hamstercaster

It's just a matter of respect for the LHS and the potential customer who may buy that stick that's been overflexed and maybe stuck with a stick that will break on his first shift. Although it may end up being replaced, it's still a hassle and he'll have to wait a couple of weeks before he gets his new stick. Like, I don't think or at least I hope that there isn't anyone who will grab a helmet and bang it against the wall to see how strong and durable it would be or how many shots it takes before cracking. Also, would you borrow a buck and play catch to yourself using a goalie glove and leave puck marks all over the glove? Trying out gloves is one thing but ruining store inventory by doing things that will compromise the durability of the equipment is just retarded

What's up with all those disgruntled rookies.. SK74 asks to be traded because he got sent down and now Ilya Zubov from the Sens is also asking for a trade for having been sent down to the minors.

I also believe that the customers are not coming only to scam LHS owners of their bread and butter or put them out of business. I think that common misconception is that store owners, no matter what type of retail it is, are rich or have at least more money then them so they don't care if they come in and get fitted for free then buy the skates, pads or whatever online. In their minds they think you are ripping them off by charging more than the online store. And it's understandable to a certain extent as people never think twice about why such and such costs a certain price compared to what they can find online. It happens more with skates and more expensive stuff as this is where the savings are online. I mean any person in his right mind will pay the extra 5$ for a product to have it now as opposed to buying it online and having to wait for the product to arrive. The problem arises when you get to the more pricy items. If you can buy one95 skates for lets say 350$ online but they are 600$ at your LHS, it's really a no brainer for the customer in most case provided he's ready to lose 300$ in the event the skates don't make it home from the Ebay seller for exemple. The internet has changed the way of doing business and the music business found that out the hard way in the late 90's early 2000's.. now it's the rest of retail that is having to cope with wath challenges the internet brings.

In today's world retail is a tough business to run even for the big chains out there so it's even worst for the small shops out there wether be it sport shops, pet shops etc. Small store owners need to deal with a myriad of things they need to overcome. First of all, owning a small shop limits you in many ways. You can't hold as much inventory as the big chains. You can't hold as many brands and models most the time either because of the same space contraints. And as if this wasn't enough, you usually pay more for the same products the big chains will buy because your purchasing powers are limited compared to stores like the Monkeys and the likes. So that leaves small shops at a real disadvantage and their one and only advantage in my opinion is customer service that is often better in small shops than in the bigger shops as shop owners are often the sole employee or choose their employees wisely. Also, big chains often offer other stuff too so they need to hire people that have a general knowledge about many types of products. The same applies to any other type of retail businesses out there. Add to that the fact that money is getting more scarce because of all the oil price hikes, the financial debacle in the States and what not and you get customers who would rather same 5$ on any given product even if it means getting next to no service than paying that extra 5$ to get a professional to recommend any given product a customer may be looking for. then comes Ebay and the internet as a whole. Bigger chains can afford to pay for someone to come in and build a nice web site with real or not so real time inventory. They can afford to pay people to take online orders and perhaps offer the same product for less online than they are in the store under the same banner. All these cost lots of money to upkeep, money small shop owners don't have as they often struggle to make ends meet. The only other thing playing in the small shops favor is skate sharpening and profiling as you can't get that done online and honnestly, the small shops are usually more proficient in that matter than the larger shops as they have more knowledge and more experience. Plus, larger shops usually have a bigger employee turnaround than smaller shops and you never know who's the retard who's going to sharpen your skates. I'm generalizing here but it's still true to an extent. It's like going to walmart and asking the employee of the month questions about plumbing as opposed to walking in a Home Hardware or a smaller mom and pops hardware store. The problem is that customers want it all. Expert advice at a cheap price and this is something shop owners have to deal with wether they like it or not and believe me, I feel for you guys and have tremendous respect for you all owning or working in small shops and I wish you all good look and a bright future

Yes and yesterday was the "Behind the Scene or Making of" so he will be there again at some point during the season where he will be on for a whole half hour or hour show.. can't remember how long that show is on for.

