CigarScott

I could be wrong but it looks like the 965 is listed on their website only for custom orders (custom team/league pucks, bulk orders, etc.) and Slovak ones are the ones sold to the general public. It wouldn't hurt to call or email them to see how you can get your hands on some of the Canadian-made pucks.

That went bye bye last July. I was able to get one of the last boot-only orders that they did. The people that I know that have their holder and steel do seem to love it once they get used to the height.

You should be fine. Non-gear nerds who don't have problems aren't spending their time on sites like this chatting about their ice skates...

Trues are now shipping with the wider, unwaxed laces. I tried them and really liked them. I got some longer Elite Pro-X7 laces and love them. Much more comfortable and easier to lace up than wax laces.

I do the same thing with using a shoe horn to take them on and off. I get some weird looks at first when I'm in a locker room with guys I don't normally play with then I tell them why and they get excited want to ask questions since the vast majority of players at my rink in Alabama have never seen a pair in person; I only know of one other guy at my rink that has a pair and they're the old school VH ones with yellow trim and the old logo. I got sick of having to use a silicone sleeve on my big toes for wearing a custom skate so I ended up cutting up some heel lock pads in mounting them in the toe box and on the foot bed where the insoles don't cover. I have the situation where my forefoot is so wide and in conjunction with my holders moved medially due to pronation, that there is nothing between my big toes and the first rivet or two in the front of each skate. This has greatly helped with comfort but it'd be nice to be able to get a bulk sheet of the insole material and be able to cut insoles to the exact size. Anyone have any idea where I can score the insole material to make my own?

They'll ship you some more no charge if you contact customer service.

It's a retail term, not specific to hockey equipment. Keystoning is when the markup from wholesale is 100% or doubling so if a product wholesales to the retailer for $100 then the retailer would charge $200. If that same item is keystoned by the manufacturer then their production costs would be $50 for said item. https://www.thebalancesmb.com/keystone-pricing-in-retail-2890192

You would obviously know more than the average beer leaguer when it comes to wholesale costs and being able to make an educated guess as to what it costs true to produce a pair of skates. In the case of my skates, I have no idea how True could have even broke even on my order. I would assume that you know what the exact wholesale costs are for their skates, but I’m sure True wouldn’t want that made public. I’m going to do some rudimentary math to see what their potential costs were for my order. In my case, I paid $839 US (plus tax) on my boot-only order. From my understanding from what I’ve gathered from people I’ve know who’ve worked at an LHS, most products are keystone so even if I round up and say that they wholesale for $450, I would assume that True would keystone to the retailer and their production costs is $225. Under this assumption, before shipping and what not, True would break even when they build a customer a second pair but when you factor in all the shipping costs for the old pair to be return, the new ones being sent and then sent back and returned, along with footbed requests, unless they’ve figured out how to make a pair skates for like $20, they’ve had to have taken a bath. Sent initial pair via FedEx Ground to retailer – Manitoba to Texas - $20 Pair returned to via FedEx International 2 day – Alabama to Manitoba - $50 Replacement pair sent FedEx Ground to retailer – Manitoba to Texas - $20 Additional footbeds sent via FedEx Ground – Manitoba to Alabama - $15 Replacement pair sent back to True for modifications via FedEx Int. 2 Day – Alabama to Manitoba - $50 Skates returned after their tweaking via FedEx Int. 2 day – Manitoba to Alabama - $50 So based on my conservative estimates, True spent over $200 on just shipping costs for my order. It may make sense for True to farm out some of their customer service functions for the US market to their parent company’s HQ in Memphis or somewhere else that they have facilities. It would save them tons of time and money by not having to paying international shipping and dealing with customs for things like customers requesting additional footbeds or replacement tongues, etc. It may make sense for them to freight their retail orders once a week or in some other scheduled interval to Memphis and then shipping them out of there since, depending on their volume, should save money by eliminating a lot of international shipping. But these decisions are for people that are way smarter than me. I fully understand that they’re getting commercial rates which are far better than if I went to FedEx and paid for the same service but if I was True’s accountant or their parent company’s accountant, I’d have a stroke every time I received the monthly bill from FedEx. I think a lot of the problems that True are having know is the growing pains of expanding from beyond specialty hockey shops with knowledgeable, experienced employees who’ve been fitting skates for years and into the “big box” hockey shops where the employee knowledge can be hit or miss. I think it is great that there is the demand and enough retailers who want to carry the product which makes it more available to the general public as a year ago, I would have had to have traveled to north of the Mason-Dixon Line to get fitted but now that they’re expanding beyond the West Side Skates of the world so they’re going to run into inexperienced fitters or less-than-ideal scanning environments. Another issue that I don’t think anyone has mentioned is that with the expanding availability of and I assume increase in order volume, that they’ve had to have hired additional people to build the skates and that their inexperience perhaps is also causing issues. I would assume that their long-time employees would be exclusively working on their NHL and other pro orders, so it wouldn’t surprise me one bit that the pairs that I’ve gotten from them along with others on here were made by newer, less-experienced employees. It seems like no one that hasn’t work for True really has any idea how incoming orders are reviewed, how QC checks are made, and so on so it’s anyone’s guess as to how many sets of eyes are reviewing scan info, notes, etc. and comparing them to the finished product. From what I’ve gathered on here and other hockey nerd forums is that they’re having issues with about one in twenty orders so if they keep their problem orders to less than 5% then they should be able to weather the baths that they have to take to make things right for me and the others with less-than-ideal results.

