z1ggy

I see. Well out of all the gloves that are just off the shelf, I find the FT1 and Supreme to be most snug and have the smallest finger area. However, I'd rather have my gloves be just a touch too big than have my fingers poking through the gusset like what you've got. What size glove say for like a batting glove or winter glove would you take?? I'm a pretty firm Medium in my golf glove (and most gloves) and most 14'' fit me okay, just a touch on the large side as far as finger length goes, but 13'' is way too small.

Did you try going up a size in other gloves already? Were those all 14''?

I actually found my old Vapors in my garage haha. I'll try to remember to take a pic of them next to the FT1 for height comparison. I can even throw the Mako's in there, too.

Honestly Sparky its been so long I can't recall what the Vapor's fit like as far as the height of boot went in the ankle. At this point I'd probably be looking at the FT490 because CCM has that 90 day return policy, so you can always just buy them and if the fit isn't right for you, return them. Hopefully some other guys will chime in that have more skate knowledge than me to help you out, good luck.

I was in them and my next skate after that was Mako II, now FT1 and probably FT2 next. I went from 9D in Vapor to 8D in Mako II now 8.5D in FT1 (same for the FT2 I tried on). This is more than you asked for, but at 240lb you may "overpower" Mako boots long term because most pairs floating around are probably used. I weigh 190 but I'm a decent skater and the boots really broke down and softened up on me big time over just 4-5 years. The FT1 are stiffer feeling and I prefer that. If you can, look maybe into FT490's or used FT390. I find that new Vapor boots do not fit like the older ones... more narrow but a larger instep at the same time. Put my foot in a 9D 1X and took it right back out, much too tight. The EE was too wide.

Can this be worn under pants or will that be too bulky and is only meant to be used with a shell?

I didn't want to start a new thread but I was considering getting some Nexus pants but HM doesn't have them in my size anymore. Currently have Quiklite's which I assume are similar to Vapor pants. I've really never liked tapered fit anything other than some gloves, so I'm considering going back to more traditional fit pants. Are there any pants that offer any kind of protection in the red area? Took a clapper there on Saturday and my leg and purple bruise still aren't too thrilled.

Dunno, to me, U shape is like a flap, you peel it open and the entire inside is exposed. The straight open zipper I felt like I had to hold one side back to make the opening wide enough to my liking. Plus the straight zip bags they had didn't have external or internal pockets large enough for helmet or skates. Again, somewhat illogical but I just like having a large pocket for those 2 items specifically. I don't mind tossing tapes, pucks, etc into a large zip lock or other bag but I do like pockets for containing that stuff, too. One giant hole to just cram all my items into isn't for me.

Just tried FT2's on yesterday. I can agree with NickG, the padding is thicker, the boot feels a little stiffer and it is more comfortable. The heel pocket isn't wider it just felt more round down where the base of the heel is vs FT1 is maybe a bit more 'sharp' angled going to that area, and then like he says... it sort of gets "thicker" feeling around the Achilles and actual ankle area. More of a snug fit going upwards. Right away they are more comfortable than FT1. FT1 killed my feet before a baking, and these did not. I wonder if they made the boot like... 1-2mm wider or something because it was somewhat noticeable. Overall though if you blind tested me I'd be pretty hard pressed to tell a difference between the two. And as far as taking shots off them, I've gotten hit a few times and it's been very tolerable. Much better.... MUUUUCH better than my Mako's. I think FT2's will be a worthy upgrade and I plan to get them, probably in the fall (I usually take the summer off to let body rest a bit). Still considering True's though. I do miss that "glove" like Mako feel around the toe box and forefoot area.

So I ended up in hockey monkey yesterday and picked up the Warrior Q20 bag. It felt pretty light weight, had the U shaped opening and side pockets for helmet/skate. I did see the pro stock bags but even though I do think they have better materials, they just don't really appeal to me as much. If this thing starts to tear up after only a year or two then I may consider something like Mammoth, C&B, etc. I'm probably very spoiled that my iTech literally lasted me 15 years.

For me it's like 99% water/ice on my feet, 1% germs. It's a locker room; the second you walk inside like 9 billion germs slap you in the face.

One poster on reddit yesterday commented to me that FT2 didn't feel much wider but rather "deeper" feeling in the rear. Would you say maybe it's more rounded in the actual heel down low, as in they changed the physical shape of the pocket? If I found the heel a little too big, would 3D fit solve that? I seem to have a really narrow heel and E forefoot like you and find that Vapors in D are way too narrow but EE is too wide. AS1's in D fit my forefoot well but are sloppy everywhere else. The FT1 in D fits me pretty darn well but is just a little tight in the forefoot area but with playing and baking has eased up a little bit. Never tried EE but I'm guessing the same general thing would happen where I'd get some little bit of a sloppy fit in the middle foot and volume would be a little much. Overall, sounds like a worthwhile upgrade though if it fits right.

