D1VE

LHS scans never transmitted to True. First True issues: skates arrived over half a size too long, causing zero heel lock, sent back to be remade. Second True issues: skates arrived remade, but with incorrect size holders and poor finish on leather wrappings and interior padding. Sent back again. Third time back: couldn't be happier. 🙂 Nice tight fit throughout the boot, pro fit liner, all aesthetics fixed, correct holder size.

Hey everyone! My apologies for not updating sooner, but I'm happy to let you know my True skates adventure has finally come to a close! After sending in photos of a plethora of issues to go along with the wrong size holders, they immediately sent me a prepaid label to send them back. It was the first time I've ever dealt with basically overnight international shipping, but holy cow they weren't messing around! They asked me to document everything I saw wrong and wanted fixed and they'd have none other than the mythical Rob sign off on them before they were allowed to be headed back out the door. Needless to say, they killed it. Every. Single. Nitpicky. Thing. These things look great, and fit even better. They now have the tan clarino pro liner that feels incredible, the ankle is nice and tight and my heel is basically vacuumed in place. Nothing extra taped in the toebox, as there's literally no room for it. They then basically sent them back on the same rocket ship they went to Winnipeg on. I actually missed the first delivery attempt because it was less than 20 hours after I received shipment notification. Here's my final assessment: Do they have room to grow? You bet. Are there flaws? Of course, it's a handmade skate. Was I probably a giant pain in their ass? Absolutely. But for a grand, I think you get the right to be a little. Would I do it all over again? WITHOUT HESITATION. The area manager of Pure Hockey offered to let me walk away from True and move to CCM or Bauer customs, but it honestly never even entered my mind. Never would I imagine CCM or Bauer would pay attention to this level of detail to make the consumer happy. Regardless of how big of a pain I was, they were always courteous, understanding, and most importantly, willing to make absolutely everything right for me. That can't have a price placed on it. The skates are an absolute pleasure to be on as well. I won't say they make you a better skater, but they certainly make it so much easier to focus on technique and less on what your foot is doing as it rattles around inside a boot. Oh yeah, they also threw in another pair of holders and steel for all the trouble, just in case down the road I need them. The new boxes are much sturdier too! And there it is. The adventure comes to a close, and I couldn't be happier...not could my weird wide-forefoot-with-super-narrow-heeled feet.

280's as opposed to 272's (I'm not sure if they could go smaller or not, but my skates feel just slightly smaller than a 8.5 now) The main issues really are that A. I specifically requested a smaller holder and they didn't do it and B. the 280 holder is so oversized for this particular boot size that it overhangs, and generally just feels weird. (Creakiness when you're walking and feeling it through the boot in a deep turn is pretty unnerving) At last on these boots, it overhangs enough in the front that I had to actively remind myself to pick my feet up higher or I'd drag the toe. Not really ideal for me. Not to mention, they don't sit flush whatsoever where they mate to the boot, including the heel cup. There's giant amounts of visible space all around the holders, which really sucks. I'm just worried I'm going to end up with a brand new boot that has a bunch of extra holes punched in the bottom because they didn't do what they said they would, if that makes sense? Handmade or not, there's no reason these should be modded to be made to work how they should have arrived from the get-go. I have every faith they'll make it right, just a bit of a frustrating experience. I've heard the name Rob referred to a lot on this thread (whom I have not dealt with) can someone DM me with his info? I'd love to give him a call and get his thoughts.

Hey all! Quick update from my saga of getting my Trues. I received my second pair after providing them with what I felt was probably an overkill amount of feedback and here's what happened: The boots came in and they felt incredible. They hit every part I asked them to, shorter boots, super close fit, nice and squeezed ankle/heel pocket. Unfortunately, that was where everything else went downhill. Since I was going down a relatively significant amount of boot sizing, I imagined my holder size would change too by getting smaller (which I actually preferred) and confirmed with True several times this change would occur. Sure enough, pulled my skates out of the bag, same size holder as the bigger skates, which was hanging out on the front AND back of the boot. It was obvious enough that the manager at PH was like "why the hell did they do that? Didn't you ask to go down in size?" Not only that, the leather wrap where the back meets with the tendon guard has bunched up on either side, which looks good awful. Just some really unclean lines, honestly. True said they would ship out the right size holder and blades for PH to mount, but my concern is since it's a different size, will I end up with a bunch of extra holes drilled into my brand new skates that shouldn't have been there in the first place? Their guy essentially said who did the final assembly screwed up and put the wrong ones on, but this compounded with the leather being bunched up in places just really feels like they slapped these together and sent them out, as much as it pains me to say. I skated on them last night, and while the boots feel amazing, the holder length is just ridiculous in comparison, especially when I was assured several times this wouldn't happen. The holders literally creaked as I walked from the dressing room to the ice. Do you think I'm being nitpicky about being upset about this? Should I push for them to make them one more time? I really want to love the skates, but this has been a real challenge to deal with as time continues on. That being said, I'd also like to throw out there that from what I understand this is an extremely rare case for this to happen, a perfect storm, if you will. For all you people waiting to pounce on True for this: yes, they've got some issues, but if you asked if I would do this dance all over again with them, the answer is a resounding ABSOLUTELY, without hesitation. Once this is sorted, I know I'll have skates that will feel incomparable to any retail boot on the market. Eventually. I'll update as the saga comes to a close.

