Shaine

I also paid the store directly for my True's. It's a pro shop inside of a three ice sheet facility.

247 CCM. I was not able to pick them up today but I should have them in hand Tuesday. Not sure if I'll get a chance to skate in them before the following Sunday though.

I will be picking mine up today or Tuesday. Unfortunately, Shift wasnt available under 254 mm so I picked up some XS holders and Step Blacksteel. Assuming the skates fit correctly I'll let you guys know my thoughts soon.

I've been getting 3/4 on my Trues about once every 3 months or 150 games give or take. Only using them to ref so I might not be carving the ice as hard as some players but I'm on the ice the entire game.

I used to skate in a 1/2 before I found out about profiling. Since then, I went with 5/8 then 11/16 on my Grafs. I'm currently using 3/4 on my Trues. I'm considering trying out 13/16 and possibly up to 1" in the near future. For me, it's hard to say if it's because of the True's or I just progressively have preferred less hollow. One thing I can tell you though is I have a set of regular step steel and one of Black Stepsteel and personally I can't tell the difference performance-wise. I use 3/4 on both. One thing I did notice for sure with the Black Stepsteel is the sharpenings last longer. Also, I love the way it looks. My weight, ~170.

Got an update for us? I ended up ordering xs holders and step blacksteel. Probably gonna be a couple weeks before I get to skate on it.

I went with the 247*.

I also went with the XS holders. I ordered some Step Blacksteel to go along with it. Hoping I get the skates in the next couple of weeks.

I wish my foot shape fit into junior skates properly. I've owned some CCM Tacks in size 5.5 EE with the front near the toe cap area punched out. I ended up developing calluses on the outside of my toes b/c the forefoot still wasn't wide enough and I was never able to get a heel lock either due to narrow heels. (duck feet if you will) lol. Also, I have little extra room in these and if they came with a wider forefoot and toe box I would probably fit into size 5.0 Tacks no problem. CCM scan has me in size 5.0 Tacks. Bauer has me in a Nexus, 4.75 one foot and 5.0 on the other. My True scan apparently recommends size 5.0 and with a 246mm holder. I don't think the 254 would fit on a True 5.0 boot considering my current ones are size 6.0 and the holder barely fits on one of the boots and the other has minimal space. I'm not too sure why this is because my Tacks 5.5 have SB 4.0 255 mm holders on them and even have slight extra space. Maybe it just has something to do with the way each skate is made, IDK.

Has anyone here recently had any experience with Junior sized True skates? Particularly around a size 5. I'm in the process of having a pair made but I'm quite worried after reading the saga SMU went through with junior sizing. Also my first pair of Trues (no scan) I ended up with size 6 skates that felt too big and just never fit quite right. Going from size 254mm holder to 246 in order to accommodate the size 5 boot has me a bit apprehensive. Hopefully I will adjust and prefer it. Anyone else in a size 6.5 - 7 mens sneaker? What size is your boot and holder? Sneakers I bought this year were a size 7.5 but only to accommodate my wide forefoot and now that they stretched out a bit I'm pretty sure I'm a size 7 or 6.5.

About a week ago I was told 4 to 5 weeks.

Any news on ship date? I'm currently considering some XS Step Blacksteel as one of my options.

It was suggested to me by JR that if I wanted Step quality like steel but the profile of a standard CCM steel that I should give Tydan a try. That might be your best bet.

You switched from True holders to SB 4.0 right? Was it the same type of steel on both? Did you feel any difference in your balance and skating after making the switch?

Can I get some opinions on the XS holder on True skates? I've heard Edge has rattle/lose blade problems over time. Plus the one Bauer skate I had I didn't like. CCM SB 4.0 worked great for me on my Tacks. Cobra Ultra 5000 I also liked on my G9035. I'm leaning towards the XS but I'm worried their quick release system hasn't been out long so there hasn't been enough time for people to start experiencing issues. Which in turn makes me feel like the SB 4.0 might be the safest bet. How do these different holders affect skating in terms of pitch and balance if at all? Thoughts? Thanks!

Did you get your new steel? Keep us updated on the profiling.

