Vet88

This is the bit that I'd be concerned about the most. They are customs and I am struggling to understand why you would live with this unless you deliberately want the skates to be this big (ie for a longer holder)?

+1 for this, I got exactly the same guidance at a ref course from the guy who was the head ref for the Canadian junior league. And you can practice this as you ref games. Pick any point in a game and pick a player, then at the start of the next play recall the number and colour. As you keep at it you get much better so that it starts to become second nature. Then add the supposed penalty call so you get all the elements together.

I don't know if the rebranding changed the sizing of the girdle, I'd recommend you try it on if possible. Any medium pant or other branded medium girdle would fit me easily but the rbk 9k medium girdle was a really snug fit when new.

Yes, it is worth it. Best girdle on the market, as long as they are the same as the 9k branded rbk ones. And I have had my pick of top of the line pants but I just keep coming back to how well this girdle works and how much protection it offers.

The OP does say the feet are sliding forward whilst skating. At the best that is a length issue which no insert is going to fix, wadding in the toe is more appropriate. However he also says "necessary for growth" and that, to me, is the million dollar question. Definition of how much is too much growth?

Thanks, it would be nice to see the research behind it. It's not an invalid approach, shim the boot and or move the holder, figure skaters have done it for years but ice hockey have buried their heads in the sand about this. If RDH are providing a solution for hockey players then that can only be for the good. For established and professional players an alignment adjustment can make a significant difference immediately and as they have to skate at their best every day, anything else can be a threat to their earning potential. This is why the research we are doing isn't really positioned towards established players but at developing skaters with bio mechanical issues and how learning to skate without laces can significantly address these issues for the long term beneficial health and performance of the skater.

I believe it's a series of cupped heel wedges (think the heel section of a superfoot) at different angles. So it tries to reshape the ankle (particularly the subtalar joint) to give you a better bio mechanical alignment. So it's like shimming the outside of the skate but you can do it internally with a removable piece. Personally I don't agree with this approach, bio mechanical alignment is a lot more complex than a reshaped ankle, the whole leg is involved and often the back. Whilst it does alter the biomechanical alignment and can help, it impacts on how the skater can get onto their outside edge and it throws the knee outwards which can lead to additional stresses thru the knee ie long term ligament issues. Note - I have no clinical research to support this statement but we did model it with alignment testing as part of the ongoing research thesis I'm involved in and all the orthopedic consultants agreed that, for ice hockey and anything more than a very very mild adjustment, it was not an ideal solution. Note, if it's a raised heel lift with different heights then this is different to a side to side angular heel lift trying to fix things like pronation etc.

imho that would actually be a better solution, a durable custom sticker. I'd get it made with 4 flaps so you could tape the flaps over the stick to help hold it in place. This way if the player likes a big knob on the end of their stick (as they tape furiously over the butt end) they can still have a logo on the top of it.

Keep giving them a small stretch. Normally you can see where they hurt on your feet once you take the skate off, that red area is a dead give away. But sometimes it's in the arch / forefoot area and there is no giveaway marks, this can be just overall tightness. If this is the case stretch the boot level with the area of pain. A good heel fit isn't the pot of gold that most people think it is. If you can skate well with good ankle control then the heel fit doesn't really matter that much, you get a lot more value out of a good forefoot fit which helps to keep the boot locked around your foot. Start dropping eyelets until you can eventually skate with your laces untied and you will understand what I mean. But if you need the boot laced all the way up so that you can skate ok then a good heel fit will help you.

Yes because the manufacturer doesn't glue it in and it can pop out under vibration from a shot etc or from your hand rotating / sliding over it. Although rare, I have seen refs go down the bench checking that the end is sealed with something and players miss shifts as they scrambled to tape over the end due to a missing butt plug.

You have a 1s which has a significant amount of carbon fiber in it. All you are doing is reshaping it, the cf still retains its strength. As to a Nexus, if are in a supreme heel u do not want to go to a Nexus. Why would u want to go wider in the heel? If u hv a narrow heel then jetspeed, vapour, rbk are where u should start.