I believe it is, yes. Boy I am conflicted! So many good stories and anecdote here (as usual), I'm torn. I really wish I could "try one out" for a month or something like CCM lets you do with their 90 day guarantee. I have no idea how much my current bag cost all those years ago, so I have nothing to judge value on. All I know is that it's an 'iTech' brand bag and I'm pretty sure it's canvas, but the inside has this weird liner that's now totally coming apart. Zippers are also getting jacked but I really like how it opens on top. Here is the same bag as I have, just in red/blue

That looks ssssuuuuppperr nice. I am interested. Ha, looks like I already sub to Tron's email list. Probably all gets filtered into spam.

The mesh vents... yeah not the absolute end of the world. I only drive like 20 minutes home from the rink and I immediately take all my gear out and set it on a table in my garage to dry. For $25 it could be worth a try, but there's no other pics and no real descriptions. To me, it looks like it just zips across lengthwise, which like the Dolomite, is kind of a bummer. My current bag actually has two zippers that run length wise near the edges, so it basically opens up like a giant flap, total access and visibility to the inside. I get a lot of pro bags just have that one horizontal zipper, but I'm starting to think I want more of that U shape zipper like the Mac Daddy bag here.

The description on the Easton Pro says "internal pockets" but yeah likely not large skate pockets, which I agree are nice. Probably just small ones for tape, toiletry, etc.

Thanks very much for this find. Hoping maybe another retailer has black or blue... HM only has silver, not preferred...haha. Reminds me of aluminum foil or something.

Good point on the mat, I'm going to probably buy one ASAP for the mean time. So all in all, what is the difference from something like this Warrior Dolomite bag for $55 and a Warrior Pro Bag? The details for the specs seem identical, and other than obvious external differences, I can't really tell much else apart. The Pro bag is like 100'' more volume but why is the cost essentially double?

This is what I worry about with any mesh, in general. I get it breathes, but it's just so easy to cut. Skate blades, scissors... really anything will cut it up eventually. And yeah the C&B for $150 was looking pretty crazy but $200+ for PR or Mammoth seems outright madness, unless the thing will last me the rest of my hockey career and then also my kid's (until high school gives them a bag or something). Personally I don't care about compartments for gear like shins/gloves and so on, although the foot rest on the C&B bag is a good idea. How many times I've taken my shoes off after the last group left and instantly dunked my feet onto left over snow or wetness from the last guy's skates is too many to count. I also don't like the idea of just a giant one hole. I want at least a side spot for skates, and 1 other zipped area for tape, wax, laces, etc.

Do you find the more pricey bags such as Conway and Banks which provide a lot of features such as a foot mat, mesh ports for air flow, dividers in the bag for partitioning gear, etc to be worth it? My current bag is pretty much falling apart now after 15 years of use and I'm looking to upgrade. I see a lot of decent looking bags out there for $50-$60 and wonder if the expensive bags are worth it. Other than skates & gloves, I tend to keep anything until it literally falls apart, so I'm much more concerned about durability, practicality and features such as small pockets to put tape in and so on, rather than price. I'm 100% willing to pay double or triple the price for something that lasts me many years and is quality, as opposed to cheaply made garbage I'll be replacing in 3-4 years. Let's hear your experiences below.

Gosh 1 foot backwards laced down sounds brutal, but I'll work on it. Watched a few videos on youtube of guys going basically laceless and they were extremely good skaters and they even looked pretty challenged. Hopefully this is what really propels me forward in advancing my skills, thanks.

I'm not sure how bad it is in terms of degrees or whatever but the left is definitely worse than the right. Could be ankle, could be knee.. could be hip. I'm working on a glute and hip strengthening program too to help at least try to also correct any issues that way. As far as me...Been skating for like 15 years now so I'm not really a beginner but obviously going just 2 eyelets down made me feel like I was in learn-to-skate, so I have a lot of progress to make. Schedule right now is 2 skates per week, 1 game and 1 practice. Game time I can probably lace down for 5 minutes during warm up, then during my practice I could go as long as 2 hours, just depends on the day.

Yeah I could not believe how hard going 2 down was! Felt like a little baby fawn, couldn't imagine trying to do hockey stops or going backwards... just skating forward was an interesting adventure. I think this will really help not only improve balance but strengthen my ankles and feet quite a bit, hopefully correcting a bit of this pronation. Typically, how fast did you see improvement from your students?

Thanks so much for the help and insight. When dropping eyelets gradually, do you actually remove the lace out of the eyelet or just leave it extremely loose. I can drop 2 eyelets no issues by pulling the lace out and just tying up as normal, but I think once I hit 3 or 4 undone, the left over lace will get pretty annoying. I actually did do 2 not tied/extremely loose prior to my game on Sunday and wowww like you said, it pointed out so many flaws right away. It was so tough and so weird feeling, I could only last about 1 minute before I went and laced up as normal on the bench.

Oh gosh, pistol squats... my bane. I think that's probably the end goal, is doing them totally unassisted, but right now I can't. Mainly a weakness issue but probably balance, too. I have to hold on to something to help and I also can't go to the femur parallel point yet. When you did these to just start with... did you just do a simple loosening of the laces or did you go full out totally unlaced? This is probably something I can do during the first few minutes of stick time on the weekends before we randomly end up breaking out into a game. Right now it's only my left foot that pronates too much, I suspect there's just a lot of weakness in that anatomy from old injury and somewhat relatively flat feet.