Kgbeast

Got a line from Swiss. Looks like they are restarting the distribution through Vaugh Hockey in USA and in Canada. As of now, no mention of Graf on Vaughns website, but they say it is possible to contact and inquire about Graf gear from Vaughn already. It does not look like there are any plans of resuming PeakSpeed line, but who knows. It should be possible however to order anything that Graf Switzerland is currently producing. Who knows, maybe a few months from now, you will be able to get Vaughn players skates with "designed by Graf" on them... We shall see. Just as a disclaimer, I have not contacted Vaughn to verify any if this. If you know more, please reply.

When I read play-dough blurb in here before, I was wondering if that is an exaggeration... I guess it is. As for pencil test, Mako are shallow fit (similar to jetspeed skates) based on Hockey Giant fit table, but I think you are right about hard tongue, it should be a problem. How narrow are they and they are, did baking addressed that?

Lol... of course store bought skates will be ill fitting, after all they are made for sausage party characters, not people. Right?

Toebox is most likely a premanufactured part and would have a generic fit. My toe is 5mm longer than what you show which makes me get 1/2 size larger boot and it looks even more out of fit. Your looks pretty perfect.

Did you try some really basic insoles that have no arch support? Or perhaps no insoles at all? If not, try no insoles and see. If it works, get some basic insoles. You can get "Graf Anatomical Footbed". I think Monkey has them for $9. These are great as they cover the rivets really well and support the heel nicely. As far as the basic insoles go, these are probably the smartest design... sometime less is more.

Looking at the spec, these are pretty nice. 7700 are probably the lightest hockey skates on the market with 780g including the steel. Also the runner is profiled 10' instead of usual 11'+. Moldable footbed is kind of a must on this level and it is nice that they have it all the way down to pretty inexpensive 2200 model, Asymmetrical tong , lined toe box are classy touches as well. One thing I always admired about Graf is that even the lowest end skates and youth skates still have the same attention to comfort and features. This is no different - even the bottom skates still have lined toebox and are heat moldable. Pretty adorable touch on youth size as PK7700 comes with Cobra 5000 holder and replaceable runners... that's a 10Y size... My 5-years old daughter wears 12Y. This is a bit overboard for someone who will grow out of the skates before 3rd sharpening :). The product has so much soul in it, it should be able to make babies! I truly hope that Graf can get back on their feet.

Not sure about that. I did not see any PeakSpeed skates at TH... Monkey has models from top of the line at nearing $800 per pair to low level at $99. They also have 30% off online coupon. They have those in pretty much all sizes as well and under regular, money back return policy. It looks like a new stock to me... but who knows

Graf PeakSpeed is now at hockeymonkey.com

That sucks... You need something that pushes their feet up in the arches to counter pronation. Carbon insoles are not intended to do that. Greens are the highest arch profile from Superfeet. I think the sales rep was pointing you in the right direction. Obviously, it also would be good to go see a podiatrist doc so he can get you some pointers on what should be done. Other high arch insoles are available from Spenco and few others. Usually, they all cost in $45-$50 range.

Do the 10-13 years old need any special insoles unless they have feet problems?

The hockey blades are between 0.11 and 0.125, with goalie blades are between 0.13 and 0.16. The difference are across the brands as well as within brand sometimes (like youth vs senior, or low end vs high end)

Is it possible that you just loose your edge? Both BFD and FBV create a pretty skinny edge that can roll-over of split-off. I would think that the quality of the steel, hardness of the ice, and weight of the player can result in ROH being a better option. Although if you flop with 9/16 ROH, you'll do the same with 1/2"... perhaps when you hone the sides, you also take the edge off a little. Who knows, there could be more than just ring problem.

Yep, they supposed to resume their distribution in USA and Canada next week... unless they have changed their mind. Either way, it will be news. In the mean time HockeyMonkey basically giving their remaining skates away.

3d "scanning" is going to be more available pretty soon. There are many systems already that use projection of geometrical shapes (lines and circles mostly) and taking a digital photo of that. I have played with HP Sprout with the 3d scanning option and I was pretty impressed. It is not there yet for a pocket device, but I won't be shocked to see next generation of phones capable of 3d modeling based on the same principle. It might bypass the retail and go straight to the end user.

They actually increasing the runners not the holders. The effect is the same as increasing the holder, your skates will be able to lean more during maneuvering before bottoming out. Of course, practicality of it, is debatable...

I think Bloomberg report is correct, but lets call "agree to disagree" on this so we can move on. Thanks.

... what you saying is based upon a quick glance at one of the documents available in public record. If you look again, you will see that the largest creditor, secured creditor, and the party that initiated the suit, is Bank of Montreal. Also if you look at court service list, you will immediately see that Graf Canada LTD is a subsidiary of Graf Skates AG. I am also not sure why it is so upsetting to you that Graf Canada was a subsidiary. The still were independently operated and in every respect, were a company with their own vision and potential. Graf Canada was instrumental in design of MCI line, they also came up with and began to market their own line - PeakSpeed.

http://www.bloomberg.com/Research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapid=1680286 ... As for the second part of your comment, email is from Graf AG and the guy says "we...", but then again he would have said that if Graf Canada was their subsidiary.

I am pretty sure G75 players are still on the menu. G75 goalies are also... Talking about goalie skates, is not Graf is who came up with skates shells for the goalie skates among few other goalie skates specific improvements. I am glad that they might be coming back to NA. Perhaps, the quality is better this way too.

Well, they always been in Europe (it is an European company that had a subsidiary in Canada). I thought they just pulled out of the NA market in lieu of ridiculous competition and failure of the Graf-Canada, but it looks like they are ok and still working on their product lines and want to comeback to NA market... Graf AG (the name of the European company) is still one of the top Hockey and Figure Skating manufacturers in Europe. So it is likely that Graf will continue on in USA and Canada, but perhaps not as a manufacturing company, but as an Importer. The "NA and Canada" thing was instigated by me, guy just used the same terminology when he replied to me. I wrote USA and Canada at first, then changed USA to NA... call me stupid.

one more copy/paste from another email from Charles Graf ...not for the Seven-XX holders.

Pretty sweet... I have watched some youtube clips and these moves are works of art. Especially when Datchuk makes a defensman fall on his ass and slide out of the game...

RFID in the stone is a pretty good idea. RFIDs are generally have no memory in the to write in, but they have enough memory to store the searial number of the tag (the ID number itself). This ID number is programmable via the RFID reader that reads the tag. Since we do not care about the ID number, the ID number can be the number of passes that the wheel made. You would write the new number at the end of the sharpening cycle and read it in the beginning of the cycle. There could be a finite number of time you can write the tag, but it should be enough to write it 40 times (or whatever the limit of sharpening per wheel is). How desirable this is is to be determined. Obviously, chip itself will cost a couple of dollars. But you'd have to put it in the wheel without offsetting its balance. I would expect the cost of the wheel go up $10 at least. Then, you need to add the reader and re-write the machines software to do all this, plust you might need to add a little bit more hardware for communicating with the reader which machine does not have already. If all that adds another $200 to the cost of machine I would not be surprised. That said, if the feature is a must (for example if you switch wheels all the time and move them from one machine to the next, it could worth the effort and additional expense.

Here is a copy/paste from an email from Graf this morning