Custom Hockey Stick Artwork Approval: What the Warrior Alpha LX2 Pro INT Checks

What do you actually need in hand before a custom hockey stick artwork brief goes out the door? On the Warrior Alpha LX2 Pro INT customizer (Warrior Europe), the answer is three artifacts: a vector file you have opened yourself, a color review completed on the live preview, and a saved spec PDF. A screenshot of a sharp-looking mockup is not one of them.

I run sourcing queues, so I count briefs by how many times they come back. A brief that bounces because the logo arrived as pixels costs a re-draw, a new approval round, and a slot in the production calendar. The gate is file type, not preview quality. Everything below is tied to that one configurator page for that one model; none of it transfers automatically to another model, an OEM factory, or a private-label program of your own.

What Files Does the Warrior Configurator Accept?

The Alpha LX2 Pro INT customizer page lists SVG, PNG, and JPG as acceptable file formats. It states a preference for vector artwork in the form of .SVG files for the best and fastest result, and it flags two conditions in the same block: non-vector based artwork is subject to additional charges, and all artwork is subject to copyright restrictions.

Read those conditions as separate from format acceptance. PNG and JPG sit on the accepted list and still fall inside the charge sentence, because the charge is tied to whether the artwork is vector based, not to whether the upload works. Copyright sits on top of everything, so an accepted file carrying a borrowed mark is still a file nobody can print. Nothing on that page publishes a charge amount, a turnaround difference in days, or a tolerance for printed color, which is why I leave those blank in a brief instead of estimating them.

These are the page's own terms for this model page. A different model configurator, an OEM factory quoting a private mold, or a distributor running its own program can set different formats, different fees, and different rights language. Ask them rather than assuming the Alpha page travels.

How I Triage a Logo File Before Any Preview

Start with the delivered file itself.

I open it before anyone opens a configurator. At a few hundred percent, the boundary of a curve tells you what you have: a vector logo holds a clean edge at any magnification, while a raster logo breaks into stair-steps. I compare an SVG export against a PNG and a JPG export of the same client logo rather than trusting the file extension on whatever the client emailed, because renaming a JPG to .svg does nothing to the paths inside it. Unlike a JPG, a vector file stays editable at the curve level, so a production team can thin a stroke or shift a mark without redrawing it. Both PNG and JPG are listed as acceptable, which is the trap: an acceptable file is not automatically a cheap one. Raster-only files get marked as a charge-risk item on the brief before any preview work starts, so the cost conversation happens with the client early rather than after the artwork has already been placed on a stick.

Preview Colors First, Then the Spec Sheet Review

The page gives an order: review your chosen colors on the live preview first, then review your specs below. A separate instruction tells you to click SAVE SPECS to save the spec sheet as a .PDF and send that PDF to your preferred retailer or distributor.

That order produces two different artifacts, and mixing them up is where approval briefs get thin. The live preview is a color sign-off tool: you look at the chosen colors on a rendered stick and confirm them. The spec PDF is the document that actually travels onward, and it is what a retailer or distributor receives. A screenshot of the preview does not function as a spec sheet and carries none of the spec detail the page asks you to review in the second step. I treat the preview as a color check only, because the page never presents it as a file check or a rights check. Two people naming the same colors from the same preview is a usable pass condition; one person saying it looks right is a hope.

Running the Brief as a Three-Step Pass/Fail Test

Suppose you want to turn the page's documented steps into gates with no judgment calls. Here is the protocol I would run, stated as a plan rather than a scored result, since no order has been placed and no sample measured for this brief.

Gate one: the attached file opens as vector, SVG. Pass or fail, no tolerance, because either the paths exist or they do not. Gate two: the chosen colors get reviewed on the live preview by two people against the client's palette, and the pass condition is that both reviewers name the same colors from the same preview. No print color-difference tolerance gets attached to this gate, because nothing on that page states one, and inventing a number would hand you a spec you would then hold a factory to. Gate three: the spec PDF is saved and attached. Pass on existence, nothing further.

All three gates produce one binary answer: the brief is submittable only when all three artifacts exist and each gate passes. If any one of them is missing, the brief is not submittable, however good the rendered mockup looks. What I record per gate is a checkbox and the name of the person who checked it, not a score and not a rating.

What Painted Weight Change Means for Sign-Off

For this model, the configurator gives a painted base weight change of approximately +20–30 grams, configurator-specific. That figure is easy to skip past when you are focused on artwork, and it is the reason artwork sign-off is not purely a graphics decision. Paint goes over a base build whose weight the spec has already fixed, so the finished stick you approve carries a weight the artwork choice contributes to.

If I were signing off a client program on this model, I would take one configuration from my supplier, weigh it unpainted and painted, and compare the measured difference against that stated range before releasing the artwork. That is a plan, not a result. No sample was obtained for this brief, so I cannot tell you what a given supplier's painted stick weighs, and I would not lock a weight figure onto a client order until the scale reading comes back from a stick I physically hold. That +20–30 gram range belongs to the configurator's own documentation, not to any factory quote.

What Would Void My Artwork Approval Brief

Three findings flip the conclusion. If the only client file is PNG or JPG and no vector version exists, the brief moves from ready to charge-risk, because the page puts a charge on artwork that is not vector based, and a clean preview changes none of that. If the logo carries third-party marks, or the client cannot show they own it, ready flips to not submittable, because the page puts every piece of artwork under copyright restrictions. If colors were reviewed but no spec PDF was saved, there is nothing to send to a retailer or distributor, and the approval has no onward artifact.

Then there is the material this brief never contained. I have no supplier quote, no MOQ, no lead time, no capacity commitment, no written confirmation of customization permissions, and no physical sample for this program. None of those go into the brief as filled-in numbers. Each becomes a question I put to the supplier in writing, and the answers form the commercial half of the approval, sitting next to the artwork half.

The Vector Check Before You Send the Brief

Before the brief goes out, open the file you are about to attach and confirm the logo exists as vector artwork, an SVG with real paths rather than pixels sitting inside a PNG or JPG. That check earns the last slot because it is the only one that can change both your quote and your right to print at the same time. Every other item on the list is recoverable after submission; a raster file and an unlicensed mark are the two things that send the work back to the start of the queue.