GunnarStahl

Socks definitely helped push down the top shin tab. I made some fine tuning adjustments to the lengths of the girdle and everything felt fine during the first skate with all gear on.

I picked up a ST girdle last year but have yet to use it on the ice. While adjusting the girdle fit at home, I noticed that with my shins on, the tight fit of the thigh protection interferes with the top knee plastic and top knee foam pad. This is a dumb question but with a girdle, should I raise the thigh protection high enough to avoid the interference of the shin pad, or should I keep the thigh protection as loose as possible around my leg so it "floats" freely over my knee cap like a traditional pant would? I'm thinking a loose thigh guard defeats the purpose of a girdle. I am 5'-11", 32 waist, and the Medium girdle fits well, but if I were to raise the thigh guards above my shin guards I'd be at -1 on the little velcro indicators...not sure if this is common or not.

I went with the Shift holder.

After skating my whole life in skates that never fit properly and putting up with the pain, I decided to go with some Trues. I took them for a spin today at sticks and pucks, and all I can say is HOLY SMOKES. Without repeating too much what a bunch of others have said about their skates fitting like a glove, these babies are a gamechanger. A few impressions: I normally used 5/8" ROH and went with the recommendation to go one cut bigger to 3/4". So glad I went with 3/4" as the skates turned on a dime and I would have had crazy blade chatter on turns with 5/8". I put my foot in the skates with the top three eyelets open but couldn't thread the eyelet with the laces because the tongue/skate was so snug. Ended up keeping them fully laced and pulled the tongue out as far as it could to get my foot in. Probably worth getting a shoehorn. Minor arch pain at first but it went away after about 30 minutes. I am used to the neutral stance of CCM holders and was cautious with forward pitch of the True holders. The initial awkwardness on the ice only lasted 10 minutes tops and I eventually grew to appreciate the forward pitch especially skating backwards. The new lightweight tongue is more robust than the pictures look and really molds to your upper ankle. The wrap is super tight. The tongue edge dug into my ankle a little towards the end of skating but was nothing more than a minor annoyance. I can't imagine ever going back to retail skates.

I'd love to hear feedback on this as well. TRUE's online shop shows separate options for both a T-guard and metatarsal protection....does anyone know the difference between the two? The main TRUE website groups both under the same picture.