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It's been a while since I've done one of these - lots has changed in the past few years, and so I'm glad to have the opportunity to review product again. I'll be comparing this to the last CCM skate I reviewed, which was the Super Tacks. That IT can be found here - I didn't skate the AS1; truth be told, there wasn't a massive difference between them and the original Super Tacks. Aesthetically, the AS3 looks to be extremely well-made; I can't find a flaw like loose stitches, crooked jeweling or anything of the sort. There is quite a lot of shininess to the boot and the graphics are a bit intense, but I guess that's the This is the first Tacks skate with the quick-release XS holder. The stock steel is still the XS steel but it is slightly taller than the previous version. CCM also reduced the eyerow overlay to the top two eyelets only, and has a runner going up the edge of the quarter. For reference, the Super Tacks had a full eyerow overlay, and the AS1 had the 3-5 eyelets with an eyerow overlay. AND THEY GOT RID OF THE CCM-STAMPED EYELETS. It's probably the stiffest skate I've put on. Lacing them up out of the box, however, they felt extremely comfortable for my foot shape. A pleasant surprise in the forefoot as it is much more plush than the Super Tacks as there's added foam there. New liner in this skate, and CCM extended the abrasion-resistant panels further back towards the heel (for extended protection against shin guard abrasion.) The other big feature in this skate is the ability to remove tongues. The stock tongue is your standard CCM felt in terms of thickness. The tongue attaches to the top of the toe box but now has a flap on top. To remove the tongue, you have to pry that flap up, as shown: Once pried there will be two prongs. Push those down and the tongue is no longer attached to the boot. Aftermarket tongues are available in a thin molded tongue, the same stock tongue with a D3O metatarsal pad and a 10mm heavy felt tongue with a D3O metatarsal pad. I didn't feel the tongue attachment when I had the skates on. This was a definitely well thought out feature. Had to bake these from home as my local rink is not open yet. Skates responded well to the bake as I got some good definition inside the skate. I'm looking forward to skating in these. Thanks to @CCMHockey for the opportunity. If you have any questions, please ask them in this thread.

So for me it turned out similar, after baking I could probably go down one half size compared to my Vapor 1X to have my toes feather the cap in a similar manner. Haven't compared footbeds.

I recently have been considering implementing a fitting fee which would then be applied to the cost of purchasing a pair of skates. Too many people come in to get fit and then go online and buy used skates or pro stock return from other sources. I normally wouldn't complain about our stores doing a fitting or even baking skates for a customer but since we are down 300% in sales this year I can't keep offering services like that for free. Gone are the days where I could replace rivets or eyelets for customers free of charge. 😞

Not sure why baking the skate is such a big deal? I think the opposite is true. Baking the skate will give the best fit and the best chance of selling the skate, whereas not baking it will pretty much guarantee you won't sell it. I'd like to believe it's purely economics, but I was explicitly told otherwise. I've heard from multiple owners that they would like to carry them and think they would sell, but don't want to hurt their Bauer relationship. I heard from one manger that their Bauer rep "strongly encouraged them" not to stock True retail. That's a direct quote. I think the True skates are a good product with an excellent value proposition and Bauer is definitely threatened and they're doing what they can to keep their business. Not saying they're doing anything wrong, it's business. But I've definitely seen this story more than once with Bauer. And it has more to do with keeping their bloated margins than anything else. They own the retail market and want to keep it. Some might call it playing cheap, others can call it using your leverage. Everyone is entitled to their view. Mine is that Bauer cares more about money than hockey. Not a crime, but not something I care to support. I haven't gotten a pair of True retails to try on yet, but I am getting a check tomorrow... if the finish and fit are good, I'm willing to gamble on the durability of the initial release, although typically I'd wait for the first batch to go and the kinks to be resolved, but I'm interested enough.

Yes, i pre-ordered through IW hockey. They told me that they are not carrying any tongues or other parts for the skates now or in the future and told me to contact True directly. Yeah, that could be the issue, i'd like to replace the tongue.. for free or for a fee but i can't seem to find any place willing to sell it to me. I live in Iceland and there is no local hockey shop here 😕 only online stores in EU or NA.

Seems pathetic that the move was made to begin with, regardless of tier IMO.

