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Wild...

Pickups from some recent travels. Franklin Vipers pants Easton Pro pants navy 6K Pro M/L shoulders and a full family photo

I hit the ice tonight after a little over six weeks after a facial fracture. With getting surgery to put plates in to hold my fracture back together it seemed like it would take forever to get back. Very happy to get back tonight.

Got home today from my surgery and related issues. On the mend. Thanks for everyone who reached out. I got a ways to go but it’s not like I haven’t dealt with other significant health issues before.

Coming from a 100k Pro the stiffness was a concern. It was noticeable, though I didn't feel like the skate was restricting me. I had to work them a little harder to get them to do what I wanted at times so my legs felt it. Oddly, my chronic hip flexor and lower back issues seemed to disappear. Overall, super impressed.

Getting back on the ice tonight!!! A little over six weeks from my thyroid removal surgery. A few complications that delayed my recovery, but looking forward to playing tonight!!

When I had the store in Vegas, I would charge customers the same price for a total custom skate as I would for a top tier retail model. I made a little less on the sale, but then I didn't have to carry as many items in stock for inventory, and the customer got custom skates for the same cost. IMO, everyone wins in situations like this.

That Hockey Tutorial guy will endorse anything for the right price, he has no shame lol, I stopped watching his stuff after the whole charity scandal and just getting tired of biased reviews. He doesn't hold a candle to Hills' "Hockey Reviews" page in terms of reviews. With that off my chest, I did enjoy the Graf video, my 705's I got in the mid 90's were my favorite skates I ever owned, partially because the brand had so much history and just stood out over Bauer/CCM at the time (it was like going for a Porsche over a Ford), and partially because they just felt so good on my feet. I haven't seen or tried any of their new offerings but they'll always have a place in my heart.

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In my experience, TRUE sticks break about as often as CCM, Bauer, and Sherwood. There are a lot of variables that account for stick breakage. Its not just the level of play, but the position, size of the player, etc. For example, it is not uncommon for Centers in the NHL to use a beefier and heavier stick as compared to someone who plays Wing. As for the Catalyst skate issues, I think TRUE went too thin on the shell in an attempt to play the "weight savings game" and it blew up in their face. The 2024 Catalyst skates are very impressive, and I don't think you are going to see any of the same issues. I have been testing a pair for a while now, and the durability is very good.

It might not be suitable for full-time use, but a couple of times, I've had teammates coming back from broken or badly bruised ribs. I gave them some thigh inserts salvaged from old pants that they held in place with compression shirts. Those contoured thigh pads actually conform perfectly to your ribs and don't get in the way of anything. They're also much more protective than any padded shirt.

Just picked these up

Sounds like you have at least two stores near you. The store with the Bauer scanner and the one without. Go and try on a ton of skates. Seems like you need to figure out what size skate you wear and what boot shape best fits your foot. You’re all over the place with sizing. Do you have access to a store with staff who are skilled at fitting skates? Go and have them help you get your size and shape dialed in. You’ve already made a 1k+ mistake. If you don’t have a local store you trust, spend some time and money driving to one you do trust. Buying skates blind off of the internet, especially customs that may have some weird stuff going on, is just throwing more money around that may or may not work.

While having a larger sample size is always good, I don’t know if MSH has enough technically sound skaters that would be able to give you an accurate assessment lol It would be like asking the hockeyplayers subreddit their thoughts about the on-ice Marsblade. Based on the initial impressions of those who got the holder, you’d think it was the best technological advancement in skate technology since boots went from leather to composite, and now look how many people are actually using it.

You should dispute the stick you got with your credit card company as a product that was as advertised. And then see if you need to do the same with the one that is in production

Labeda Gripper yellow

That’s where I thought you were going and then suddenly it got all Inception.

Sorry to hear you got a bummer stick at the end of your wait. If I were you, I would complain. It's not reasonable to wait as long as you did. That on its own. On top of that to have a product that doesn't match the spec or live up to reasonable expectations (if they weren't going to paint it the way it looks like it does on their relaunched website, they should have given a heads up) is just the sandy sprinkles on a shit cake. You're doing them a favor saying something. As you said, they won't stay in business long if they alienate their previously loyal customers that want to give them the benefit of the doubt. You shouldn't be out a decent amount of cash, or any amount for that matter, for a product that's honestly way below what it should be.

