DRR

Yeah, until one shows up at your front door from sideline swap.

HM has those SMU skates in most sizes. They're $150, which isn't bad considering the holders alone would run you $70-80. You get crappy steel and boots for free! Just curious, what size holders do you need?

I'm starting to hoard replacement visors also. Thankfully Bauer still makes the HDO Deluxe Visor, which takes the same replacement lenses.

Mine is a standard and there's no "S". I have a couple because I hoard them. Best hybrid mask ever. Let me know if you want it measured or anything.

The Vapor line has changed, it's a little wider and a little bit roomier in the toe box compared to the Canstar days. I was a Bauer Vapor 8D when it was Canstar (Vapor 8, 10 circa 98-2000), I dropped a full half size in the modern (2015) Vapors. For what it's worth...my guess is Bauer changed their boot lasts when they introduced Nexus but someone else may know better.

Also I'll just say that I'd be very careful about offering retail equipment. You can't touch the online guys in options, selections, colors, or brands offered. Really, your only advantage is convenience. These days if a kid wants new elbow pads and he orders them and they don't fit right, he'll just order another pair and return the old ones. Or, put a lightly used pair on sideline swap or whatever, until he has exactly what he wants. You can't compete with that. If you were to stock equipment, I'd focus on one brand, stock a few sizes in good mid-level stuff, and keep your inventory as low as is manageable. That probably also means not selling skates, because there's just too many sizes and skate lines to realistically carry stock for.

Good advice in this thread, I'd say one way to look at it comprehensively, is that you have to view your business as a number of separate, distinct businesses. That is, you're not running a pro shop, you're running a number of different businesses with separate costs and income streams. You're now the CEO of a company that has a skate sharpen and repair division, a team sales division, a consumables/accessories (wax, tape, laces, etc) division, an apparel division. Maybe down the road you add a retail equipment division, or a embroidery division or a figure skating division. But for now in order to have a successful business you need to focus on what you can accomplish well. If you need to expand one "division" because it's doing great, then wonderful - but also, if you need to shut down a "division" because it doesn't generate enough revenue, then the decision should be easier if you start out with this mindset that they are all separate. Often, people start businesses and they offer X, Y, and Z, and conflate them all, and when Y does poorly it drags down X and Z until the whole business goes under. Whereas the right decision would be to chop off Y and give X and Z room to grow. Good luck!

I agree, but just because it's niche doesn't mean it can't be successful. You could say the same about third-party steel, 99% of the skates out there have stock steel, but that doesn't mean Step, BlackEdge, Tydan, etc. can't carve out a market for themselves. A company that specializes in one thing and can get even a small portion of a large market, will do very well for themselves. I don't know how well it'll work but I wish them the best.

Those are incredible. Thanks for sharing.

Wait, you not only still use Lange skates, but you're hoarding them as well? For the good of the community you must share pictures of your setup.

I don't see how it can be optimized for more speed AND maneuverability (smaller turning radius). If you have more blade on the ice, your stride is optimized for glide at the expense of tighter turns. If you have a smaller radius and less contact surface with the ice, you optimize for tighter turns at the expense of speed. I am fully open to the possibility but doesn't this fly in the face of conventional wisdom, that you can be faster AND have tighter turns?

Clearly you haven't been here long. This is exactly the kind of subject that these gear nerds eat up.

Any protective foam will degrade over time, even in ideal conditions. If the conditions are less than ideal (too hot, too cold, too humid, too dry etc) then they'll break down faster. Another thing to inspect closely is any adhesives used - for example, glue used to attach the foam to the inside of the mask. If it passes visual inspection and you put it on and it feels fine, then you're probably good to go. But newer foam will perform better because it's fresher, and technology has gotten better.

Do you subconsciously curl your toes inside the skate when you skate? I ask because what you describe sounds more to me like a muscle/tendon issue than a volume issue. Not sure what the fix for that may be, possibly powerfoot inserts? I think you have a few options to try to diagnose the problem before you resort to punching.

I never disagreed the VT study is flawed. I'm saying they should have sent a simple email to respond to a customer.