I had my feet measured in their blue Brannock when I got scanned andy first pair was too short. My second pair was better but still had issues with my big toes in both skates. It seems that True has a one toe cap fits all regardless of your footsize or shape which is why I'm intrigued by CCM offering multiple toe cap options, which I wasn't made aware of when I got scanned for CCM's.

I've already verified with Rob that you can heat the toe box with a heat gun and punch it out.

@strosedefence34 I've gone way further than that and do the tissue technique and crank it to 11 every time I bake my skates. I first take several paper towels and fold them down to stuff between my big toes so the big toes can't be pushed in away from the boot. Then I fold up several more paper towels and tape them from my bunions to the top of my big toes. In all, after the paper towels being compressed between my foot and boot, there has to be at least 3-4mm worth of materials. I've heard of guys at my rink cut up old cloth washcloths and towels to tape to their hot spots prior to baking instead of paper towels and toilet paper so perhaps I'll try that if I have to bake them yet again.

I haven't tried the butt of a screwdriver yet but that may be my next step if the LHS in Atlanta can't fix it when I go there next week. I've been wearing those silicone toe sleeves but am trying to not have to any longer. I figured that I shouldn't have to any long after dropping a grand on customs skates. The LHS notated in my scans those areas and after my first set of boots were way off, I sent pics of my feet directly to True after wearing the skates just during baking that how red and irritated those spots were. I sent back the first pair with tape on them to mark the spots so that they could see were they needed to give me more room in the second pair. When I shipped back this pair to have them adjust them, I marked the areas up again and my bunions seemed to have been adjust enough where I don't have to wear bunion sleeves anymore, I still need toe sleeves, especially on my right toe which is on my pronating foot. I'm going to the only "real" LHS that I'm aware of in the South next Thursday to see if they can do a better job punching the spots out better than I could. I tried punching with a borrowed boot punch and my Harbor Freight heat gun and would alleviate the pain in the area but it would push in another area and create a new hot spot so I finally gave up and shipped them back to True. I don't want to use a Dremel and I'm at this point just thinking out loud as it being a last resort. The toe box horizontally and vertically is tight as it is so there is no way to fit Powerfeet in them. My better half has a pair in her skates and loves them, though.

I shipped my skates back to Winnipeg for adjustments the Tuesday before Thanksgiving (US version) and True had them back to me the following Monday; awesome turnaround time. The bunion issue seems to have been fixed but I'm still having some discomfort (not nearly as bad as before) in the toe box of each skate in the corner of each big toe. To me, True wants there to be zero negative space in your skates so they seem to be overly cautious and conservative in treating volume issues. If you need an area expanded by 2mm, they seem to only want to expand it by 1mm, for example. The past few weeks, I would at times have pain in my arches. I did the insole technique but also added a red insole to give me more padding as I weigh a lot and need it. I cut out the arches on the bottom red insole in each skate, then put in a new red insole and then the blue one. That seems to have alleviated the pressure on my arches. I'm tempted to Dremel out some excess material around the big toe in each skate; anyone else ever done this? I saw that Blademaster actually sold a tool to do such a thing so perhaps my idea isn't so crazy?

Apparently these are the equivalents to the Drury curve with other brands: You can get them made by Base to whatever specs you want and I see a fair amount of Warrior W05 curves around. BASE SR Curves Lie Options Bauer Easton CCM SherWood TRUE Warrior BH23 4, 4.75, 5.5, 6(LH) P91A - Staal E6 - Drury P15 - Jones PP20 HCR W05 - Granlund

If you don't have one already, get yourself a shoe horn to help get the skates on and off. I picked up one for like $2 at IKEA that I keep in my bag.

