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And stay off his lawn......

I imagine that since they've already established that their non-custom top end skates cost $950(2017 1X), they can charge more for their custom skates. If they charged the same as True (950), the consumer would be left wondering if they've been overcharged this whole time for non custom 950$ skates.

Howdy, Replying only to a sliver of that (good) post... Around here it seems like house / rec teams for kids are becoming more popular. I see two drivers, either the financial/parent commitment level or the kid's commitment level. Its a WHOLE lot more affordable for a parent to sign up for a session of "kids play for an hour at the local rink on Saturday morning), both financially and time commitment-wise. And that also seems to map reasonably well to kids who like playing hockey, but don't want to devote every waking minute of their lives to it. I think that's a really good development for the sport in general. A lower commitment rec team like that is good just on its own, but it also can be a gateway for a kid to discover he loves the sport and wants to commit more, can provide the kid that's crazy about hockey another chance to play during the week, etc. Root Beer League is a good name for it. :-) Mark

I won’t get sucked into a virtual pissing match, not gonna happen. Most people here know what I do and who I do it for. In short, I work in engineering for a very large consumer electronic tech company. Not only that, I am a huge car guy. If you want to use cars as an analogy I will. Bauer is Toyota. They make something for just about everyone. People who want more can buy a Lexus. CCM is Honda, similar to Toyota but slightly different. Those consumers who want more can buy an Acura. True is Alfa Romeo, they do one thing and people who love them really love and will buy nothing else, but they accept their shortcomings. TTFN

When I grew up in the 90's, baseball was like hockey where if you weren't on a travel team or playing for your high school team, your Little League journey ends at about 14. I played recreational indoor soccer in high school and soccer seems to have a lot more opportunities for recreational play past 12-14 than hockey and baseball. Rocket/Pop Warner football I think ends in your area once you get old enough to play middle school or high school football. So I don't think hockey is all that unique where if you're not on a travel team or school team, that you're SOL once you hit 12-14 years old. Speaking of travel teams, I find some of lengths people go to for their kids to play travel hockey to be insane. Living here in Birmingham, we're fortunate to be one of two metro areas in the state with publicly-accessible hockey-size sheets of ice; people in other parts of the state or in neighboring states aren't so fortunate. They have posted at my local rink the rosters of the U12, U14, etc. travel teams and there are kids playing on these teams that are from the Florida panhandle and Mississippi Gulf Coast which are 4+ hour drives in each direction. I have no idea how they practice or how they make it work, whether they're homeschooled and they stay in Birmingham with a parent for part of the week, they stay with a host family and go to school here, or they commute several times a week. According to the following site, there have only been two NHL players that have come from Alabama post-WWII, both of which are from Huntsville, which is the hockey capital of the South. I love hockey and lacrosse but I could never justify spending that kind of time and money for my kids to play them if we had to go to another state especially when there is zero history of kids coming out of these teams making it to the NHL and can probably count every kid on one hand that actually got a hockey scholarship. https://www.quanthockey.com/nhl/us-state/nhl-players-born-in-alabama-career-stats.html

What about instead of the sock graphic, I use the jersey bottom hem?

Cooper gloves and Micron Mega skates......I wish that was the new gear we were talking about!

^ ^ ^ ^ adam14 brings up a good point about parents and communication. I'm not sure how it is in "traditional" hockey areas but I'm betting it's similar to the "non-traditional" hockey areas like in the West. I don't know how many parents I have seen criticize or even berate their kid for having a bad game or not doing something right, even though as a parent, they have never coached the game or even played the game and just started getting involved in hockey when their kid decided the wanted to play. The closest they ever got to a real game situation was when the puck came over the glass or a video game. Hockey is a fast, dynamic game and if you have never studied it, coached it or played it is real easy to make comments about what should have been done or why you didn't do something, especially when you have no idea what you are talking about. Things like you didn't back check hard enough on their last goal, even though you were the farthest from the play and on the end of a long shift, didn't you see that guy sneaking down the slot, even though you were near the boards covering the player you were supposed to or why didn't you crash the net right after you passed the puck to the slot and were drilled into the boards. When my kid played I never confronted him about the game as soon as he walked out of the locker room. You have to give a player time to come down from the game and be ready to talk about it. My first question was usually "well how did you think you did". I would let him give himself an honest assessment of the game before I put my two cents worth in. I tried to ask why he did or didn't do something first instead of telling him what I thought he should have done. If he asked my opinion on how he played I would be straight up and honest with him, no sugar coating it. As a player and coach I know how fragile a persons mind set can be and when I gave my opinions it was from my point of view based on my experiences. I know what it's like to have a really good game and a really bad game, to play hurt or sick, get to much ice time or not enough. Being in similar situations helps you know when to talk or just keep quiet. When I coached I always tried to leave it up to the players on their game assessments. I always told the players (and my son his entire life) to look in the mirror and ask yourself if you gave it everything you had. If you can honestly say you did then you have nothing to be upset about. If you didn't, then why? You let yourself and your team down by not giving it everything you had and need to try harder next time.

