Leaderboard

You just need to have some friends that work or own a hockey store 😉

Currently Trigger 6 Pros, just recently switched back to those after using FT4 Pros and LX2 Pros for a while. The LX2's were harder to find since I like a P90TM curve and it's not a standard Warrior curve, but I found a couple pros that used them and that supplied me with a bunch over time.

I've been hunting a VGK CCM V08 size small for 6 years!

Growing up it was mandatory (I started playing around 1990), wore one til I got to college and it wasn't mandatory anymore. I remember there were various brands/models, some more comfortable than others, I'm sure now there are even better ones than back then and a lot more to choose from since there's more companies making them now. I recently saw CCM, Bauer,and Shock Doctor even make base layers with them built in which seems like a nice option, albeit a very expensive one. Now, personally, I don't know if I'm going to wear one, I mean I bet you're more likely to get cut on wrists/back of legs, and most don't even wear anything in those areas. This tragedy appears to have been avoidable from what I saw, I've never seen anyone's leg naturally extend how his did but that's just my opinion.

I use a 70 flex P90TM FT5 Pro or FT6 Pro. So, $200-ish for one of those or $179 from prostockhockeysticks.com. It's a no brainer.

I wish that we had something like Sideline swap here in Europe. Pro stock is hard to find and get.

I'm with Stick9... I'm happy paying $150-200 USD for pro stock sticks off SLS or prostockhockey, once you know what you're looking for you can get some good deals. I've never had interest in those generic brands that cost as much or more than what I'd normally pay for sticks I know I already like.

I just wish they were more available and we didn't have to hunt a pair down for ourselves.

Custom wheels and knock off twigs, come on.... 😁 You don't need to pay full retail for sticks and you don't need to go to a smaller company to save money. The resale market and pro-stock markets are decent enough. Right now there are 16 listings on sideline that meet my exact specs. All are under $300US, that's $415 for you north of the boarder folks. In a pinch I'll grab a pro-stock off HSM for $210US. The question is, if you can afford custom skates why are you nickel and diming sticks...

Super Tacks. I went from 1X Lites to AS1s and the amount of protection and coverage is almost night and day. However, your son will notice a slight decrease in pad mobility.

This thread just seems like someone who has enough money that they don’t really care what they spend it on, and then try to justify it after the fact (custom skates last longer), and then when that false assertion gets called out, backpedals to another money flex (I don’t need to buy new skates, I just do).

Maybe I'm a mutant. 13 years in Graf 703's. 10 years in my current custom APX. But I'm also not a large guy, or heavy.

No, I can easily get 3+ years out of a pair of skates.

Same with me lol. Gear whore life.

Customs don't last longer than retail skates.

Same materials as retail and I believe made in the same factory. If those two things are true, how would they last longer than a retail skate? Someone should note. If you go custom, you better like them because there is no returning them after a certain point. The resale value on custom skates is garbage.

I think if you can't find anything at retail that fits well and doesn't cause you pain, then the only natural decision would be to go full custom. I skate with a lot of people who buy $1100+ skates, complain about the pain they have, yet refuse to pay the small fee to upgrade to a custom skate... It's not logical.

BOOM! Playing 2-3 nights a week year round I could easily justify the expense. It's about value. The retail offering fit me really well. The question becomes, why pay extra for something I don't need...

Being able to afford it doesn't necessarily mean being willing to spend it.

People also enjoy the instant gratification of taking new skates home the same day.

Because a lot of people can find comfortable fits for stock skates. Especially off the shelf Trues mold and fit so well the non-custom are fine for a lot of people. I suspect a lot of people need to actually just take time fitting their skates and trying things on. There’s a huge gap between ordering Vapors online because “Bauer is the best” without ever trying anything on, and going full custom. A pair of off the shelf $500 Trues would probably be the best option for a huge number of people. But the world too easily pushes the narrative of you need the most expensive things all the time no matter what.