Nike 0002 Combo - Helmet and cage. Like the fit and the grey cage and price 70$ RBK 5K - really nice and confy pants. Light and decent padding. Zippers DR Classic Fit gloves - Nice and light, love the fit and feel. RBK XK OPS - Bought cheap at Can. Tire. Works well for me. Could be lighter Nike Ignite Skates - Like them a lot. Bit heavy but well padded Bauer Elbow pads H1000 I think - One of the only elbow pads that fit me right Itech shin guards - Adjustable straps, solid, good protection Powertek OPS - Utter crap, mediocre backup at best Koho gear bag - roomy and tough

DR 4500 Classic Fit About me: 6'1'' 263 pounds and counting (down lol). Fit Given my size and the size of my hands, I can't wear anything comfortably under 15 inches although some 14.5 inches I tried were close to be confortable. This glove is a lose fit and if my memory serves me right, it's close to be the loosest fit amongst the many gloves I tried. Especially the cuffs, they are loose and long and allow for good movement 9.5/10 Protection No inserts on these gloves. Just foam but so far can't complain. Been hit on the hands a couple of times and felt nothing. The cuffs are long and give good forearm protection. It is also equipped with a lock thumb which is in my mind well calibrated. Not too stiff to limit grip or movement but stiff enough to help prevent thumb injuries in the event that your thumb would do an unexpected movement/extention during a fall or any other accident that may happen on ice. Inserts could possibly make that glove even more protective so I will rate it a 9/10 Weight These gloves are very light for the size. They 15 inches and a pretty big 15 inches I might add and they weight next to nothing. They are lighter than my old Nike Quest 3 that were much smaller in size. But I guess they could still have made them lighter although glove weight is not something that matters that much to me. For that I'll give them a 9/10 Feel/comfort level This glove is very comfortable. It is light enough and fits me very well. The feel on the stick is in my mind quite good. The palms are thicker than many more expensive gloves out there but for the price it offers good stick/puck feel and is much better than my old pair of Nike Quest 3. It is worth a 9/10 Durability I've owned the gloves for two weeks now and have played 7 1 and 1/2 games with them. So far they show no wear whatsoever. The plams are reinforced with an extra layer black suede like leather. Not one single mark on it yet, no discoloration. Top of gloves is made leather imitation and doesn't show any wear either. There's a very tiny piece of that reinforced palm that isn't sewn in the glove but have yet to find out if it's just un-sewned or was just never sewned. This I guess could require more attention down the road and will thus make the rating drop a bit to a 8/10 Intangibles The palms are sweet and give a good grip on the stick. I have a Reebok XT stick with no grip whatsover and this gloves manages to hold that stick right in place with no slippage whatsoever but yet lets your stick slide free when you need to glide your hands up and down the shaft for different shots or defensive situation. It is also fairly easy to pick the stick up from the ice if you happen to drop it. 9/10 Conclusion I spent over an hour trying out gloves the first time. I had tried pretty much every glove in the store except CCM's, RBK's and DR's. Then I went back a second time to the store to try them all again and was decided to leave with a brand new pair of gloves. I tried all the same gloves again and was hesitating between Bauer XV, XX, XXX, Supreme 70's and One90's. Was also considering sor RBK 8 and Eagles. Then I saw the DR's at the top right corner of the display and decided to give them a try. I had not looked at the price before trying them on but was expecting them to be cheap as in my mind DR was not a company I considered to put out quality products. To me they were a company making products appealing to the masses, the people who are looking for cheap stuff, buy cheap and get what you pay for, a product low in quality. When I put the gloves on I was pleasently surprised by how they felt on my hands, the feel of the palms and all the material that touches your skin. They felt really comfy and light. Then I looked at the price tag... 97$ Cnd on sale from 170$ Cnd... now these gloves could sell at their regular price for 10-15$ less elsewhere as my two LHS in my town have next to no competition and thus hike their prices a bit but at 97$ that made my day. It was 40$ cheaper than the Bauer XV and in my mind the DR 4500 is a superior product to the XV and is close to the XX. They are not XXX or One90's as the palms don't offer as good of a feel as very thin plams but they are way up there with some of the best intermediate/top of the line gloves and I am happy I gave them a try.. I give them an overall rating of 9/10

