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I had True's for exactly 12 months and bought Vapor 2x Pro's last night. The first pair the liner separated from the inside so True made me a new pair. The new pair has had a hell of a time keeping rivets. A friend of mine is an equipment manager for a minor league team and he said they have to replace rivets all the time because the bedding of the True doesn't allow the rivets to bite into the material. We put copper in a few spots to help with the problem. However, I switched to stock/off the shelf Bauer Vapor 2x Pro for a completely different reason. Basically, my ankle bone has additional bone growth on it from taking two slapshots on it over the years. First problem with True, and I know this is specific to me, is the padding isn't soft enough. The inside forms nicely to my foot but it irritates my inside ankle bone. Second reason, the eyelet pattern is very close to the ankle bone in my case. My ankle almost sits on the eyelet. Soooo.... I went to Bauer because the asymmetrical design allows my weird ankle bone to sit right in a bed of memory foam. And to be honest, they fit pretty damn good for not being custom. I will always recommend True, they are great skates. However, I believe most of us on here might be overbuying when it comes to skates... me included. Total side note, but I notice a lot of people on here and in product reviews always say they play advanced level, grew up on the east coast, play 5x a week and are on the ice 5 hours a day. Nobody ever admits they play mid-level beer league once a week. We are all all-stars I guess.

My story is really simple. I tried just about every model skate (in my price range) that was available at the time spending easily $1500+ and making back only a fraction of that selling them used. I finally said screw it and bought OG Makos and bam... no more pain. Then when I switched to goalie I started with Bauer Reactor goalie skates and had the same pre-Mako pain again. Since there was no goalie Mako I decided I wasn’t going through the process all over again and went straight to VH. Still the best hockey equipment decision I’ve ever made.

I had one player who went from CCM custom skates, to TRUE custom skates, and finally ended in a Bauer retail Vapor 2X Pro skate which he said fit him best. I think that's the main problem with custom skates is the manufacturer has an opinion of what really is defined and how the skate should fit, but the customer, for better or worse, has their own opinion. A scan can only tell you the foot shape, it doesn't account for how the player prefers the skate to fit and such. It's all very tricky. Not to mention without having direct interaction with the customer there have to be some decisions the manufacturer has to make. Sometimes those decisions turn out good and other times the customer doesn't like those decisions. I read too much about people thinking custom skates are the holy grail and for the price the end result should be X and Y. No one is taking into consideration that all of these offerings and the technology behind them are fairly new to the hockey market. I consider all of this an alpha or beta phase.

Today I went out with my brand new Bauer's. Note that I usually play with a 3 degree pitch as I like to be on my toes. I wanted to try what a stock skate blade would feel like so I left them in.... turns out it was horrible for me as I am too far on my heels. Fortunately, I had extra steel with me that has forward pitch so I swapped in at the rink. I felt pretty good until i got a bit too confident even though I wasn't quite used to the boot and ended up eating $hit. Now mind you I am like every player on here who has played 25+ years, an absolute beast on skates, and am in the international beer league hall of fame. However, I was humbled by new skates. Guess I am not Crosby after all. I will go back to icing my elbow now. Damn it hurts.

I can't speak for new players, but as someone who's been playing hockey for 43 years, I find modern skates don't fit me well. I have tried just about everything except for Nexus because they are huge. Compare that with the fact that up until the mid-2000's I skated in many different models of skate and never had a single fit issue. The last skates that fit me well were my Micron Mega 10-90's, which I wore for 15 years before they started to fall apart.

I think most ppl here recommend going retail if they fit really well. For me... I've tried every skate that's come out and the only thing that came close was Jetspeed. Even then, My FT2 aren't perfect but were the best of all retail so I got them, plus I ordered True's because I still want a better fit. I was sized up and my right foot was like an 8.75 and my left was like 8.6. In almost all skates I either have to have crushing foot pain, or a sloppy toe/heel area. Chose 9's because I didn't want crushing foot pain. Has almost nothing to do with my skill level and how much I play, too. I want to play to the fullest of whatever skill I have, regardless if I'm on the ice with guys who played D1 puck or some random joe who can't even skate. I feel like skates are really the only thing I'd spend big bucks on. Padding, sticks... all that isn't making any difference for me really if I'm not skating.

Same

Woah woah woah. I don't know about you but I was drafted first overall in my fantasy league. 🤪

Trues are stiff but still allows for excellent forward flexion. You definitely don't notice the stiffness in the upper cuff area like the new ccms. I tie my skates all the way to the top fairly snug and have more flexion than my as1s where I leave the top two eyelets looser.

Well, it's been about nine months since I had surgery. Today, I ran 1 mile on the treadmill in 7 minutes 42 seconds. So, if you have had spinal fusion surgery and are reading this thread sometime in the future, this is my progress.

That may be old info, as I haven't done CCM customs in a few years. But a shop with some knowledge could guide you further.