Leaderboard

Best bearing for the price I’ve used is Bones Swiss. Been buying them the past two seasons now.

I know a guy who had a Cypress. He was on his third one when he finally gave up. The first one broke the first time he used it.

I’m with you there. The thick white tongue feels like it gets in the way.

I'm a p92 guy, I have one p19 stick, and to my eyes they're one in the same. Either that, or the differences are so insignificant for me that it doesn't matter. I'm assuming p19 is for Sakic as in Sakic curve which is the p92. To my eyes, the p30 is essentially the p88 with the pocket moved towards the toe. It's a less open version of the p28. If your not a toe shooter, chances are you're probably not going to like the p30. Though, it does mean the flat part of the blade is larger than a p88, especiallly for the backhands.

I would probably flip it around and ask what benefit travelling has for the squirt level. Given the same ratio of practice to games, i can only see in-house as helping. Just my opinion though. We try not to go crazy with sports but when a winter sport like hockey starts the same week as fall soccer, it is hard to not have some months where you cant avoid a lot of chaos. Being anchored at a single rink would help and be attractive over travel, even if the travel is only within the area.

Interesting reading through where this thread has gone. From Steve Jobs to Tesla and beyond! A few details on the MyBauer program. The project officially kicked off 3.5 years ago. At that time, we identified the service level’s of professional players was changing significantly where our Elite Athlete Reps were casting players feet and sending the casts into Blainville to make skates. We couldn’t do anything from a manufacturing perspective with the casts other than visually see areas of required adjustments we could implement in our manufacturing process at that time. I am sure some of you have seen the castings we were doing at that time. We knew at that time, we needed to evolve our process and tools to meet the growing need of players. We also started to see Elite players (AAA, High School, etc.) interest in customization significantly increase and casting just was not feasible on many fronts. So, we kicked off a project and looked at multiple scanning devices. Ultimately, we chose to collaborate with Swedish based company Volumental on the front-end scanning solutions based on the level accuracy of the scan, how fast it scans, how simple it is to operate and similar company philosophies. The scanner includes 12 depth cameras and an internal processing system developed to model feet with the greatest level of accuracy. The scanner measures in fractions of mm so it’s not uncommon to go to 1 retailer and get another reading at another – we have and will continue to work with all retailers to standardize the fitting positioning during the scanning process. If you think about it, the thickness of a sock during a scan can change a reading or even the time of day/level of activity in the day can affect your reading. I know JR can attest to this. Any who, once we got to a comfort level with Volumental, the rest of the process begun. Options to create a customized last to use in the building an individual custom skate was next to be tested. We ended up going with 3D printing solution for similar reasons as the scanner – accuracy in building the individual tools/lasts and flexibility on solutions in various areas of the foot and detailing. Not 100% clear what others are doing but we are confident in the tech/process we invested in to achieve the desired goals. We purchased multiple industrial grade, high-end 3D printers that again, speed and accuracy was a premium and off we went to building and testing with pro players a new way of building custom skates. Was it perfect at first? No but we learned all the way through and about ¼ way through this past NHL season it started to really take off in terms of fit, comfort and performance. So much so that 3D scanning/custom lasts has become the norm. Call this validation. Next step – was focusing on front-end solution where players can choose performance specs and visualization of building of the skate on the fly. When you see MyBauer at retail, you can build the skate in store by choosing specs like tongue, blade, liner, eyelet facing, laces and personalize with your name and number. We call these the performance specs as the scan takes care of the fitting details. Here is the general process you will go through. Step 1: Scan the foot (5-seconds for both feet) Step 2: Add notes to the foot scan – We can see most of the details in the scan but it’s always very helpful to know what the issue is. We have people on the team that have built custom skates for players for over 25 years – they know what they are doing and highlighting these “trouble” areas helps. Step 3: Try on skates. The scanner now has a custom skate recommendation (L foot and R foot independent). Try on some stock skates and dial in your personal preferences. Some players are going to want to adjust down or up based on preferences. With the skate lab out for a year and over 200K unique scans in the system, personal preference still plays a role. You can adjust length in the order submission but width is not an option as the custom last process shapes the skate to your individual foot (L and R). At any time during this process you want to make additional notes to your foot scan, you can. Step 4: Choose your specs. - It starts with choosing a family (Vapor, Supreme or Nexus). Our families are generally based on a low profile (Vapor), Mid profile (Supreme) or High profile (Nexus) and adjustments can be made based on a combination of notes and scan details. Generally speaking, you should stay in the family you scan for but again, that’s a personal preference. o The Nexus model is a 2N PRO skate which is not available as a stock option moving forward. - Confirm the length of the skates based on personal preference and trying on skates. - Choose your eyelets – Injected Facing or Standard eyelets. o We consider INJ facing as high performance and is limited in terms of pattern adjustments. o Standard eyelets is traditional feel and performance but allows for greater range of adjustments. For example, if you suffer from lace bite – in most cases we see it is based on the profile of the upper foot and depth of skate being worn. If you add a lace bite as a note on the scan, we can adjust the pattern with a standard eyelet or go to a deeper fitting skate with injected facing. This is just 1 example of many. § Supreme Injected Eyelets only comes with Supreme C-Flex tendon guard § Supreme with standard eyelets only comes with Pro Stiff tendon guard § Nexus 2N pro comes with Injected eyelets only - Choose your tongue – 5 options to choose from o Vapor flex lock (thermoforming, protective, light) o Supreme reflex (thermoforming, protective, energy return) o Classic pro felt (traditional feel and comfort o Molded felt (light and thin), o Double classic felt (Thick and comfortable. § We kept the selection simple to start and selection makes up majority of preferences of players surveyed. - Choose your blade – LS5, LS3, LS2 – Selection of personal preference - Choose your liner: Lock fit or full grip - Choose laces: Standard cloth or waxed - Personalize your skates: 13 characters and 2 numbers max. Step 5: We produce the skate for you and ship the skates. We still recommend thermoforming the skates - just puts the final touches on it. Apologies on the lengthy post but hopefully this helps. Conversation & questions can continue! Cheers

Lot of experience with Konixx and Labeda, both quality products. Konixx definately my sons first choice, 130lbs, where my 250lb frame likes the Labeda Addiction wheels. Also, 2 years ago I bought my son the Bones Super Swiss Six bearings mentioned above, they are amazing. Not sure on the technologic merits, but I sure can speak to the quality of the Bones bearings over a Swiss Lite, they spin forever, and last longer between cleanings. I like to think that the larger balls in the Super 6, does offer what is suggest, but its a bit harder to prove. Cheers