Custom specs: PPF model Hossa cuff (with side tab, which isn’t always done on other Eagle custom gloves) name embroidery (asked for upper cuff though it was done on the side guard piece) custom colors and binding (based on Eagle Design 5 and Design 7) custom thumb embroidery (a logo that I had previously designed for Eagle goalie pads, and also had on a previous set of Brian's goalie gear) PPF pinstripe PPF tone-on-tone embroidery finger length shortened by 1/4" kangaroo goat palm kangaroo goat gussets gussets tapered by -1/4" (not sure this was done?)

Howdy, I really need to show my wife that sticks picture. Mark

They had this on display at Bauer World and it had a catastrophic failure on the first day and became inoperable. Lol I think it's overpriced and the fact that Bauer is wanting retailers to sell the machine and accessories doesn't make sense. Personally, if I was to use a machine at home and wanted something easy to operate, I would buy a used Sparx.

With protective especially, there is no “best.” At some point you are trading degrees of breathability and movement and weight for protection. So, you gotta figure out how to configure those different things that work for you. Think of it like creating a character in a video game. You have an allotted number of points, so you can’t just put every category at 100. If you want lighter, they’ll be slightly less protective, etc It’s been a while since I wore CLs, and everyone liked them, but it’s not like you’re gonna put them on and be like “oh, these are clearly noticeably better than everything else and it was worth paying $200 for a used pair of 10+ year old shoulder pads, plus all the time I spent looking for them.” Rather than thinking about “THE BEST,” the about “these are fine.” Get something that does its job and you don’t notice them much, and spend the money on sticks or drugs or something fun. Protective stuff generally won’t improve your game like sticks or skates might*. Just find something you can be content with and don’t overthink it. *these really don’t either, but let’s pretend.

‘Best’ is all relative, right? Do you want protection, breathability, etc. I went through this journey years back. At the time I ended up with CCM QLT shoulders. I liked the breathability and profile. They had enough protection for beer league and wouldn’t have prevented the shoulder tear I got wearing them. I wore them for 4-5 years before moving into CLs. Preferred the CLs for moisture wicking and felt the breath ability was about the same, if not slightly better, than the QLT. When the FT4 line came out they were pitched as true replacements for the CL line. Unfortunately I tried the FT4 Pros and got rid of them almost immediately going back to CLs. For me, the FT4s simply did not breathe nearly as well as the other pads and that’s my primary concern. When the FT6 line launched and I found a pair of FT6 Pros for half price I figured why not. IMO CCM improved ventilation significantly compared to the FT4 line and that’s not accounting for the aer-tec part. I sold the CLs and these are now my primary shoulder pads. So for me and my ‘best’, the FT6 Pros and CLs fit the bill. I wouldn’t pay retail price for them, but if you can get them at a discount, they’re well worth it

Glad you're back out there, man! Please tell me you put a cage on? :)

Why do you need to change the steel? Is it broken, or you want to upgrade it? To put new holders and steel on, your cost would probably be around $100+ if you could find used stuff that works, much more for new. For those skates, you’re better off just putting that money towards new skates.

I know plenty of players that use their products and have had no issues, from recreational to professional levels. Historically, TRUE has had some bumps in the road, as all companies do when they are growing, and I understand that you and others have likely experienced some product defects. However, the vast majority of players have not had that same experience. I don't think its fair to use such a small sample size to determine if a product is or is not durable. An interesting story. I have some TRUE prototype sticks that have no logos on them. One person I skate with who played NCAA D1 dislikes TRUE as a company. There was no specific reason; he just said he had tried their sticks before and didn't care for them. In a recent game, he broke his primary and backup sticks and asked to use one of my extras. After the game was done, he told me that the stick was one of the best he had ever used and asked me if I could order him a few. You should have seen his face when I told him it was TRUE. It was TRUEly priceless 😜

What you say is quite...true.

