CigarScott

I inquired about about getting custom Bauer skates back in February I would say with my lone LHS and the manager said that the Bauer rep would visit from Florida sometime in June or July. She took down my contact info to let me know when he'd be in town and never heard anything after that. My lone LHS has zero people working in it with any kind of a hockey background; two full-time employees that also coach figure skating, a couple figure skating moms working part time and some high school & college age figure skaters so anyone would be foolish to trust them with a custom skate fitting. I'm a new hockey player and they regularly ask me for advice on hockey equipment and how to properly bake hockey skates which isn't good. 🙂

To spare you all a long story, I was gifted one of these twigs today. Does anyone have any knowledge of it, was it for beginners, pros, year(s) it was made, etc? Is it worth hanging on as a collectible or should I just find a beginner who needs gear and give it to them? https://imgur.com/a/urwHayO

I should rephrase what I said: get into the easily-accessible for the general public custom skate game... 🙂

I read that article in the Atlantic last week and it was interesting. I always knew that there were access issues to hockey in the US due to the scarcity of ice rinks versus fields and basketball courts, especially outside traditional hockey areas. I never really thought about kids having to drive hours to play soccer as every town in America has a field of some sort that can accommodate soccer. Then again, it goes back to the adult issue of the scarcity of knowledgeable adults that can coach soccer (and referee) in this country outside major cities or regions were soccer is more prominent and ingrained in the culture.

I would hope that Bauer and CCM didn't have any of those said issues. 🙂 I think most people have given True a pass due to how much of their processes are still manual and aren't using as much pre-made pieces. Also, up until a few years ago, they were being made in Scott's basement so I don't they're held to the same standard. It seems that a lot of those QC issues have been cleaned up ever since True bought VH but I guess I'll find out for sure in the next week or two. If not, with Bauer and CCM getting into the custom skate game, they'll have to clean up their quality issues to compete on top of Bauer and CCM having more retailers equipped to do custom scans than True; True will have to make it so that half of this country doesn't have to get on a plane to get fitted for them...

Must be nice. 🙂 I was surprised that Bauer and CCM would cost more than True as they're much bigger companies that can take advantage of their buying power and economies scale better than True.

When I grew up in the 90's, baseball was like hockey where if you weren't on a travel team or playing for your high school team, your Little League journey ends at about 14. I played recreational indoor soccer in high school and soccer seems to have a lot more opportunities for recreational play past 12-14 than hockey and baseball. Rocket/Pop Warner football I think ends in your area once you get old enough to play middle school or high school football. So I don't think hockey is all that unique where if you're not on a travel team or school team, that you're SOL once you hit 12-14 years old. Speaking of travel teams, I find some of lengths people go to for their kids to play travel hockey to be insane. Living here in Birmingham, we're fortunate to be one of two metro areas in the state with publicly-accessible hockey-size sheets of ice; people in other parts of the state or in neighboring states aren't so fortunate. They have posted at my local rink the rosters of the U12, U14, etc. travel teams and there are kids playing on these teams that are from the Florida panhandle and Mississippi Gulf Coast which are 4+ hour drives in each direction. I have no idea how they practice or how they make it work, whether they're homeschooled and they stay in Birmingham with a parent for part of the week, they stay with a host family and go to school here, or they commute several times a week. According to the following site, there have only been two NHL players that have come from Alabama post-WWII, both of which are from Huntsville, which is the hockey capital of the South. I love hockey and lacrosse but I could never justify spending that kind of time and money for my kids to play them if we had to go to another state especially when there is zero history of kids coming out of these teams making it to the NHL and can probably count every kid on one hand that actually got a hockey scholarship. https://www.quanthockey.com/nhl/us-state/nhl-players-born-in-alabama-career-stats.html

Pure Hockey has just advertised the prices for custom skates from all three manufacturers: https://www.purehockey.com/support/customskates/pg_id/60153?contact_eid=63e3fa0e-0f9f-4ef2-a4dc-f80c51da9ad4&utm_source=bm23&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Better+Fit.+Better+Performance.&utm_content=Better+Fit.+Better+Performance.&utm_campaign=PH+-+Product+Launch+-+CCM+Custom+Skates+-+7/25&_bta_tid=02948280735476430312850232155120121274176283516034060117768464330230588970487075630021033433740863786759