Thanks Sniper9, Yea, I finally had enough and decided to go get scanned for some brand new True's this past Saturday. I don't believe the scans have been fully submitted yet because I wanted to make sure I talked to my contact over at True to go over the scan and finalize some details before we move ahead. Unfortunately, he is out of the office for this week so I'm patiently waiting while he gets to enjoy his very well-deserved vacation. Great guy and the reason I didn't make the switch to try CCM customs. If you could help me out with your opinion on holder/runner combos that would be appreciated. I'm trying to ask as many people as possible before I make a decision. I've been recommended Bauer Edge by many but my only experience with Bauer is some Supremes I had 20 years back which I hated when I made the switch from Tacks 652's. I've recently skated on Grafs G9035's with Cobra holders which I liked. I've also owned a pair of CCM Tacks that have the SB 4.0 with Hyperglide's and performance-wise that might be my favorite skates yet. Right now my True's have Step steel. I have Black Step steel which is what I normally skate on and regular Step steel which I seldom skate on. Truth be told performance-wise I struggle to find a difference but I do feel that the Black steel holds an edge longer than my Hyperglides used to. I had the pleasure of talking to JR recently and with the info I gave him he had me leaning towards XS holders with Tydan steel. He alerted me to the fact Tydan makes their blade shapes to mimic the shape of what you would get on off the shelf skates of that brand. Since I liked my SB 4.0 and Hyperglides I feel like this might be the best choice. To add to that as much as I love the quality of my Black Step steel I really dislike how much extra steel there is on the toe and heel. I want to avoid having to profile. Now, will I wish I had that extra steel on the toe and heels when my new skates come in and are size 246/7mm vs 254 mm I skate on now? Maybe, and that is one of the things that is making it hard for me to make this decision. Do you think there is a difference in the way it feels when skating with an Edge holder vs an XS holder if both have the same aftermarket steel? Or are those holders so similar now that it feels the same? Does the rivet holes on True, XS and Edge holders all line-up for easy switching in case I change my mind down the road? Edit: Right now they don't offer the new True Shift holders under 254mm. Not sure if that will change in the future.

I will be in Minnesota at the end of the month, near Saint Paul airport. Do you know anyone in that area you could recommend to do a fresh profile?

Skates came to me about 2 years ago and like I said, the only thing that specified size was two small round stickers that were on the inside of each tongue. They both had the number 5 on them. The skates are from VH/True hockey. They were made right around the time True bought them out but hadn't fully transitioned yet. I also should add that at the time I ordered them they did not have any local shops to scan, so I did it the old school foot trace at home with pictures way. What doesn't make sense is that my left foot trace measures 245 mm and the right measures 242 mm yet it looks like the left skate is actually smaller than the right. Not sure how that happened. Also, they asked me what size shoes I wear which I believe I overestimated due to normally having larger shoes to accommodate my wide forefoot. They also asked what size holder I was accustomed to skating in, which I specified 254 mm. Lastly, they asked me what size skate I wear now which at the time was a size 6 Graf. Size 5.5 EE Tacks (junior skates) are also not wide enough on my forefoot even after punching it out and are too loose on the ankle. a few months ago I was measured with the machine/scan for Bauer/CCM and my suggested skates by the scans were 5.0 Tacks and 5.0/4.75 Nexus. When I ordered my skates from VH/True, I was going through a time where I was recovering from a knee problem and my ankles weren't in great shape either. These problems were developed over time from skating 4-7 days a week sometimes having my skates on for 8 hrs at a time. When I got my new custom skates I was so excited and despite having some extra room in the front they felt so comfy that I decided to keep them. I figured any issues I was having was due to adjusting to new skates and still recovering from my knee and ankle. As time went on, I started noticing that I was still having some right knee problems that would come and go depending on how often I was skating and also because of a general feeling of awkwardness on the ice, like something was off. That's when someone pointed out to me that my holder was so misaligned that it was almost hanging off the boot on the outer back part of the right skate. This is when I decided to get in touch with True. My first experience was pretty bad but somewhat expected considering I was pretty far out of the warranty period. After a few attempts and emails with pictures, I was finally able to get the guy I was speaking to at True to take the skates back so they could remount the holder properly. I was extremely disappointed when I got my skates back and it looked like they did nothing but a re-rivet job. Yet, I tried to convince myself maybe they moved it slightly enough that I didn't notice but enough that it would fix the problem. Sure enough, it didn't. I went on to re-bake with the different techniques provided by True, add insoles to reduce the volume and use the various other tricks they suggest but I was still having issues. Fast forward a few months. Knowing that I was now even further outside the warranty period, I called True and asked them since they had not fixed the problem if they could at least give me a discount on a new pair. The person I spoke to on the phone this time was different from the first guy. After hearing my story he was much more sympathetic and offered to repair the alignment issue right away. He went above and beyond what I expected. He really helped make up for the very disappointing previous experience I had. I excluded all of this from the original post in an attempt to try to shorten the original post, but for anyone that was interested, there it is. The sum of all these posts is how I ended up with improper fitting skates that have a profile issue.