As state before, True's customer service is outstanding, once you talk to the right people (i.e. Rob). After they made my second pair, which were way better than the first, especially with them move the holders inwards to correct my pronation but still I had some pain and discomfort around my bunions and big toes. I let Rob know and asked if all parts of the skate are safe to spot heat with a heat gun and punch out and he offered to provide a return shipping label to have them do it at the factory. I declined at the time due to not wanting to go without my skates for any extended period time as my league just started play so I went into Macgyver mode and started punching my skates out in the various areas by borrowing a boot punch from a buddy from the league. After fixing a spot and in turn making another spot worse and it became a never ending game of whack a mole, I finally cried uncle and and decided to take Rob up on his offer. I timed it over the US Thanksgiving holiday since there would be about two week window where I didn't have a game or training session. Long story short: they emailed my a return shipping label for international priority shipping. I think most people would assume that they would provide a ground return label and send them back via ground ship and I think most people would find that reasonable and acceptable which would take 5-6 business days each way from Alabama to Manitoba. I shipped them to them this past Tuesday, they arrived in Winnipeg the next day on Wednesday and on Thursday, they shipped them back out and they're now sitting at the terminal in Memphis; they are scheduled for delivery on Monday. That turnaround time is hard to beat. I'll let you all know how they turned out.

74 players according to Gear Geek. I wonder if this is only counter skaters and not goalies as it seems that the majority of goalies are now rocking Trues... https://www.geargeek.com/#equip_Skates

I have a set of custom True skates and yes I've had some difficulties with them but I had a long list of goofy issues with my feet and ankles to deal with that regardless of who made me a set of custom skates, probably wouldn't haven't gotten it 100% the first time. You have to consider that the people who have had problems with them are more likely to come to sites like this to look for remedies or just complain but the vast vast majority of people who have True/VH skates are ecstatic with them and don't belong to forums like this or do and never mention that they have a pair.

As Nicholas said, looks like he butchered his baking and cranked on the laces. I don't even think that is possible with the cheapest beginner skates that Bauer or CCM makes unless you cranked on the laces.

The beginning of training camp/season rush is over. They're probably twiddling their thumbs right now after that rush is now over.

I noticed the same thing in my right skate in my Bauers due to my pronation. I also really noticed it in my right shin pad. I tuck my tongue so my shins are over my skates and the pressure from the pronation was forcing my skate to dig into the interior padding on my shin pad; nothing some Gorilla Tape couldn't fix...

Have you looked at having your holders moved in? True moved the holders inwards on my second pair and that was a world of difference for my pronation.

Prior to taking up skating, I was a bad supinator (opposite of pronating) in my right foot so I had the local podiatrist make me some skate orthotics for supinating which hurt like hell wearing since it exacerbated the pronation. I offered to make molds of my feet using this kit (https://accu-cast.us/lifecasting-kits/foot-casting/) and ship them to Winnipeg but I was told that I couldn't do that. The point of this is that if they made skates based on regular molds and what info I provided that they may have moved the holders outward for my supination would would have been terrible for me. I have no idea how they decide how far to move the holders in. It looks to my untrained eye that they moved them in as far they could while there being room in the footbed for the rivets to bite properly.

I would shoot him an email (you can PM me for his address if you don't have it any longer). My second pair had its holders moved in medially (learned a new word today) which I doubt would have been done if I didn't email back and forth with Rob. It seems that the lingering theme is that people have their LHS employee enter notes into their scan file but True either ignores them or underestimates how much adjusting that they have to do to built the skate. If you watch this video, you can see some of the lasts that SVH has made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBUfeofOa90. I'm sure that they're refined the process since 2014 but I doubt that they're 3D printing like Bauer is and are still using these lasts as template then tweak things to represent a particular customer's foot.

I got 3D scanned for mine and my first pair was way too small and nothing being done for my pronation after expressing countless times that I had bad pronation along with really bad hot spots in my bunions and corner of my big toes. The second pair was bigger and the holders were moved inwards so the pronation issues were corrected but I still had issues with the hot spots. Rob offered to provide a shipping label to return the skates to have them worked on or punched out but I didn't want to be without them for two weeks or more when you factor in the shipping time to and from and whatever time it takes for them to getting around to fixing them. So I borrowed a boot punch from a friend at the rink and keep playing Macgyver on them to try to fix my hot spots. @smu - Did you contact Rob Thompson directly at True? I had to do that to cut through the red tape to get mine remade.