Must be nice. I was surprised that Bauer and CCM would cost more than True as they're much bigger companies that can take advantage of their buying power and economies scale better than True.

I like that idea. And if you go this route, since it's so clean, you could maybe add the jersey logo to the top of both thighs without having to really worry about it being on the gloves as well. Putting Ackbar's eye on the top instead of the Brian's eye would be pretty funny too.

It feels like to me, even in season, that youth sport is much more of a time sink than it might have been when I was growing up, even at the younger levels. I mean, think of two practices and a game a weekend - it's an hour on the ice, 10-20mins to get dressed/undressed, travel time (in the local league, the furthest travel time to a game is 45mins - 1hr one-way, and the practice rink is probably 20mins at max from any given point in the city). For a practice that's more than two hours of time. And the sports league asks that of people two, three times a week depending on the level, plus a game or two. And then it gets worse as the kids get older - there's no 'beer league' (root beer league?) for the 12 - 18 year old set, you've specialized and gone to the "elite" levels or you're out by 11 or 12. We had a bantam-age kid one time who just wanted hockey as his second fall/winter sport (with football) as he'd started playing about two years before and wasn't into the high-level commitment, but there was just no place for him. By comparison, as an adult, I can be involved in at least three different sports at one time - hockey, horseback riding, and softball - because there isn't a huge time sink and it's all recreational. Several of my regular teammates at pickup are parents, and four of the kids play with us on a regular-ish basis. One of the dads grew up playing hockey, I don't believe he ever played at a super-high level, but he's good. He also, at some point, realized that he cannot/should not coach his kids, whether on the ice or in general, and turned their hockey development to other people. He talks to them on ice the same way he talks to any other teammate. The other dad did not grow up playing hockey, and is not a very skilled player. He has not yet realized that he should leave the coaching up to others, especially at pickup (in fact, never "coach" your children at pickup). I think it's very easy for a parent to get very involved - they want the best for their kid - but in the same way it's very easy to go overboard, and it happens in all sports. It's also harder, I think, for folks who didn't play (x) sport growing up to have a sense of distance. Parents who grew up playing something are maybe better at saying "yeah, kids make mistakes, that's sport, let's move on". (or, like my dad, who participated in approximately nothing organized, has no serious emotional investment in sport at all). I can be worse in certain sports, because they're expensive, or because they're a closed, insular environment, or whatever reason, I think it can be worse, but it absolutely happens everywhere. For kids, talking to parents can be hard, especially if it's about things that upset them. Parents are the responsible party, but kids are egocentric little beings and interpret everything said as being personal. For example, if a parent says of something a child did in a game: "That was stupid." what the kid hears is: "I was stupid". When a parent is angry, the kid interprets the anger as being toward them. Younger kids (even bigger kids) often lack words to describe how they feel and rely on parents/trusted adults to help them find the vocabulary. If a kid slams their stick, you can tell them that's not an appropriate response, but also, "it seems like something made you very angry, that you slammed your stick like that. Can you tell me what it was?" and it sounds therapist-y as hell, I realize, but it's giving them a) concrete words for feelings b) a chance to acknowledge emotions instead of burying them and c) an opening to talk about it. adam14 and chk hrd make two good points: adam's dad offered options, not solutions (in this situation, what are some things you can do?) which is good coaching, and chk hrd waited to give them kid time to come down from the game, which is a great strategy for a lot of kids, especially ones who put themselves under a lot of pressure.

It does, but I think that's just because on the screen the red looks more orange. I like the Darling option, but I'm not sure how I feel about the sock graphic being medial vs. lateral.

^ Ferrari F1.

Yeah, but which car has a monocoque frame and zero negative ass space in the seats?

