flip12

Does anyone know how ATM's are loaded? Maybe everyone getting 20's was instead issued 50's...I can't imagine the programming being off as much as I can someone loading the machine with the wrong pack of bills in the 20-slot...I wonder what a wholesale error like that would amount to.

Also, I forgot to ask, are you skating in socks? If so, how thick? Slightly changing that might help, because it sounds like a borderline issue.

Hang in there, it sounds like you're almost in a really comfortable ride. About that seam that's digging into your toe, have you taken the laces all the way out, yanked the tongue back and checked if perhaps you could shave it down? It sounds like it could be an injection mold seam that you could smooth out, with surgical care. I know they're your new babies, so cutting a little bit off just at the tip might be too horrifying to do, but it just might help this toe flare up from reaching that annoyingly painful zone.

It sounds like your foot is swelling from supporting your weight without flexion, which is normal, right? Just like flyguy1 says, more knee bend and your foot flexes, so it contracts a bit, length wise. It sounds like they fit you perfectly--your constant skating micromanager: lose that knee bend one bit and it whips you.

True. I guess keeping it under the same name, VH, gives me the impression that "this time, it's different." It's all pure conjecture. I'm afraid I'm pulling things off topic though, feels like suddenly we're digging around in the rough for perspectives on branding rather than the skates.

It's just different in my mind that MLX wasn't an existing brand, it was rather like a petri dish. This just seems like a boot maker spotting opportunity to grow. I can't imagine wanting to sell VH, speed skate and cycle boot manufacturing and all.

Is it though? It seems like a branch to grow off their original business, speed skate boots. That it's a branch under the VH umbrella makes it different in my mind. Nightmare.

I like the looks of VH boots so far, slick logo.

I haven't put them on, but from holding the skate in my hand, I know what you mean--they feel more bottom heavy than Supremes or Vapors. If you're comparing the balance of the Mako to the APX or NXG, the fusion runners might make some difference too. When I picked up the Mako the first time Graf's old slogan "Top Light" came to mind. As has come up previously in discussion of this skate, they are not the lightest, but they're also not trying to be.

But is there any literature on the effect of good versus bad fit? I had a terrible time finding running shoes that fit. It could be fair to say that 100 extra grams requires more energy expenditure, what about the energy expenditure of shoes that weigh the same but don't fit as well. Again in running you're not performing an activity with more than a kilogram of extra equipment on, and as Wrangler reiterates, that point is considered in SVH's original research. I'm envious of your being able to experience this evolution. I've been giddy about the speed skating influence on hockey skates since before I found out about MLX. I haven't had the chance to own either a pair of MLX's or Makos and it feels like I've missed out a bit.

I couldn't agree more. It seems like more and more elite skaters are skipping one eyelet (even two in the case of Jason Zucker) at the top or next to top of their skates. If skate weight is such an obsession, why is all of this mass being lugged around unnecessarily and with sub-optimal energy transfer.

Margarine! $1200 for a custom speed boot! I was prepared for much worse sticker shock. I don't find the Me2 ripple effect implausible, looking at minimal running shoes, and even composite sticks. I remember Busch being around for a few years and then Easton brought "one-piece" composites to the distribution level that allowed/forced the everyone-in-the-pool inflection point. Maybe that whole segment won't develop. I could also see some sort of hybrid dominating: a Supreme/Mako synthesis.

How thick are your usual skating socks? I've never liked anything but the thinnest I can get. It seems like the formability of the skate should be able to accomodate added thickness--unless there's something about the fit/feeling/materials of the skate that makes you think it wouldn't suit a sock...did you bake them when you tried them on barefoot?

But a lot of hockey players do skate badly and I think overly stiff boots are a contributor. (somefan--maybe I'm just duped by this hype? More on that below.) Compare starts in speed skating and in hockey. Hockey players are skating better than they did in the past, if I'm not mistaken from all of the 80's and 90's hockey I've recently watched on YouTube, but improvements like skates that increase range of motion go to make skating better. From my experience in skates that do and skates that don't fit well, it's much easier to skate better technically with a skate that isn't overly stiff. But you also need plantar flexion, you don't get very far with half strides. If your proposition were true, then the clap-skate, which allowed previously unattainable toe-flick, would have had little effect on speed-skating results when it came into use in the late 90's. Instead, it was attributed with essentially rewriting times from the world-records on through the whole field. About the "anatomical" last, it doesn't fit with what I've read in the marketing or heard from people who have these. What I'm getting from all of that is that it is quite customizable (though not completely, as JR pointed out), to relatively different anatomies--foot shapes of different types etc., and it is that better fit that is giving people much better feel, which in a lot of cases is directly correlative to greater efficiency.

I also wonder if the great fit doesn't impress pros as much since they essentially have custom skates in every way possible, even with lasts made around their feet. I agree with Krev on the short season affecting it too. Even though a lot of pros skate with skates stiffer than they're fully harnessing (with loosely laced upper eyelets, eyelets fully skipped, etc.), it's probably far too drastic a skating difference to give it a try. Every game I watch the commentators note how there's "literally no time to practice."

And Martinek.

I may have been careless to throw bandy in there without saying why. It looks like hockey skates/skating are headed in that (bandy) direction: lower cut, greater range of motion. If this contributed to derailing the focus, I apologize.

Byfuglien's been in the new CCM RBZ's for the past few games, with classic 90's tongues on them. But Radek Martinek and Andrew MacDonald are wearing Makos.

He usually did a slim ring of tape around the tendon guard. Lemieux did too, then Sakic. A lot of skaters seemed to imitate Gretzky's style. Lace wrap I don't recall seeing on him. Yeah, he looks a bit confused and as if he's suffering slight indigestion, funny pic. Can I count this Gretz' opinion as a win for Lemieux?

From the Wikipedia page on Micron 10-90's: "The design of the boots made the skater lean forward slightly when skating which meant they were ideal skates for balancing weight when skating backwards. This proved popular with ice hockey players that played defence." Bauer bought out Micron a year or so before I started playing ice hockey, and I only saw them once on a player in person, but perhaps the forward pitch could be a pleasant surprise for you. That, and if you're one of those who ends up liking the fit of the Mako so much, I imagine you'd feel more comfortable skating backwards, whether or not you keep the pitch you're used to now, or wind up changing to something more forward leaning. Just don't let that be a deal breaker when, as Chadd points out, you can adjust the pitch independently.

I wish I had known that right away when I started playing. Graf 703's fit me much better than anything else I've tried. I have flipper feet, where the instep is so shallow that most of my shoes look zipped up rather than tied with laces because the average volume for my foot length must be quite a bit higher. From the sound of the shallowness of the MLX boots, I may have really liked those.

I feel the same. Skating in Graf after Bauer was an fit and performance improvement for me that I didn't know was possible. Skating in the 703 instead of the 705 was a further improvement. I loved the Grafs especially for their decreased stiffness and lower cut. They worked so much better. The Mako concept is what I hoped for to improve even on my feel in 703's. The only thing is, I like to tape the tendon guard for tighter turning, and I'm not sure how this would work out on Mako's wishboney tendon piece, it seems like it might even be an improvement over other tendon guard shapes.

I thought so too, but they've grown on me considerably. I'd probably end up blacking out that Home Depot Orange. It seems the trend is for hot colors, and I can guess why that is from a marketing standpoint, but I'd love a classic blue or something, like on the One90. I'll gladly try them out if I can afford to.

My opinion, the white looks bad with the g-series side panel gray. I've never seen a custom graf skate that didn't make me want to throw up. Nothing personal. Glad you like them.

What's the stock radius on Graf Cobras? I had a size 11 705 and liked the longer radius.