Leaderboard

Hey everyone! New to the forum from NS, Canada. I've been reading the posts and lots of great info and insight on these skates. I've been interested in True skates since they first came out. I was a CCM skater for a number of years and switched to Bauer last season. I have a wide foot and went with Bauer Nexus but have not been happy with the feel and fit. I started thinking about True Custom but then I saw retail versions coming out. I went down to my local store and tried a pair out. I could not get my foot in at all, crazy how stiff these are, but once they were heated up, I was able to get them on and I was impressed with the fit. I see its common for them to be hard to get on and off. I found out there are some tricks putting them on and heating up the eyelet cuffs to flare it out some should help. I'm looking forward to getting out on them in the next few days and will report back after some ice sessions.

The reason Bauer isn't producing one piece boots right now is that they don't want to invest in new machinery. At least in the shop I work at, CCM offering one piece boots and their 90 day guarantee seemed to eat into Bauer's market share. With the XS holders I expect that trend to continue and accelerate, as lack of quick change steel was the biggest reason customers sited for not giving CCM a try. I agree. When I went from Bauer 1S goalie skates to True 2 piece I was really surprised at all the little sensations that I felt that I'd never noticed before. I just picked up a pair of TF9's, and I'm curious to see if it's the same swapping from 2 piece forward skates to the Trues.

When I switched to trues I noticed a big difference in how I could feel the ice so much better on the bottom of my feet. I felt every bump on the ice. Made me way more aware of my edges

Just getting back into the game after a long hiatus. My children are now teenagers and my three year stint in law school is finally over. No more travel for me. Found the old gear in the basement and went thru some of it this past week. Just organized some of my old remaining twigs in the media room. I’ll add more as I go. I found some of my son’s old gear in the basement from when he was about 4. He’s 13 now

Yeah. I had a bozo sharpen my skates with 1" ROH. It was actually worse than when I brought them in. This site used to have sharpening services, unless JR Boucicaut has reopened. Not everyone likes No Icing Sports in NH, but I send my blades to them. They always do a great job even though it costs more. Why, I don't trust the local sharpeners. They have one guy who is really good, but there's no guarantee he does your skates. I use the Sparx sharpener at the pro shop a bunch of times until I need to get them sharpened really good (usually if I get a major nick in the blades running into someone or the goal post).

Update: After a few weeks of skating in the TF9 and my custom TRUE skates, I think the sizing is significantly off. I wear a 7 1/4E right skate and a 7 E left skate in customs for both Bauer and CCM. In retail skates, I typically go with a size 7.5EE which seems to work fine. There is slightly more room than I would prefer but when I but in my powerfoot inserts everything feels perfect. I grabbed a size 7.5R, 7R, and 6.5R in the TRUE TF9. Size 7.5R was way too big in both length and volume before baking which was significantly worse after baking. I feel like my foot is swimming in the skate like I am wearing a size 8EE. Size 6.5 was too small in length but felt great in width. The size 7R felt good before baking in length and width and was slightly better fitting after baking. The skate really seemed to give a more volume after the bake but after adding some powerfoot these also felt pretty good. Not as good as my customs, obviously, but for a retail skate they felt nice. Fast forward a few weeks and many ice times later and the TF9 7R now feels too big in both length and width. The skates feel sloppy like I am putting my foot in a Nexus skate when I need something more standard. I am unable to use them without feeling out of control on the ice and don't trust my edges do to the lack of connected feeling. I baked the size 6.5R and my toes were definitely smashed into the toe cap before baking but after baking the fit loosed up a little. I am still getting "hammer toes" but every skate as the foams and boot break in more I am gaining more space and volume I the boot and the boot is beginning to fit better. I also baked the 6.5R after every few ice times which has also helped as well. What's shocking is I was able to mount a size 272 holder to the 6.5R without any issues or having the holder hang off the ends of the skate. I am so confused with the fit of these skates that I honestly don't even know what to advise to people anymore who ask me about the proper size they should order. Perhaps my custom skates have spoiled me. All of my custom skates fit me nicely, as they should, but even the retail models of Bauer and CCM seems to also fit my specific foot very well. I am just having a hard time processing that I need a size 6.5R skate in the TRUE retail skates. Obviously, the skate is longer in overall length than the rating suggests otherwise there is NO WAY I could fit a 272 holder on a 6.5R skate without having it hang off the ends.

Try bringing it elsewhere... It is possible that they are ignoring your request lol. Look at the hollow and see if they burned the steel. Is the sharpener new? Lots of factors but at 7/16 you shouldn't be sliding around like that at all lol

Those who remember. 😯 quarantine cleanup is unearthing some relics. 🤣

There are companies like Graf that swear by their two piece construction. I imagine that if Graf is still around when the market moves to one piece they will offer a line if one piece skates but will retain their classics. Graf claims that the two piece construction enables them to achieve a superior fit and comfort, as they can alternate stiffness and flexibility in different sections of the boot. Not sure about Bauer's reasons for sticking with the two piece, but Graf definitely does it purposely

A good friend of mine was an All-American defenseman there about 25 years ago.

I would swim through a river of hot lava for a pair of 14” 4roll Cooper Techniflex TF1000 in nylon!!!

That was exactly my experience!

I picked up a CCM mask on a whim. Looks like they are out of stock online in a few places, but Pure Hockey near me had a whole bunch. It took a little bit of playing with it on the couch while watching tv to figure out where to put the various straps. I have a Bauer Profile III cage. The mask has a moldable nose piece that I had to push into a “peak” so it wouldn’t press on my nose. ive only worn it once, in an admittedly slower skate, but I liked it. No vision problems at all. I honestly didn’t notice it at all while playing. Breathing was fine, but this wasn’t a game where I’m pushing myself hard most shifts. One thing I liked way better than a gaiter that I didn’t consider was not having something on the back of my neck. It felt much cooler to have my neck exposed and not covered. I have to undo cage to drink water, but thinking about it, that is probably better than pulling the mask up and down and putting my hands around my face. For fogging concerns, it might help limit that because this mask is more open by your mouth/cheeks, so air is going out there, which might keep breath away from the visor.

UPDATE: Played last night using the CCM and was very pleasantly surprised. I was able to breathe easily and my vision was not impaired. As far as I am concerned it is clearly more effective and my concerns proved not to be an issue. Regarding effectiveness, with all due respect to my friend @IPv6Freely, we should most definetley be talaking about effectiveness. That's the whole point of the product! Now there is no way this is gonna be tested by the CDC or FDA but I do think we can apply some common sense. Neither is an N95. We get that. Neither hermetically seals your face in! But the CCM is surely going to stop more than the Bauer. Frankly, if all players in leagues would wear the CCM mask or other mask then we'd be able to play fairly safely. But... if everyone was just wearing the Bauer we wouldn't be any safer. And that's pretty damming Is the Bauer a cash grab? I don't know.... I don't quite care either. I'm just looking to lower my risk.

Funny you mention 9.5/10.5 as thats what is now standard on the TRUE Shift holder STEP steel and it feels almost exactly like a Quad 0.5.