I'm a bit disappointed, or at least surprised, that skate width is all lumped together. For a custom measurement I'd expect for width to be broken out at the forefoot, midfoot, and heel

Oleg had great style! Those Cooper gloves along with the wide stripe CCMs from the 90s looked so sharp, not plasticky like today’s gloves.

This sounds fishy I'd keep calling their warranty claim. I'm in Canada and loaded up on se16's and one95's years ago when sport chek had them on sale for like 119.99. Needless to say I broke some of them they were all out of production and I received an RS and a Total One. Price shouldn't matter. Bauer warranty states to replace the same level of stick purchased. best believe I'd be making a fuss.

It's none of Bauer's business what you paid for the stick. If you purchased it from an authorized retailer, they are obligated to replace it with an equivalent product, (assuming it meets the defect criteria). Push them to meet their obligation. The right to substitute does not mean with an inferior product.

I would try rebaking them, there should be way more wrap around your foot. The eyelets shouldn't be straight out like that. I can't even put my foot straight in because the eyelets are too close together, I have to turn my foot. Try the tensor technique.

Lets be clear, neither True nor CCM came up with the 'monocoque" concept. KOR was the first to use it followed by MLX and Easton. So it's not their ground breaking technology. If a 1-piece boot gave a skater such enhanced energy transfer and performance ,then True and CCM would be the most worn skate in the NHL. Not going to pick on shop folks, but just because a shop has a Brannock doesn't mean they know how to use and read it correctly. Barefoot on the Bauer 3D Scanner with a slight knee bend places me in a 7EE Supreme with my EEE width feet. Profit for me is a 6.5EE, but knowing that a skate will be its' smallest when new I wear a 6EE because it's going to get bigger over time. Your 12EE Nexus has way too much volume for your foot and since it's too long your foot isn't sitting in the skate where it should be. I've found the CCM Scanner to be too big as it consistently puts me in a 8EE Tacks and I can fit in 6EE. Someone else that I know who skates in a 9.5D Vapor has his come up at a 12D RibCor. Haven't been scanned for Trues and probably will never be. Just not for me.

I've never been involved with youth hockey growing up or now but I used to coach and referee youth lacrosse in Michigan, which at the time outside of the Detroit area, was far from a traditional lacrosse area. The parents were just like how you described hockey parents in Vegas except the vast majority didn't even know what lacrosse was or even seen a game until their kid came home one day and asked to join their team. Most parents were decent but the vocal minority were awful and pissed about you making calls that 99 out of 100 refs would have made on their kid. This starts to segway into another topic of people leaving coaching and refereeing which has become a major problem, depending on the sport and area you are in. I think this pressure and naivety amongst parents hoping that their kid becomes the next big thing and secure a college scholarship has taken a lot of the fun out of youth sports not only for the kids but also the adults who coach and referee.

I agree, it definitely embodies Arizona. I think the logo is actually what most people complained about but I actually think it’s cool.

Let me guess, you own a Volvo and want a Tesla or you own a Tesla and the wife drives a Volvo. Either way, bet I am close. Not sure you could have picked a worse analogy. For the sake of the thread I’ll just leave it at that. FYI - sold me S60 about 5 months ago.

First thing I thought with the vertical striping is it looks like a ref jersey.

this is a great read, just thought I'd give some input from the other end of the spectrum too. My dad grew up playing OHL then OUA then had a pro career in Europe before coaching professionally in Europe for over 20 years. Hockey was obviously my main sport growing up but my dad was very understanding of the game and refused to be an over involved parent. He would help out especially in my earlier years. As I got older and into more serious levels of hockey he would come to as many games as he could make it to and afterwards would only give me an honest assessment if I asked him. His analytical mind from coaching would obviously take over here, but it was always positive and reassurances it was never "you looked bad during this play" it was more "when this guy has the puck, you did this but when you do that heres what happens and what ended up happening, whereas the play to look for is to do this and that way the whole play changes". He obviously wanted me to pursue hockey as far as I could and I played right through Juniors, but he would only ever be hard on me if I asked for it. he would never pressure me into work outs or to focus or practice more unless I said "what do I need to get better at" and still to this day I respect and admire that about him. He is always willing but never forceful. He is also a huge advocate for being multi sport athletes, especially in the summer months. once my season ended I wouldn't open my hockey bag until July or August to do power skating and high intensity ice sessions leading up to training camp. His theory is people dont burn out that way and the ones who really love it come back even hungrier.