It is punchable and stretchable in that area. OP, you have read my posts in a thread as to how to stretch your own boots, either do it yourself or ask a decent LHS to do it, 5mm is an easy stretch. Start at the forefoot, get that stretched then go from there. It may take 3 or 4 stretches and punches in different areas before everything is good but seeing as you can fit your heel into the boot then you don't want to go wider if you are staying with these skates.

A decent boot repair shop should be able to fix that easily. They will wrap a piece of leather over the exposed part. if it's near the eyelet they should take the eyelet out and use it to help secure the leather patch in place. Some places will glue, others will glue and stitch.

+1 Take it from someone who went to China, had a look at a number of the companies selling sticks and found that whilst they are generally manufacturing their own sticks, they aren't worth the money as they are basically using old molds and technology and dressing them up to look like new sticks with bs marketing wrapped around it. I purchased a range, they were light, 12k weave and felt ok but broke very easily. Also under load they deformed a lot and the characteristics from one stick to the other often changed. However I have a team mate who purchases them regularly from Alibaba, he gets 3 for $300, free shipping dropped to his door, they weigh 390g each and shoot ok. Each one lasts around 1 month but he doesn't care, for the 3 of them that's the life he'd get out of a top Bauer etc. And with Alibaba you now have guarantees, so if you aren't happy you can complain and get your money refunded. Each to their own, you may see some value in them.

I'd be trying to get the heel fit better first. If it works it tells you that lateral heel movement is an issue and then you can make a decision for a narrower heel fit boot. Or dig deeper and have the holder alignment checked. Also if he's a light weight then the boot may hold it's shape but my experience with this is the boot always wants to return to it's original shape, you can widen a boot but it's really hard to make it narrower and have it stay there. Try heating and clamping under the back half of the ankle or use a bandage wrap. Or what I do, with a heat gun heat the inner rear quarter, put the skates on and lace them up then lie on the floor with the heated side facing upward. Support the holder with pucks etc so that the boot will remain level. Get someone to stand on the rear quarter in bare feet / socks. Focus on the area under and just to the rear of the ankle. This will compress the boot around his ankle and into the heel. Next day do the outside rear quarter of the boot.

The extra boot width of an EE may give him a little more extra lateral flex in the ankle (the fit isn't quite perfect for the width of the ankle) and this flex is just enough for him to bottom out. Or it could be holder alignment, if the holder is a fraction more to the inside than on his 1S then this can cause him to bottom out as the edge is not in the same place his muscle memory expects it to be. If either of these are the case then him growing into the boot and adapting to it should help. I don't think it's the stiffness but it depends on the fit, a stiffer boot that locks the sideways flexion of the ankle would help to stop bottoming out.

Have you considered it may be a technique issue? You may want to think of some video analysis of his turns, if you can get hold of a high speed camera then film him doing turns from lots of different angles. Then use a frame capture program to look at how he is positioned during the turn and get a coach or instructor to have a look. You may get more out this for his long term development than just adding lifts.

Unless you have volume issues and or lace bite. Then, outside of customs, it's one of the few things that will keep you in your skates. http://greatsaves.org/skate_lace_extenders.html

Jeez, there is a big difference between a 9R and a 10EE, both length and width. No wonder you feel a little unstable but it's actually a good thing (more on this later). As to fit, if you can fit your foot into a 9R but it is too narrow in places then you should be trying 9E or 9EE then punching where necessary. You can fix lacebite (eg eyelet extenders), you can fix narrow width (eg punching) but you can't fix a boot that is too long and or too wide. Now to the good, skating in a boot that is too big for you will actually improve your skating overall if you stick at it and train hard. The reason is it increases your muscle memory range at balance over the blade and finding where the edge is. Proprioception. But it should be a training boot and not the boot you play in which needs to be the right fit.

