last at least a year. » For the anecdote, Eric had already met Jacques when he was training at Saint-Cyr-l’École. They even shared the same water line !

Decades of development studies

The development of underwater hockey fins required a particular know-how to deal with the important demands that the sport requires. Leaning on the wall and the bottom of the pool, twists, tight turns … Eric Breier had to make several modifications to the structure of the fins, to make them suitable for underwater hockey. « Hockey players don’t just swim. It took a lot of stress testing to deal with all aspects of the sport. » While the composite fins took a lot of thought on the part of the manufacturer, they also took a period of adjustment for the players, who were used to using plastic or rubber fins. « At the beginning, I saw players walking around the edge of the pool with their fins on. It’s not made for that !  » With a lot of persuasion, and once it became clear that, if the fins were damaged quickly, it was because they had to be used only in the pool, Breier’s fins have been exported internationally and several world champion teams were equipped with them. This is an extraordinary journey for this craft business. « I am aware that I have created a market, but I never imagined that it would be on this scale. »

At the end of the year, the Breier company will no longer be run by the man who bears that name. However, Eric will never be far from his fins, which he will surely come back to see, between two surfing sessions in the Atlantic ocean.