Finally made it into Pure Hockey to double-check against True's own brannock, as per instructed directly from True. Lo and behold.....their brannock says 8.5 or just under. They made the skate from a 9 and stuffed the toe box. Moral of the story: listen to the smart folks on this forum and don't depend solely on the scan! The more info they have to work with, the better off you'll be. Funny little side note: the reps at the store didn't even know they had a brannock specifically from True, I had to insist they look for it for me. The amount of misinformation / general lack of knowledge through this process has been nothing short of astounding for a big box store. Wonder how aware True is that they're paying the price because people aren't properly trained from the get-go? Something to ponder.

We haven't gotten to that point yet, I would imagine eventually I'll need to, but with the holiday coming up and all... And it wasn't a "pro liner" persay, it was a "pro fit". I believe someone wrote about it a bit back who (if memory serves) was actually fitted directly at True. As explained to me, the difference between "pro fit" and the standard "retail fit" is that pro is meant to remove all negative space right from the get-go and and generally be a much tighter fit to your foot. Retail takes into consideration that it may not be everyone's cup of tea to have a second skin-esque skate, or might use thicker socks, looser tightening of laces, etc. I opted for the standard black clarino liner over the moisture wicking, as they said the clarino is much more durable. Not sure if they even offer the tan clarino anymore, truth be told! Overall, I know they want to address my heel lock at the factory as well as the extra length. However, I felt like they nailed down my forefoot pretty well. (I have stupidly wide forefeet with pretty narrow ankles) As a matter of fact, when we unboxed and the Pure hockey guys saw the build out of the forefoot on my boots, their response was "holy crap". A day in the life of having Hobbit feet, I guess...

Update: Just spoke with Korey from True (super nice and knowledgeable guy!) who confirmed they'll remake the skates for me, as I did everything they asked me to try first to no avail. I inquired into the "pro fit" question, which he said is absolutely a thing available, just by request. (So you have to know about it) He said it's typically something you're asked about at your intial scanning and order submission, and he sounded genuinely shocked when I said nothing even remotely close was asked of me regarding different "fit types" during my scanning. I'll definitely do what you did @Nicholas G, note the hell out of everything and ensure this next set comes out as I expected. Korey requested I go back to Pure Hockey and snap photos again on their board, just so they can cross reference when they make the new pair. Sounds like they're going to go over it with a fine-tooth comb this time around! But the process was absolutely painless, quick discussion and they're all about making it right. Can't ask for more than that!

I wasn't aware how in-depth I was to go with my requests. Honestly, the guy filling out my info at my LHS (Pure Hockey) was pretty clueless as to what all was even available for Trues, let alone being able tell me I could request specifics. I actually had to explain to HIM that different felt colors were available, as well as liner types. I was skating in Bauer Vapor X600's in 9D, which was definitely NOT the right size for me. Before committing to Trues, I was fitting in 8-8.5EE in Jetspeed FT1s. I went back and forth with True, and asked both True and the Pure Hockey guy said my previous boot size should have no bearing on my sizing. However, when I pressed True about details regarding my skates, they said my scans matched a size 9. I don't believe that for a second, based off my previous skates being a 9. If you have any suggestions, should I need to have another go with True, I'd certainly appreciate it! I heard something about "pro fit", but I'm not totally sure if that's a thing. I got scanned in the afternoon, but I worked from home that day, so no chances of my feet being swollen or anything like that, if that's where you're going with it. 🙂 I don't want to mislead you when I saw "crank" on my laces...by all means, I don't mean I'm using a lace hook or anything, but judging from how effortless everyone else seems to lace with theirs, I definitely feel like I have to yank a bit more than just "snug", if you know what I mean? I was pretty bummed about the toe box too, I was fully prepared to be ready to adapt to a shorter holder and blade, so imagine my surprise when the exact same length as my last pair of skates arrived. I've baked them twice now and attempted both the sensor and ratchet clamp techniques to try and form a bit more around my ankle/heel, thus locking my foot in a bit more. I had to do it without assistance from the LHS guys because quite honestly, they said they never had to do it before. Unfortunately for me, there's only a few places in the immediate area that even off Trues, so I figured this would be the safest bet, since they were the first to offer them. I was scanned at a Pure Hockey. FWIW, I was scanned by the manager who only really was the one to deal with True there, so once again, figured I was safe. I'll definitely go back and test again, but I tried to account for positioning and the spread of the foot as it was bearing weight. I'll try to load a few pictures for reference soon. Also, apologies if I broke any sort of etiquette by responding in-line to everyone! Blame the new guy! 🙂 Thanks for all the info so far, seriously. I really do like the skates, I just want them to fit as well as I know they should/can.

Hi all! Another longtime lurker who recently took the plunge into True skates. Given all the resident experts here, I wanted to pose this question: how often do you see skates come back with too much space/too much length in the boot? Mine came in and they look great, but I find myself still having heel slippage when skating, and I find I have a ton of space if I slide my feet up in my boot (enough that I could take a photo of the blue footbed showing behind my heel) and even more so if I pull the little pad out they masking taped into my toebox. I also find myself having to crank down on my laces to get what feels like a tight, fully form fit to my foot. I really want as little negative space as possible and expected to get a boot basically exact to my foot size...should I talk to True about what seems to be quite a bit of extra boot space? Thanks for your input ahead of time!