You need to talk to the LHS and work with them. Take physical measurements of your foot then compare this to the scan data AND the additional comments / info the LHS sent to True. If this all correlates then the LHS need to ask True why the boot differs from the info supplied. Work out how much longer / shorter the boot should be, where it needs to be narrower / deeper, cut differently etc etc. I have seen cases where True have misinterpreted the LHS supplied data and made the boot wrong. Mistakes happen, it's a fact of life. And I'll say it again - Both at the scan / measuring stage and at the boot fitting stage, it's really important to have a fitter who knows his stuff. This will reduce the chance of errors when they are made and to recognise that the boot isn't right at fitting time and to provide the assistance you need to get it fixed. 6 months down the track and they are still tinkering with the boot to try and get it to work, that isn't a good recommendation of the LHS imho.

There are a lot of examples where the skate has been made wrong because the scan data was either wrong or interpreted incorrectly (a lot of this does depend on the skill of the fitter, the better they are the better the chance of True getting it right). In all of the cases that I know of True have remade the skate using feedback from what is wrong with the current one to ensure the remake is correct. On the odd occasion this hasn't worked but generally the 2nd time around they get it right.

Haglund's don't go away, you need to manage it long term if you want to keep skating. Gel pads will help short term but they aren't a long term fix. First thing you should do is get your skates punched for the bump, you need a pocket in the skate that the bump can sit in so there is no pressure on it. You also need to make sure that the pocket is high enough so that if your heel lifts at all in the skate, that the bump doesn't jam up against the skate or the top of the pocket. Heel bunga pads and 2mm ezyfit booties are a good combination for protecting the bump. The shape of the heel pocket is very important, to reduce aggravating the bump you will ideally be in a boot that has a straight heel design like a Supreme. Jetspeed and Tacks lines have quite a distinct heel pocket and if your bump starts hitting the top of this heel pocket as you skate, you will not be in skates for long. Next you should be asking yourself why you have got a bump. Typically it's because you have a foot alignment issue and your foot is rotating in the boot causing the heel to jam against the hard outer shell. In every case I have seen its because the foot pronates. There are various ways to address pronation and it's something you should consider doing for your long term skating health. Surgery to remove the bump is pretty brutal, how the achillies is cut and reattached is very important because any changes from pre surgery have a huge impact on how your foot works in a skate. I've had one heel done, I won't get the other heel done now that I have addressed my pronation and how my feet work in the skate.

Drymax socks, they are a bit dearer than your basic cheap sock but well worth the money. Dress sock feel, great moisture wicking, thin, very very durable. IW have them for sale.

Wouldn't be the same LHS that said you needed to be in a Nexus??? After 25 hours I don't know how much more give you would expect out of a low end boot, I think you need to be exploring other things. And I can understand your reluctance on customs, there is no guarantee atm that a custom would stop your foot pain if the cause is a muscular issue. As it's across all your boots, you might want to consider a pitch change to try and shift your balance a little further back towards the heel. And it seems a looser lace helps, try to go for a couple of laps with your laces untied, I won't deny it's hard but it would help to determine your balance over the blade, your weight distribution and remove any pressure across the forefoot. If you have pain during this skate I'd consider seeing a foot specialist to see if you have any weaknesses / impingement's in the forefoot / arch that are only evident when in skates and moving.

I have for all my life and never used to query it. Taped up my toes, covered bunions etc with gel patches, forsberg pads for lace bite, booties or bunga heel pads for heel bumps etc etc. But why, others I knew just pulled on skates and skated with no pain, why me? Simple answer is body alignment. It's how your foot / ankle / knee / hip aligns over the top of the skate blade. If this alignment isn't correct your foot will pronate / supinate as you skate causing the foot to rotate in the boot. Sore pinkies, sore big toes, sore areas both sides of the forefoot just behind the toes, heel bumps, sore inner ankles, etc etc. Anything sound familiar? There is only one fix I found, you have to learn to skate with your laces untied. Nothing else works for long term success. Once you learn to balance properly over the blade all the painful spots in your feet will disappear (you still have to punch for those lumps). Otherwise tape and pad up. And getting that heel bump removed is a major as they generally have to cut 1/2 your achillies off to get at it. I've had one done because I also had nerve damage over the top of the bump but since I learnt to skate lace free I won't get the other side done now.