I took your advice and swapped the blades. I immediately noticed the left skate now felt horrible. The right one now felt much better but I'm not 100% convinced it felt as good as the left skate did when it had that blade on it. Maybe because the left skate is the smaller and more proper fitting of the two. Not sure. The most clear feeling of the bad blade is when I shift my weight forward it doesn't transition smoothly towards the toe to get a nice smooth quick stride. It feels like I lean forward and hit "an early stop point" before I can get to my toe (keeps me flat footed/too much mid blade on ice) is the best I can describe it. Also when doing a tight 180 degree turn it feels like the part of the blade (near the heel) that is being used is a bit different from one blade to the other. To make a long story short, I drove an hour today but when I got there my guy was feeling sick and dizzy. Figured doing it another day was a good idea but he insisted since I was already there we did it today. I left the bad blade on the left skate and asked him to just match the blade to the markings on that left holder. After some talking, what he ended up doing instead was putting the blade back onto the right skate and just shifted all three markings on the skate back 2 mm, then proceeded with the profile. I'm going to test it out tonight and see how it goes. Once I got home I took some measurements. I'm having a hard time staying optimistic because previously the holder markings on the bad skate measured 13 cm, 7 cm mid mark to front and 6 cm mid mark to back. With the new markings it's a total of 12.8 cm. Mid to front is 7.05 cm and mid to back is 5.75 cm. Now, I don't know what this all means but I do know that those markings aren't equal on both skates. Also the skate that has felt good to me was originally profiled on the holder that has marking measurements of 13 cm, 7.2 cm and 5.8 cm.

He uses the Maximum Edge system by Bob Allen for the profiling. Not sure what he used to determine the center but if I remember correctly it was a flat surface on a table looking thing with a ruler. You basically hitch the skate blade onto a "track" with the boot upright and use the attached "ruler system" to determine the points. When he did this he showed me that this tool indicated one boot was shorter than the other and therefor the profile points would be slightly different. I hadn't thought about switching the blades. Good idea! Going to try that tomorrow.

