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Hey everyone! My apologies for not updating sooner, but I'm happy to let you know my True skates adventure has finally come to a close! After sending in photos of a plethora of issues to go along with the wrong size holders, they immediately sent me a prepaid label to send them back. It was the first time I've ever dealt with basically overnight international shipping, but holy cow they weren't messing around! They asked me to document everything I saw wrong and wanted fixed and they'd have none other than the mythical Rob sign off on them before they were allowed to be headed back out the door. Needless to say, they killed it. Every. Single. Nitpicky. Thing. These things look great, and fit even better. They now have the tan clarino pro liner that feels incredible, the ankle is nice and tight and my heel is basically vacuumed in place. Nothing extra taped in the toebox, as there's literally no room for it. They then basically sent them back on the same rocket ship they went to Winnipeg on. I actually missed the first delivery attempt because it was less than 20 hours after I received shipment notification. Here's my final assessment: Do they have room to grow? You bet. Are there flaws? Of course, it's a handmade skate. Was I probably a giant pain in their ass? Absolutely. But for a grand, I think you get the right to be a little. Would I do it all over again? WITHOUT HESITATION. The area manager of Pure Hockey offered to let me walk away from True and move to CCM or Bauer customs, but it honestly never even entered my mind. Never would I imagine CCM or Bauer would pay attention to this level of detail to make the consumer happy. Regardless of how big of a pain I was, they were always courteous, understanding, and most importantly, willing to make absolutely everything right for me. That can't have a price placed on it. The skates are an absolute pleasure to be on as well. I won't say they make you a better skater, but they certainly make it so much easier to focus on technique and less on what your foot is doing as it rattles around inside a boot. Oh yeah, they also threw in another pair of holders and steel for all the trouble, just in case down the road I need them. The new boxes are much sturdier too! And there it is. The adventure comes to a close, and I couldn't be happier...not could my weird wide-forefoot-with-super-narrow-heeled feet.

I treat the unofficial "1-man" system the same way we are called to approach a 3-man (1R + 2L) as the ref (wear the bands/swimmies haha). That approach is, to put it simply, to trail the puck and keep the action in front of you. Obviously there are unique situations and you have the help of the linesmen but the overall ideology can be applied to going "solo." Keeping ahead of the play takes away any accountability for the trailers on both teams.

Does the school system really need to call me at 4:30am to let me know there's a two hour delay due to the three inches of snow that just fell? I think not so much.

Most consistent results that I've seen is with a very slight knee bend. I don't consider the pencil test to be the be all end all requirement for determining whether or not it might cause lacebite down the line. I think it's okay to be a little over the top but would be concerned if someone was busting out. As for the 9D, tight is good. Ideal fit is just touching the toecap when kicked back and laced up. With that fit when you go into a deep knee bend you toes should come off the toecap. What I've found is that a high percentage of adult players have been skating in skates too big all their life and now when they get anywhere near the toecap and a perfect fit it freaks them out. My suggestion is to try on the 9 again along with an 8.5 and 9.5. Bottom line is to go with the fit you prefer.

This is probably a good point. I'd likely stay somewhere in the neutral zone until one team establishes possession in their offensive zone.

At least they did the Call/text email tonight, notifying us school is delayed two hours tomorrow because it's cold. In the winter. In New England.

Those 4 sentences are what every parent should be able to say at the end of the season. You nailed it, I'd say your son will be back next year and you don't need to be a rocket scientist to work out which coach he will want....

Crappy it took three makes. But happing ending. Hopefully this prompts some better QC.

LHS scans never transmitted to True. First True issues: skates arrived over half a size too long, causing zero heel lock, sent back to be remade. Second True issues: skates arrived remade, but with incorrect size holders and poor finish on leather wrappings and interior padding. Sent back again. Third time back: couldn't be happier. 🙂 Nice tight fit throughout the boot, pro fit liner, all aesthetics fixed, correct holder size.

Howdy, Yeah. Our school system went from "watch the news / check online" to "call, email, and text both parents". And apparently there's no way to say "Hey, uh... We'd like to keep just the texting part?" Mark

Yes we do. In fact I am calling you personally tomorrow at 3am!!

I did my time through the youth hockey grinder (both as a coach and parent). I'm your son is having fun and give you a lot of credit for handling it the way you did. Systems are fine and dandy for older and upper levels, but because hockey is so fluid, systems fall apart when the game starts. Most parents have never seen drill diagrams drawn out, they look like road maps to an alien planet. Some drills can get complicated and trying to explain them to young minds doesn't work. Bottom line is it's a freakin' game. If the kids aren't having fun then why do it. I've seen kids take development leaps and bounds by going to stick and puck or playing pick up because they are free to try anything they want and not get hammered for it. Things they wouldn't dare try in practice. I have always thought a player's body will figure out the basics for them and a coach fine tunes it. Not ever kids wants to play at elite levels which is completely fine. It's the players who are forced to do this that suffers. You did good for you kid.

Glad things worked out for your kid. Sad that that "coach" doesn't get hoisted up on his petard. That's a silly way to run a team at that level.

One huge immediate issue I can see is that as you sharpen the flared blade and naturally wear down the steel.. Then when you start out, you'll be on wide flared steel, after multiple sharpenings the width is going to get thinner and thinner until you buy another flared steel, whereon you'll start again with large flared edges. Now, most people can feel when they change a 1/16 of a sharpening, or 1 degree of pitch.. how is this going to feel when you're 80 games into a flared steel and the next time you need new steel? Are Pro's going to trust that in a play-off game? I think it's a gimmick, just the same as heated blades were..