This is why I don't believe that a "fitting fee" is unfair. As a store, you will IMMEDIATELY see who is there to buy and who is there to size and buy from eBay or the Internet stores. Exactly and honnestly, I wouldn't mind the store charging me a fee if I went there to try out skates as long as he would take it off the skate's price when I'd make the purchase. If I decide to go elsewhere, tough banana, I lost my money. It's only fair. At some point in time people will wake up and see that you have to encourage your LHS or any other department/grocery store for that matter. These people hire others to work for them which in turn go out and buy some stuff at the grocery store who employs people etc. Online stores usually sell for less because there is next to no staff... and no service and they take sales away from your LHS which in turn my have to slack some staff or cut hours etc. Buying online is not evil but buying in a store that actually has employees to help you and all is what's best for the economy in my mind... but I digress :D

I've got friends who recently bought skates of E-bay but used their LHS to try the skates on first to see if they liked them or not. Turns out that they saved about 400$ Cnd for XXX's. Now I personally think that it is not fair for the LHS owner as he provided a service but did not get any rewards. I think it sucks for the LHS. However, you can't blame the customer much either as he's saving a lot of money. It's almost as if he would have went to his favorite LHS and tried to skates on, liked them but saw the 800$ and said.. Let me think about and I'll also keep shopping around. Then he gets to his favorite LHS competitor a few miles away and gets in the store, spots the skates and to his suprise, the LHS is having a 50% off sale. He picks them up there and wammo he got his skates half price and visited a LHS. Often, for a customer, service is next to no value when you can get the same product cheaper elsewhere.. before the sale anyway. But once the sale is done and that customer ends up having all sorts of problems with his product, for some reason customer service now becomes very important and often the LHS down the road has good prices but not service. If you buy your gear off E-bay, it's even worse. If you bought your skates brand new and they break in the first month, tough luck buddy, pay another 400$ to buy a new pair of skates or pay to have them fixed. I deal pretty much with the same LHS all the time and he usually gives me a tax break or a deal of some sort when I buy equipment. I still end up paying more at his store than off E-Bay or all of the hockey monkeys of the world but I get first class service when I need something or have a problem. The LHS have much more overhead than an online store may have has they have to run a store, pay rent, utilities etc., pay staff and often need to carry at least so many items of a line of product from any given company.. and they have to make a profit if they want to stay in business. If you want to use E-bay and all the online stores, go ahead but at least you should be man/woman enough not take advantage of your LHS by trying and fitting your gear at his store, using his staff and then end up double crossing him by buying online to save a few bucks or more. IMO if you want to buy online, buy at your own risk and hope that the gear will fit you like you expected. It's only common courtesy IMO.

Wow, these are some horror stories... Now I know of a few things not to do in LHS... at least if I'm not planning on buying. For flexing sticks, if I'm gonna buy, I sure am gonna flex a stick because unlike someone said earlier, a 85 flex is not a 85 flex on all sticks. I have a powertech at home that has a 100 flex and the Bauer Hossa 87 flex is stiffer and my friends OPS 100 flex is way stiffer than my powertech. As for skates, I'm not guitly of trying to fit some to buy them online as I've had the same skates for a while now and they are still holding up quite good. I did however try on gloves I expect to buy on E-bay, but may change my mind on that one though as I realize that it may not be the best thing to do... morally that is lol. Either way, as I customer I expect and do receive a service when I go to a shop and I respect the shop owners and their employees for that and it is the reason why I usually buy my stuff in a LHS instead of Canadian Tire for exemple. In a LHS you get service. At Canadian Tire you don't ;-) One thing I wish existed though in LHS are demo hockeys, a net and a puck to try out the sticks. But for that to happen the companies would have to accept to give you those demo sticks for free though. Specially if one wants to purchase a 250$ stick but would like to try a new curve, it would be nice to be able to shoot a few pucks with a demo but this would be to costly for shop owners though... Anyway, props go out to you guys for putting up with customers that are ultimatly never happy and impossible to please to begin with!!

