BenBreeg

How does that matter? If they are making the same product I am not sure how scope has anything to do with it. This isn’t some complex system where there are a million angles.

Is it just a heavy stick?

It isn’t. If the interface that locks the blade in is patented, Bauer has the right to control that. If a car part attaches via a standard interface, it is not controlled by the OEM. A business can use its IP however it wants, that’s the point. It can keep it for itself, license it, sell it, etc. Without IP you lessen the incentive for innovation in many cases.

Brand loyalty is pretty powerful. Brands themselves, regardless of the product or service portfolio, have dollar figures attached to them. Apple built their brand because they made superior products for many years and led the way in design innovation. They may not be on that level now but it takes a while for that to dissipate. So good on Bauer.

Might not be a material related to cf. new materials are being developed all the time. Just a matter of when it migrates from one industry to others.

I am the opposite. I think skates have gotten too gaudy. Love the basic black. We had silver and grey Vapors and Nike’s, they look dated.

The material may have been invented and not applied in this context. You could have stick blanks and then pattern templates like you have radius templates. Select template, insert blank, close machine and done.

For your own personal use as pointed out in their terms of service, I am sure posting it on message boards wasn’t what they had in mind.

That isn’t what he said.

You are publishing someone's content in violation of their business model....

When I was a kid the rinks were about 25-35 minutes away. Those were the two closest to me. Now with the post-Mario hockey boom there are a lot of rinks. One is 10 mins away but is old and the org is small so we don't do anything except camps there and four others are about 20 minutes away.

We have a work from home arrangement, nice to not have to use PTO when you are sick. Plus it does keep things from spreading. Of course with my wife working in a school and two kids in school that is cancelled out by all the plagues they bring home...

Mri’s are expensive and docs have been moving away from just ordering tests in every situation. If it persists go see an orthopod.

Good luck! We just got one three months ago. He whimpered in the crate the first night but after that nights have been good. Jumping and being mouthy, not so much....

I have been trying the Pearsox Ultralite and Thinees. The Thinees are soft like cotton but still synthetic. The do pill a bit but doesn’t affect performance The Pearsox are standard nylon like cheap dress socks. They can feel a little rough but seem to be softening a bit. Their sizing is out of whack though. I am 6’3” with an 11 1/2 foot. The adult size comes halfway up my thigh. I can wear the intermediate but the youth also fits fine. The mite is too big for my son, too much material in the foot for his size 2 1/2 foot so he wears the Thinees.

Oh, so pros can get an older style constructed boot made to look like a modern model?

Dumb question but what is a tech mesh skate?

STX Surgeon line is worth a look as well.

In that pic in caveman’s post his 70ks have 11.

Another point is that your skating biomechanics encompass your whole body. The alignment of everything from your head to your shoulders, hips and knees plays a huge part in how force is transmitted through the foot into the skate and then the blade to the ice. So the foot is kind of the last part of this chain. With a stiff skate, given perfect biomechanics up to that point allows efficient and controlled energy transfer to the ice, but it doesn’t fix flaws. The thing the no lace skating gives you in addition to the strengthening already discussed is feedback, magnified responses to adjustments you make as you do drills. Move your knee a little bit, change how you rotate your shoulders, etc. Here is a related article that references how Miro Heiskanen ties his skates. https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/stars/2019/08/20/finland-loose-laces-and-dull-blades-how-stars-defenseman-miro-heiskanen-developed-into-an-elite-skater/ Again, once you have all those components, a stiffer boot can ensure nothing is being lost because of the boot, but it is not the cure. Here is an Athletic article talking mainly about forward flex but also about potential energy leak from lateral sloppiness, although there aren’t any real citations for the work they did, maybe I will Google and see if those are publicly available. https://theathletic.com/696003/2018/12/07/the-nhls-best-young-skaters-all-have-something-in-common-how-they-tie-their-skates/

Certainly could be, I just thought it interesting that she brought it up almost 20 years ago.

Some interesting points, Laura Stamm has an article on her website way back in 2001 cautioning against the general skater getting in too stiff a boot. As for the pros using stiff skates, getting back to the car analogy- Once you are a great driver you can squeeze every bit of performance out of a 900 HP F1 car but if you or I got in it would be a hinderance to learn the skills of racing and driving. Better skaters like pros have good edge control and can leverage the modern boot.

Yeah, you are right, each has their own goals. But the OP did inquire about the ideal stiffness of skates which I would assume implies that the ideal stiffness would lead to better skating. So the response led to something along the lines of the dominant variable not being the skate but the path to quickest improvement would be concentrating on technique. Like you said, to each his own. I love breaking things down in anything I do and really getting into the details. Others may not.

I would say this about the analogy, nobody said crap skates, but the relative minutiae between one good enough pair of skates and another good enough pair of skates isn’t going to matter much to a beginner. i think the better analogy may be, given a basic vehicle that is good enough, the better driver is going to win the race.

From my perspective from someone who does this periodically, you are going to learn something that first lap out. You will get feedback on how you are placing you weight on each skate (good chance it isn’t perfectly equal). You will start to understand better how the different muscles of the foot contribute to controlling the skate and applying pressure within. If you have a specific issue, like turning one way or the other or a certain edge, it will make it worse but you will get magnified feedback on where things are going wrong.