It's definitely very difficult to thread the top two eyelets over the tongue with the skates on. What is much easier is threading the eyelets behind the tongue and then pulling the laces over.

I like the 2024 Catalyst skate design. Best looking retail skate they have ever made. https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:US:968e037d-fb71-4110-ba3d-4778ab89e1d1

The Canucks matte black helmets remind me of that one guy in every beer league with the old matte black Easton bucket that never looked good, usually paired with roller hockey pants and some skates from 20 years ago... it's a hard no from me.

Ok, so the 2 cotton socks was an experiment. In my mind, being able to even fit in there with 2 thick socks on points towards needing a more tapered and/or smaller fit. I can feel the difference between a super thin and slightly thicker skate sock in my True TF9s. Best fitting skates I've ever had, but they are pretty wide, so doesn't sound like it would be a good match for your foot shape. Getting my skates on with 2 thick socks would be impossible.

I would not give any thought to radius for a 5 year old. Kids readily adapt, and I would be amazed if a child would even notice from one to the other. I coach kids who skate on garbage used skates from Play it Again, and they do just fine. But yes...any shop that does profiles can change it if you want.

Literally everyone who is mildly selective about sticks says these are always somewhere between low end mediocre to trash. The people who hype them up are either the people selling them, or people who love a “good deal” above all else. Whats more likely - a factory in China is gonna sell unbranded Bauers/CCMs out the back door to some random suburban dad in the USA, or that those sticks are actually just off brand sticks that play poorly and weigh around 400 grams? People delude themselves it’s actually a $400 stick with no graphics but the scenario is so full of holes. If all you care about is weight, go for these. But if you care about feel, balance, performance, etc, spend $30 more and buy a prostock stick from somewhere.

I'm currently in Cat Pros and am happy with them, but really wanted to try the new FT6 Pros. Met up with Flooded Customs from IG who designed a wrap inspired by the black option CCM offers through their custom program, but with the last gen logo. I think they turned out awesome and I look forward to testing the skates out! Wish more skates were made to look as subtle as this off the shelf

Cat 7 is fiberglass. Cat 9 was carbon fiber. Totally different construction.

It's def a "buzzword bingo" thing. Basically, the 7X4 has trace amounts of fiberglass mixed with the carbon fiber. I argued with the TRUE rep when doing booking for 2024-2025 product because I didn't understand the value of the 9X4 compared to the 7X4 if the boot itself was the 100% the same. If you look at both, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference visually. However, the actual composition is different. I agree 100%, composite = made up of various parts or elements. I hate "buzzword bingo". It makes me die a little on the inside when I see marketecture.

Bascially. https://www.instagram.com/bsharpottawa/reel/C7Us8_oRM64/

SVH was involved with KOR, so his hockey skate experience precedes DASC/VH/TRUE.

100% agree. At least we have options now. Everyone's feet are different. And I've suffered through enough discomfort with my feet to know a pair of well fitting skates is probably the most important piece of equipment you can invest in. I haven't been skating since I was 2 like most of the NHL guys. And I'm also not getting my skates for free. Having a "near custom" fit experience at multiple retail price points is amazing for those of us who need it or see the value in it due to unique biomechanics or whatever. And yes, the durability issues need to be addressed or what inroads they've made in the retail space will start to decline. Hopefully these new models fix at least some of those issues.

Pros get a different more comprehensive custom skate. That and ccm Bauer been around way longer than true so they definitely have the edge in terms of brand loyalty. At the retail level, it's a trickle effect of what people see the pros use in the NHL. True needs to really up their game in the quality and durability department though. Ifs laughable. At least they're getting a bit better in the esthetics department.

That's accurate.

Yeah, you’ll want to order your same Bauer/CCM size which is likely 1/2 size larger than the TF9. I made the mistake going to same size in the Cat 9 as I had with the TF9 and they are way too snug. Half size up fit perfect

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

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

Decided to order a new RX3 stick after I couldn't find the extensions for it, and realized I shouldn't be cutting my sticks. Looks like Sherwood took @Hills advice from his pro stock Code V video as I picked up team stock (large selection) VGK gloves at Rousseau.