JR Boucicaut

Exactly - it seems that its only purpose is to hold the seat closer to you - it has significantly more padding there than a Bauer girdle. If it's gutted, it should still stay in place once fastened.

How are they fitting?

I'm probably going to get a Velcro extension piece for the top strap so that I have a bit more room there.

Part of the tribute to his brother.

Yes. That strap you see below the hip pad runs under and through to the top.

New for 2017, the Super Tacks is CCM's top-end girdle. Here's it out of the box: The shell is removable, with leg zippers and +1 adjustment. It has three points in which it attaches to the girdle. There is a second loop under the belt in which the shell strap hooks into. Adjustable spine pad, with D3O. Now, here's the girdle without the shell. Open front crotch. However, there is a step-in part in the seat of the girdle. Opening it up, you can see it. The tailbone pad is built in, similar to 9k. There are 4 adjustment tabs in the girdle. Two of them extend all the way up to the kidney pad and bring the back of the thigh pad up... And the other two bring the front of the thigh pad up. Hip pads are similar to 9k. There's a lot to like here. Having the open crotch is good, and there's no shortness of protection as well. However, two things could be potentially nagging - the step-in part is one. It doesn't really seem to be necessary - the points it's attaching to is the groin pad area and the tailbone pad. The second one is the lack of stretch material in the top of the girdle. The only part where there's any sort of stretch is a 1.5" piece where the velcro tab is that mates to the belly pad. I'm hoping to skate in them shortly. Any questions or additional pictures needed, please ask. Thanks goes to CCM for sending me this set. I've been a girdle wearer for almost 20 years so it's a category that always intrigues me.

@tryandstopme

Soft launch to retailers; the helmet's out.

No need to pull. Clamp it (wrap a towel around the steel) then slap the back of the skate forward.

No. They don't have a marketing agreement with us.

It's going to be a 272. That is the correct size. You won't have to drill holes.

Thank you all for the kind words! She has had up and down days, and will be starting chemo next week. She'll be doing it for a year.

I know I was pretty cryptic in the Venting/Sweet Spots a couple of weeks ago, but I'm slowly getting better at this; over the past few years I've tried to keep things to myself/a certain few, but I think it's good for me to put things out there at this time. A week after Winterfest, my girlfriend noticed that she was leaking something out of her right breast. We went to the hospital and they figured it was just an infection, and put her on antibiotics, but suggested she go get a mammogram. A few weeks later, she got the mammogram, but then they suggested she get a MRI. The MRI showed enough to the point that they recommended a biopsy. In mid-March, they diagnosed her with breast cancer, and recommended removing the right breast. It was detected early; due to one of the locations of the tumors, since it was in the duct, whatever it was creating had a way out through the nipple, which alerted us to what was going on. Due to her family history, she opted to remove both. Hours after, we decided to get married. We pulled off a great wedding in 11 days, and some of our members flew up to Michigan to share that day with us. She's doing well, bandages are off and we will start chemo in early May. The oncologist is saying 3-6 months; we're hoping for the under on that. She is tracking her progress on her GoFundMe page, and will also have a blog soon. Thanks for the support. I have a rather large extended family here!

To continue with the whole industry landscape thing, our buyer at work sent us the launch calendar for 2017. It's an Excel spreadsheet, and we've had it since 2013 - he just keeps on adding new sheets to it. This includes the entire year - so launches up to December. 2013 - 118 lines 2014 - 114 lines 2015 - 88 lines 2016 - 92 lines 2017 - 45 lines

Yeah, the game has changed quite a bit. With the advent of social media, manufacturers like the ability to control the content. And since I play by the rules, that's why it's so. Not to mention, companies are releasing later now; which is a good thing for retailers. I hope to have a big one done in the coming weeks. We're just trying to work out timing in regards to a couple of products that have a summer launch.

LOL

That won't be necessary. Just settled with the seller - bought whatever was left.

Mark - No offense, but this is my brand - I know exactly what happened here. OT used my logo after we did a jersey order with them 12 years ago. We fell short on the numbers for the jerseys and had to buy 20 crests, which we used for the original MSH bags. At the time, we fulfilled our commitment to the jerseys and crests. It looks like they made more. I've had to buy 2 jerseys (one of them purple!) from 13mugs before. And two other MSH members have bought from them as well, and gave them to me. I emailed him back then but they keep on popping up. I just contacted them again and told them I will buy the remainder of them. And if another pops up, I'll serve him with a cease and desist.

The story behind is that more than 10 years ago, we had jerseys made by OT Sports. And judging by the picture, they took our logo and put it on jerseys, and are selling them. So, someone profited from our brand, without our permission.

Marriage.

Breast cancer.

Pure Hockey sells them for $3. If you're shipping them full and for sale, might be worth it. If you're sending back a broken stick, companies allow you to cut them in half so that you can fit it in a smaller box.

No, you do one skate/SP at a time. When you stand on the 2nd foot, shift weight off first.

It's simply not necessary to go that far up on the heel, even though plenty of manual sharpeners do it and end up, over time, destroying the heel radius. But it sounds like you don't have a choice. You could go shorter on the toe at well, especially since you do have a sharpened area above it.

Too high on the heel. I'd say half that at the least.