Background 6'1'' 264 pounds (and counting... down lol) Using Nike Ignite intermediate skates with T-Blades. Using the Medium Rockers with 13 Blades so it goes like this: 280 M-13. Have used CCM Tacks with stock blades before and my Nike Ignite with their stock Tuuk blades for a few years before switching to T-Blades. I switched to T-Blades because I broke the plastic on one of the skates and decided to give T-Blades a try Feel I was told by the store clerk that I would need a couple of games to adjust to the blades because of the different angle. It took me 2 seconds really. For me, this what the doctor had ordered. I had never felt as confortable on skates as with T-Blades. With my Tacks I always felt as if I could fall forward at any time. With my Tuuks, I had a hard time keeping balance standing still as I rocked back and forth because of the "rounder blades" With the T-Blades I actually felt more confortable and stable and it has actually made me a better player. 10/10 Steel These blades have met my expectations. I was told that they would give me around 20 hours of ice time which would be the equivalent of about for or 5 skate sharpenings. This would then make the blades cost the exact same has sharpening my skates which was find by me. I have just purchased my third pair yesterday. First pair lasted 33 hours of ice time on hard ice. Ice is much harder in the winter in my local rink. The second pair has lasted me about 45 hours of spring ice which is usually a bit softer. I tryed on my 3rd pair yesterday and it bit to much so I'm gonna put my second pair back on for today's game since the ice is very soft at our local indoor's rink. So far it's been a great investment for me. 10/10 Variations They offer different angles and blade cuts from 9 to 15. At 9 I figure a very light player playing on extremely hard ice could use them as my 13's bite the ice really hard. I honnestly think anyone can find the angle and bite he needs for his game and should also be able to find the right blade angle to suit him 10/10 Durability So far so good. I play defense and get hit by shots quite often on my shins, toes, ankle and blades and so far the stabilizers have held up quite fine. I do have skate markes on my rockers and expect one or both to break in a not so distant future. They should be cheap enough to replace though so I'm not worried. The blades themselves last long enough to give me my money's worth though. The steel is extra hard and doesn't show much wear and hold up their original cut quite good. I would say that it takes about 10 hours of ice time before they start feeling like conventinal blades feel after 2 games after a fresh sharpening. But because of the stabilizers I'll have to take out a point 9/10 Performance these blades are sharp!! my 13's were much sharper than any sharpening jobs I ever got done on my conventional Tuuks or Tacks. The only sharpening that came close was the laser sharpening offered at one of the shops I used to go too. The biggest advange of T-Blades is that you always get a consistant blade. A blade that is always as sharp as the previous pair you bought. A blade that keeps the exact same angle game after game or when buying a new pair. I've been to three or four different shops around town to have my conventional blades sharpened and I never was 100% satisfied. There's always a Joe Shmoe that will say: Hmm the last guy sure did a terrible job last time you got them sharpend.. I'll fix that for you... only to make them worse and make you fall everytime you try to turn left or right. With T-blades, no more of this. Consitant cut, consistant angle and no need to go to the shop after every 4-5 hours of playing and since I play 2 to 3 times a week at an hour and a half of ice time, that would mean that I would have to go to the shop every week. With the T-blades I go at least a month in between purchases. Anyway, I usually buy an extra pair so I have a spare one in case something happens. They are also lighter but can't really tell if they have made me a faster player or not since I have lost a total of 74 pounds in the last 9 months, probably 30-40 of those pounds since I started using T-blades.. so I presume that I got faster cause I'm lighter :D 9/10 Conclusion To me, the T-Blades were just what the doctor ordered. It gave me a bit more agility as I was fortunate enough to get the proper combination for me on the first try. It has given me more confidence in my play and provided me with uniformity in performance. No more relying on the ol' shop guy to sharpen my skates hoping he'll do it right. Perhaps our guys suck and my evaluation would be different if we had competent shop guys around.. who knows. The thing is that it takes one guy to screw up once and then you are pretty much done for for the life span of your blades as many sharpening errors are hard to correct without taking out a serious amount of blade on your conventional blades. T-Blades are a complete charm, they are easy to change and they take only 5 minutes to do so. They are very consistant from blade to blade and are usually easy to find at shops as they have now started to stock them more... they may come a bit more difficult to come buy during summer time though but shouldn't be too bad as I have quite a few shops in a 10 to 60 minute drive radius from home. I am very pleased with the results and recommend the blades to any player out there wether he's a recreational player like me or a league player. I have actually seen a couple NHL'ers wear T-Blades. There was one in Anaheim and I think it was Selanne.. but not sure. I know that they are very popular in Europe and are starting to catch on here in Canada and the States. Overall rating 9.5/10