Holders are 254mm. Skate came with size 5 stickers inside the tongue but have to be bigger because they feel about as big as my size 6 Grafs and it feels like I have about a finger and a half of room before my toes would hit the toe box. Originally my foot tracing was 245 mm on the left foot and 242 on the right. Yet you can tell the left boot was made smaller than the right because even though the left holder is mounted flush with the heel you can see there is no room in the front to shift it forward any further. The holder basically has no room to be mounted any further froward or back. The right skate on the other hand, is mounted about 1mm forward on the heel and has about 2mm of room in the front where it could be shifted forwards. Also as I hinted too earlier when wearing the skates and looking down I can visibly see the tip of the left holder but I'd have to lean further forwards before seeing the tip of the the holder on the right skate. Threw on a size 5.5 EE CCM skates with a 254mm holder to compare and I can see a good amount of the CCM holder sticking out when looking down in comparison to my current skates. To expand a little, I previously had the holder on my right skate mounted crooked. During that time I was having similar issues with that right skate and in an attempt to fix it, I asked my guy to move the profile lines back a few MM on both skates (to keep them even). Much to my surprise it helped the right skate tremendously but the left skate which was fine, now felt horrible. Recently I was able to get the skate company to remount the holders with correct alignment. The right skate now felt pretty good but the left was still bothering me. Remembering this happened after shifting the profile lines back a few MM. I now decided to shift them back forward (fresh original profile by same guy). It is worth noting that at this time I also changed the profile on both skates from a straight 10' to a 8.5' / 9.5' which is something I had already tried in the past. Right away I felt the difference going back from the straight 10' to the 8.5 in the front which felt a little awkward, but once I adjusted I loved it. Even thinking of going to 8' / 9'. Anyway, after this adjustment the left skate feels great but the right now feels off again, even with the corrected alignment of the new holders. This leads me to believe that if I shift ONLY the left skates point of balance back a few MM again it might fix everything once and for all. Not sure though b/c when I had done this previously and it helped, the holder had been crooked. The thing is though, like my profiler said, the profile is supposed to be set to the boot center not the blade or the holder. This change makes it where we'd now be ignoring the right boots center balance and moving the point of balance back a few MM in an effort to match the left boots. Lastly, I was measuring the 3 lines of the profile on the blade with a tape measure. What I found out is it looks like from the front line to the back line both blades measure at 13 cm. BUT the right skate measures a flat 7 mm from mid line marking to front and 6 mm from mid line mark to back. Wheres the left skate measures 7.2 mm from mid to front and 5.8 from mid to back. Not sure what this mean. Is it different because the boots have different center points of balance due to their different sizes?

Experienced skater EXTREMELY desperate for some help in regards to skate profiling different sized skates. Going to try to keep this short as possible. I have custom skates where the left boot is slightly shorter in length than the right. The holder on the left boot protrudes the toe cap slightly when looking down while wearing the skates. The right boot because it is bigger, you do not see the holder stick out in front of the toe cap when looking down. Also, the skates are at least 1 size too big. (Long story on how this happened). With that being said I got my skates profiled but with the system my profiler used the 3 markings on the holder for the profile are not on the same spot for both boots. Probably only 3 mm or so apart. He said it's because the boots are different size, the balance points aren't identical, so it makes sense the markings don't match up exactly. I got a 8.5' / 9.5' profile (3/4 hollow) done today. The left skate feels great, thinking of trying 8' / 9' 13/16 hollow next. The right skate feels off though. When I lean forward and try to get a full hard stride out it feels like the right blade wants to catch the the outside edge which makes it feel like I'm not getting a smooth transition into the stride. Also whenever I put my weight on my right foot it feels like I have a slight hump near the front of my heel, as if it's trying to make me balance at a point I'm not supposed to be. It is felt even more so when I turn 180 degrees to my right utilizing that right skate. Lastly if I try to roll onto my tipy toe it doesn't roll as fluidly as the left skate and if I try to roll my weight back (toes up off the ice standing straight) I feel like I'm almost stuck on that same "hump" I mentioned earlier. It feels weird getting over that heel hump when leaning backwards and feel any useful blade past that point. I came up with a few ideas but I'm not sure if any of them will work. 1) Ask profiler to match profile points independent of boot size difference. 2) Shift the profile on the right skate a few MM back. Not sure if it needs to be shifted forwards or back though? 3) Leave the "balance" points where he said they need to be but change the profile only on the right skate. Thinking 8' / 9'. I think the 8' in the front will help the stride issue I'm having but not sure if the 9' would help at all with that heel point issue. Has anyone ever even had different profiles for their left and right skate? That idea doesn't sound right. Sorry for the long post. It could've probably been 3 times longer if I went into more detail about the custom skates, holder alignment issues and previous profiles attempted. Really hoping someone can chime in with some suggestions and hopefully a fix. Thanks!

Copy and paste from another thread I replied on but I figured this information would be very useful to have here. For anyone interested, I was able to get a hold of STEP and they do indeed offer Blacksteel for the VH/Step holder. To clarify you cannot buy the Blacksteel from VH, only the regular Step Steel. In order to purchase the Blacksteel you have to call Step directly and place an order over the phone. $129.99 + shipping. They would not budge on discount or free shipping.

Got an update for us? I'm in the process of ordering. Any chance you know if the Black Steel from Step is compatible with that runner? Thanks!