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To be fair - gear has stagnated completely and either innovation is at an all time low, or we’ve reached a point of diminishing returns on currently available materials. I have a hard time getting excited about CCM moving their logo from the bottom of the Ribcore shaft to the top, or Bauer adding different pops of chrome every year and calling it a new stick. Protective hasn’t really gone anywhere in about 8 years since the CL line released and skates, aside from steel/holder enhancements haven’t really gone anywhere aside from perhaps better baking results. We’ve also seen a decline in unique products. We’ve been P92/P28/P88’ed to death and quirky stuff like custom Franchise gloves have completely disappeared. Did I also mention that all of this stuff has been increasing in price at an absurd rate? It’s hard to generate buzz when there is nothing to buzz about. /rant.

I have been the biggest fan of ModSquadHockey since day 1. I came over from Corebeam. I loved visiting this site...finding out about the latest gear and talking with other fanatics while getting expert insight into the little details we all care about. This week Bauer officially debuted their new Supreme skate and CCM released the new Tacks skate and helmet. I came over here to read reactions...crickets. What has happened? Is the market stagnant and no one cares anymore? There hasn't been a product review in a year and a half or a new catalog in over 2 years. What does the community see as the future here? Sorry if this is posted in the wrong section

Watch a vintage game from 20 years ago or more on NHL Network now and just look at all the brands that are gone. Each brand drove the others to innovate and punch through the envelope back then. Now ? Not so much. The access to Pro Stock is also another pipeline that has effected everyone in the chain.

COVID - we have to stay 6 ft away from new products (plus rinks are just starting to open again; wouldn’t have had an opp to test it)

Interesting details when NHL gets back to playing games. https://nhl.bamcontent.com/images/assets/binary/317017544/binary-file/file.pdf No sharing of water bottles. Use of a water bottle or Gatorade in the penalty box is thrown away after a player leaves the penalty box. No sharing of towels. Every surface in locker rooms, showers, benches, workout rooms, etc. have to be sanitized. Ton of rules.

People who are able to afford the latest gear haven't been reviewing gear. I usually buy clearance items so reviewing something that isn't going to be produced anymore doesn't have a lot of use.

That's not related to what this post is about. 🙂

Given that there will be no new FFS from Bauer this season, I thought it was in the public interest to share the information for those thinking of moving from wire to a bubble. I think you may have misunderstood my post. 🙂

My thoughts as someone who is in product development and plays and has a young son playing. -The “innovation” is so incremental in many areas as to be meaningless. -They still haven't nailed the skate fit problem. It is confusing to consumers and the weak link is the value chain, store employees often don’t know what they are talking about. At the same store my son got fit by someone who knew what he was doing while I got the dunce. -Too few brands honestly, it makes things less interesting to me. You get similar design language from the big players in all their stuff. I remember when there were still a lot of other players listed in the Great Skate, Ocean, Kemps, etc catalogs.

I own a Reign Zeus (3x100mm/215mm, 4x80mm/243mm frames) and a Powerslide Next (3x110/243mm, 4x90mm/273mm frames). The Next is comparable to your Zoom, only the boot is 10mm higher. For inlinehockey on a smooth and clean concrete(outdoor hockey rink in summer) I prefer the Zeus because of the manueverability and weight. For urban djungle I prefer my Next because of the stability. On both skates i didn´t like the three wheel setup in case of stability issues, giving me the feeling like beeing on stilts. The rachets could be a risk of injury compared to a hockey-inlineskate. Maybe the official regulations require s special hockeyinlineskate like a hockeyskate for icehockey.

I agree with all of this. As player who also owns multiple hockey stores and also does team sales I think we have hit a point where the only innovations are decreases in weight. The problem is the materials they are incorporating to decrease weight by such a very minimal margin are also making equipment less durable and more costly. The good news is that the second or third from the top price points are now just as good as the top of the line product from a year or two ago. So anyone thats not playing at a ridiculously high level no longer needs to buy top of the line sticks and such to get a high quality product. For example, the new AS3 skate is very nice and I don't see many people wanting to spend the money on an AS3 Pro unless they are wanting to go custom. Otherwise it seems like a poor investment, unless you are getting it for cost, your team is paying for it, or you have money laying around and want to waste it. I think other companies such as TRUE are also recognizing this as well with their retail strategy. Lastly, the market has been flooded with pro stock items so even if you want to go with a top of the line product you can usually find it the very same thing in pro stock with equal or better specifications for significantly less than retail. There is an equipment manager for a WHL team that sells a ton of stuff on the side and he has made my life miserable for some time now. Why would anyone spend $250 on a top of the line stick when they can get the same stick in a pro stock model from him for $100?

I played a few seasons of inline when I was young, before restarting later as an adult. My first season I did great! With a pair of k2 zspecials that I souped up with good bearings and wheels. I got invited by one of the guys on the house team I was on to play for a sponsored team that was really good. Thinking my roller hockey career was about to be serious, I bought some inline hockey skates (missions) and didn’t do near as good. Part of this is because they were too large for me, but also just something about the comfort of those Zspecials and the fact that I skated everywhere in them, I moved a lot better. Team still won every game by a ton, but I didn’t play Inline again for the next 16 years

Bauer pulled full face shields from Bauerbiz for dealers. I contacted my rep and all FFS are on allocation. I placed a few orders for fall delivery. I don't know if I will get all that I asked for. Word was that big box wanted all the inventory. I can't confirm that but wouldn't be surprised. CCM also pulled FFS from their B2B. So if don't hesitate if you are thinking of going away from wire to a bubble.

If that’s your end goal, and you are using these as a training tool, then yes, marsblade and asphalt wheels, paired with some cheaper bones bearings, or even another brand you find cheap, are ideal. You don’t want to spend too much on bearings for outdoor usage as they will get dirty and have a bit of water uptake from puddles etc, and even with cleaning will break down faster, just something decent to get you rolling. If you want a good reputable person doi the conversion, JR offers the service in the pro shop portion of this site. He’s done a few conversions for me and does excellent work

I'm guessing this thing isn't going to be as elaborate as people are making it out to be. My shooting-in-the-dark guess is that it's going to be a new type of fishbowl cage that has side ventilation ports, or a much larger, full face, contoured visor. If you re-read the Dreger text, it just says "help protect", which insinuates that it reduces risk, not eliminating it... And I agree with stick9. If these are optional, most will not wear it.