flip12

Can you elaborate a bit on the Vapor outsole and pitch?

Are there any pros today with slimmed down pants? I've come across someone saying Hull took a lot of padding out of his pants. I think Kovalev did the same, or just played in slimmer model Kohos until switching over to Easton, then Warrior. Kovalchuk played many of his early years in Nike retail pants.

Bauer’s later 4-Rolls’ 4th roll from the top isn’t a rectangle, but a wide and short pentagon. The pinky side is sliced to better match the angles of the palm. Some of Easton’s later 4-Rolls’ 3rd and 4th rolls were convex and concave, respectively. I’ve never worn a pair of Easton’s but I imagine this was worked out to better fit the fisty formation of the hand when holding a stick. Both examples feature mostly straight rectangular rolls on the backhand, so they’re still 4-Rolls in my mind.

I’m a bit of a snob, but when I hear 4-Roll (or 5), I see (mostly*) straight backhand rolls. If they’re another TPS HG2 clone like these from CCM, they’re slants, not rolls—the hybrid of hockey gloves. *There’s room for a deviant roll or two as seen in Easton’s and Bauer’s 4-Rolls.

If it’s Supreme Comp 5000 (or similar new old stock top of the line) the boot should last quite a while. There’s just something iffy about the holder plastic at 30 years old. The worst that can happen is suddenly failure of the holder. I think it depends on how they were stored, but I’ve tried various boots that age or older the last couple of years and have had three or four Tuuk Custom or Custom Plus crack or shatter while I’ve been skating on them. It’s not really dangerous if you’ve got all your gear on. You might fall suddenly like you’ve lost an edge in the case of total sudden holder failure. You can just put a new holder on if that happens.

I think it's just to make way for their new stock production. Clear out the last batch of stock sticks, then launch the new stock line/up. Custom's made to order so they're not sitting on stock. Certainly not if it takes 2.5 - 3 months for delivery.

Bring back the HG1 and HGT too.

I really liked the Hyperlite toe cap compared to previous Vapors. I felt grelt going half a size down compared to what I wear in older Vapors. Haven’t tried on newer Supremes, just wanted to add my two cents of love for the Hyperlite toe cap.

Key differences not the only differences.

It’s like a Dodo Phoenix out of the ashes and straight into the blade of a wind turbine. Sorry for your bad experience. It’s sad because I really like the BC01 blade I have, and my old Dolomite still performs up to anything I’ve tried since. Their concept isn’t entirely wrong, but the execution sure is.

That’s where I thought you were going and then suddenly it got all Inception.

I’m confused. More closed = less open. How can P28 be more open than Kuch and Kuch more open than Pasta and P28 the least open of the three?

Absolutely, and free express shipping to boot.

Sorry to hear you got a bummer stick at the end of your wait. If I were you, I would complain. It's not reasonable to wait as long as you did. That on its own. On top of that to have a product that doesn't match the spec or live up to reasonable expectations (if they weren't going to paint it the way it looks like it does on their relaunched website, they should have given a heads up) is just the sandy sprinkles on a shit cake. You're doing them a favor saying something. As you said, they won't stay in business long if they alienate their previously loyal customers that want to give them the benefit of the doubt. You shouldn't be out a decent amount of cash, or any amount for that matter, for a product that's honestly way below what it should be.

It's more like Supreme and Supreme extra stiff. Catalyst is supposed to be an agility skate, but it doesn't have the traditional agility flex profile, it's just a little less stiff than their stiffer offerings.

Round 2.

You’ve got good taste. The Wild Berry Viper scheme is awesome, some of my favorite hockey unis ever. Your Innovative stash is incredible. 1100 is one of the sharpest looking sticks ever. Black with white and gold always wins when it comes to sticks.

The guy at the LHS said it’s also supposed to improve scan precision. I tried the current scanner for the first time and I found its suggestion to be at least a full size too big.

No actually. I've looked a few times out of curiosity. The easiest solution seemed to be trying to make it with a 3D printer and the right kind of plastic or going to a cobbler to see if they could work it out.

Just noticed Doughty's got 55-Flex lace extenders. Is this his way of dealing with the switch from (semi-)soft shell to hard shell Vapors? He now contends with Jagr for the all-time Frankenskate.

Gotcha. I thought that's what you meant, but just wanted to be sure. His pro pattern looks amazing. I know @decoy is a huge fan of it.

What do you mean by “the real Sakic?”

All skates for the last few decades have been made with thermoformable materials. You can see it happen in the how-it’s-made factory videos even with traditional skates like Graf and Bauer Classic Supremes. Whether they’re reformable under conditions available to the consumer is the question.

Vapor 8 was where I gave up on Bauer. I saw Graf 705s in person in a shop and I was blown away by the craftsmanship. They were much more comfortable too, of course. But these are making me reassess all I thought about Bauer. My Vapor 8s were size 10.5 and I didn't have a clue about what they should have been. These are 9.5 EE and they feel almost perfect. I had a hot spot at the end of my large metatarsal on one foot--rubbing right at the edge of the toe cap. But the shell has great stiffness and the liner/foam combo felt very similar to my Catalyst 7s. The steel feels great. Speaking of the forefoot vice, even though these are wide, they still look quite narrow. I fully agree about the looks. I thought Vapor 8s were so cool when they came out. Vapor 10s were just a cut above. The only ones I like almost as much are the XXX and Hyperlite. A true Vapor has to have a certain balance of black and grey. These though, they almost sparkle with the metal mesh, and it's nice there's no tertiary color muddling the mix. Even the splash of red in the XXX is a drawback in my book.