True skates MUST be baked to fit correctly. Asking "will it help" doesn't make sense, because it's not an optional thing. Let's use another example of something heat moldable - mouth guards. Would you buy a "boil-n-bite" mouthguard, and just pop it in your mouth? Or would you actually follow the fitting process? I mean, you technically CAN skip the heat molding in both cases, but you can't complain about them fitting poorly if you do. Anyway, as for the baking discussion - I was actually specifically NOT talking about demo stock. I'm talking about the actual product. Here's the scenario in my head: Let's say True determines that their skates can be baked 8 times before they break down prematurely (who knows). Tell the customers their skates should never be baked more than 3 times This gives the retailer 5 attempts at selling that pair, which seems reasonable to me (but obviously you'd need to determine what is a typical number of times a specific pair of skates are fitted for customers before somebody buys them) If you hit the "retailer bake limit", the pair gets sent back to True like any other warranty claim (obviously with a note that they aren't ACTUALLY warranty skates) How many pairs would be sent to True if it was rolled out in this way? I have no idea, and obviously they'd have to figure out all the numbers and stuff. I'm just throwing ideas around - I do not know how the manufacturers operate nor how a retail store operates. Don't @ me about it - I don't actually care that much. Either way, I think it's on True to figure out how to make sure these things are being fit correctly, which means educating retailers on the baking requirements, or else True retail skates are doomed to fail. They're already behind the 8-ball just because they don't say "BAUER" on the side. I do also wonder if at some point Bauer and CCM will start making skates that also absolutely must be baked to fit them correctly as well. There still seems to be a significant chunk of the population that still thinks baking skates is just to help them break in faster.

Yes, they fit totally diff when baked. Find a shop that will let u bake them and try it on. Or an online retailer that will let you return skates even if baked. Or maybe get the tf7s rather than tf9s if you're not quite convinced. I think one of the reasons true is having this promo right now is to get people to try their skates that are hesitant. I'm confident (and I'm sure they are) that a lot of people will find them one of the most comfortable fitting skates they have worn.

What needs to be sealed and/or rejuvenated? I don’t have any input, but more trying to learn what is wrong and can be fixed. Thanks for clarifying! (clarinofying?)

That used to be commonplace practice with CCM and Easton, and wasn’t cost prohibitive at all. On toP end skates I should say

I feel like this is something that should be put on True. Once a skate is baked X number of times (to be determined by True), the item should be sent back just like any warranty return. I don't know the logistics of it, but it could be worked out. I recall this was a problem with the Mako as well. Retailers not willing to bake them during a fitting. I personally couldn't even get Makos on my feet without baking so they would have lost a sale there for sure.

Yep, there's a piece of paper with baking instructions and at the top it says "IMPORTANT: Now that you have purchased your skates, it is very important to heat mould them before use..."

I know this is older but just reread this before my skate this morning. I have only had Q0, on a pair of Supreme 7000 and now on Ribcores with the new holder. I was told when I got them profiled that people who usually had some forward pitch would bring back Q0 and 1s to get the pitch taken out. Anyway, I was just skating and standing around trying to pay attention to my natural balance point and it is right in the middle of my foot, very natural. I think with the Quad, you can get forward when you need to but I don’t feel like the skate is actively pushing me there. Then the flatter backend provides stability. The flat back was actually what I noticed right away and immediately reduced fatigue in the front of my calves, presumably due to trying to counter the skate pushing me on my heels. The other thing that went away immediately was this arch pain I used to have for like the first 1/2 hour of skating. I had always assumed it was the boot (this was with the 7000s) but the relief was instantaneous. As for my skating, as OTG28 points out, what you think you are doing and what you are measured doing are often two different things.

As mentioned they made the .5 fornthe North American players. At the time I was working with an OHL team that used 9.5 10.5 and wanted to switch but didnt like the 0 or he 1. We asked for the .5 and they made us a template. That's how the .5 came about.

Also morbid. My mind thinks mafia with a name like that.

I haven't returned to play yet but we have been working in the Pro Shop since June 15. I have been tested twice. The nasal swab procedure is nothing to worry about. Negative results both times.

So you want TRUE to offer top tier skate at half the cost of the other guys and also provide stores demo skates as well? Anything else to add to your Christmas wish list? How about free demo sticks and free demo gear too?