I've never been involved with youth hockey growing up or now but I used to coach and referee youth lacrosse in Michigan, which at the time outside of the Detroit area, was far from a traditional lacrosse area. The parents were just like how you described hockey parents in Vegas except the vast majority didn't even know what lacrosse was or even seen a game until their kid came home one day and asked to join their team. Most parents were decent but the vocal minority were awful and pissed about you making calls that 99 out of 100 refs would have made on their kid. This starts to segway into another topic of people leaving coaching and refereeing which has become a major problem, depending on the sport and area you are in. I think this pressure and naivety amongst parents hoping that their kid becomes the next big thing and secure a college scholarship has taken a lot of the fun out of youth sports not only for the kids but also the adults who coach and referee.

I don't know if this link will open for you all but this is the Bauer 3D scan that I got. It recognizes how wide my feet are and it underestimates the length of my feet. It wants me to go into a Vapor eventhough I had to have my 12EE Nexus skates widened as they were too narrow. I was measured in a Bauer Brannock device at was right at size 12 in my left foot. My right foot is smaller but there's no way in hell it's a 9 3/8 skate size as their scanner measures; it may be an 11. I got this and other funky results from the CCM scan which is why I went with True as their process seemed more thorough and included photos in a brannock and photos with hotspots notated. https://my.volumental.com/en/bauer/9f2011d6-46b3-4751-8f7b-5d1e86237a73/?utm_medium=myvemail

Based on Coach Jeremy's video, the True skates have some orthotic functions built it, at least the bed is built around your arch. I hope this is the case as I just ordered a pair and have to wear orthotics in my shoes. I'm hoping that I don't have to send the right boot back if it makes my pronation/subination issues worse. *fingers crossed*

Either contact Montreal Hockey in Connecticut or email Tackla in Finland.

For those wondering if you have really tiny or large feet and being stuck with Step holders that are too big or small, here is the response that I got from True: The size for our TRUE holders are from size 238 to 306. If a customer requires a holder larger or smaller then our range, we will mount Edge holders.

I got my boot-only order submitted just in the nick of time. I will let you all know how they are once I get my hands on them.

Yeah, I think that was one of the big attractions to True for a lot of people was this feature. Now if you're compelled to spend the full price on these and get holders and runners that you don't want then I think more people will just spring for the Bauer or CCM customs as they're better known brands and have a far bigger dealer network. We'll see if True regrets caving to Step and not looking at replacing them with Tydan or another third party blade maker... I wonder since Bauer makes inline skates that they'll be offering custom skates with wheels on them?

I tried those but I couldn't get the straps around my fat arms.

I just talked to my contact at Pure Hockey and he said that he was told that Step pressured True to stop accepting "boot only" orders and threatened to stop supplying True if they didn't.

I updated the original post with my findings after trying one of these. A size 60 is way too small, even to wear as street wear. a size 60 jersey is about a 2XL which won't cut it for me. 😞

I just called the Pure Hockey that I got scanned at in Texas and they confirmed it for me. 😞 Now I have to order them a week before I was ready to.

Texas Stars are doing theirs this Saturday in the Austin area.

Did you see this stick? Left handed, correct curve, and flex... https://www.hockeystickman.com/products/warrior-alpha-qx-refurbished?variant=3507720355880

Those aren't for LS Edge holders; those are for the old-school Lightspeed holders. You can find those in most LHS in this country. There are several of our northern neighbors who are LHS owners who don't care about Bauer and Step's quarrel and will gladly ship you a pair, which is how I got mine.

I haven't as it's usually the other way around. It's not uncommon to see CCM skates with LS Edge holders on them, particularly in the NHL. I would be curious how they would fit on Bauer skates with how the rivet holes line up and if you need to put a shim in between them due to how high of an arch the Nexus skates have.

Oh no, neither shop in state has the equipment and I sure as hell wouldn't trust the folks at my LHS to do it correctly. I got the Bauer and CCM done in Atlanta and True done in Dallas.