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Quality of product does not depend on country where it is made but on people it is made by. You can find poor quality in USA and Canada. All it takes is an inconsiderate management that breeds not caring work force. In case of Graf Canada, in last 3 or 4 years of their existance, quality of product produced in Canada was often crapier than of the lines made in China. I hope people would put that behind by now. Graf Canada is dead and gone, people who ran it into the ground are no longer associated with Graf and Claude Lemieux is finally properly retired and exhibits no efforts to get involved in any of the hockey equipment manufacturing efforts. So we should take a breather an move on. Discussions like in this thread are targeted not at a company that makes the skates, but at an assumption that somehow a tarnished company's name will forever plague the quality of products produced under it. If Vaughn, would have changed the name on these product from Graf to Vortex or some shit like that, their products would have been looked at with fair level of optimism such as the case with Verbero. I do not know of the quality level, nor technology, or how long they will last. Until someone buys a pair of Vaughn produced pair of Graf skates (foreign or domestic), play with them for 2-3 month, and then comeback here and writes his review, all this talk is just fumes.

If she's determined, ask if she can sit in the penalty box or on the bench with a helmet. That's what I do when I'm injured and can't play.

You explained my point much better than I was able to. If you're going to keep the name that has a negative connotation to it, then you have to accept that you have an uphill climb ahead of you. Hopefully they change opinions quickly and manage to stick around.

I agree 100% with most you said except the Graf name part. Graf is not dead & gone if they keep the name. If they keep it they want the brand equity behind it because there is a pedigree to that name & it has its pros & cons. If Vaughn wants all of us to forget the past they will chose a new nameto have the public oooing and ahhing the newest iteration of skates from a new company but the general public will need to be educated on this new brand as it will compete against the established Bauer & CCM skates at likely a similar price point. You are 100% right that the old management & culture will be gone, but that doesn't change a brand's image. If they stick with the Graf name, they will need to overcome the past history and convince the public to give the brand another shot. If they change the name, it will be as if it has a new start but that also means building up a reputation to convince buyers to give the new kid on the block a try.

If anyone is looking to purchase a Sparx and needs a friend, PM me.

No need to pull. Clamp it (wrap a towel around the steel) then slap the back of the skate forward.

Definitely a better solution

^^^ ha, after seeing this, he will offer MSH one in a nano-second. Gotta push that product out the door because the product life cycle clock is ticking. Early adopters phase is over.

It's not a competition.

Summer season starts tonight. That month off felt like forever!

As much as I've always argued against the "only domestically made products can be of high quality" suggestion, that doesn't help them in their battle against their reputation.

Ok, not mine personally, but I designed and had these done for a friends son, and they turned out awesome.

Remove the bolts and rinse the bottom of the holder in hot water (heatgun works aswell, but be careful to not melt the plastic) , then -gloves on and pull/wiggle the runner out