shooter27

Depends on your foot shape - best bet is to go to a quality Graf dealer and they can help you out. I've worked with one that has been really good and helped realize I had a much different heel shape than I thought.

jimmy - how would you describe the differences between the two?

I'll be honest, looking at that Blademaster PDF, I can't figure out how it's significantly different enough from FBV to get around the Blackstone patent. Is there a summary of the differences somewhere?

I know Anaheim Ice does Blademaster flat bottom. Not sure about Monkey.

Geeze, couldn't they get a better picture of him? He looks like he's 100 years old.

Thanks for the clarification. Totally understood that it happens with all brands, it happened to me with a pair of Bauer's a number of years back.

Chadd, can you say what the issue was or no?

I must have misread it. For some reason it seemed like you had done one at a time. Thanks

Chadd - does Easton specify that you should only bake one skate at a time? Or am I misreading your post in the review?

I was just thinking about it as a percentage of players wearing the skate, not as a percentage of the league. What percentage of guys that wear CCM/Reebok skates change holders> 60%, more? Same with earlier Easton skates. Graf seems to have a larger percentage of people using the Cobra holder, but it's still probably 50/50. To say that one player out of the 15-20 I've seen wearing the skates has changed the holders, to me is significant.

One thing I've noticed is that very few of the people I see wearing these skates have changed out the holders to LS2's or something else. The only exception I've found is Byfuglien. Given the number of people that switch out holders on previous Easton skates or CCM/Reebok skates, that seems significant to me.

Chadd - saw the pic of the depth in the review. Do you have a particularly high volume foot and generally need a deep skate, or are they just that shallow?

That's surprising to hear. I had several pairs of Micron Mega Air 90's and really loved them. Though, the skates had regular Custom+ holders, so how much can boot pitch overcome the neutral pitch on the Custom+?

Mako gloves popped up on eBay. Don't think they're at retail yet http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pro-Stock-Pro-Return-Easton-NHL-Pro-MAKO-Flyers-13-Hockey-Gloves-NEW-/261166022422?_trksid=p5197.m1992&_trkparms=aid%3D111000%26algo%3DREC.CURRENT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D14%26meid%3D5477515505251632706%26pid%3D100015%26prg%3D1006%26rk%3D1%26sd%3D261166022422%26 not my auction

I'm VERY tempted because I think I'd end up being a size 9, but I'm just not sure about pulling the trigger because I vacillate between 9 and 9.5 depending on the manufacturer.

I just tried to squeeze the uppers, didnt try to flex in any direction. Makes sense that they'd be stiffer laterally than front to back, I was just surprised at how stiff they were given the promotion of forward flex

Saw the Mako skates in person last night, though only briefly. They felt significantly more rigid in the uppers than I was expecting given how much they are touting the ability to gain forward flex. Also, the tongue was significantly more substantial than I would have thought. Still looked nice though and I'm still very interested in trying them on when they are available. Also, and maybe this is just me, but these skates look really big. Whether I'm seeing them on tv or even when I held them last night, they look big for the respective sizes. Maybe it's a visual effect due to the coloring or the size of the holder, but I always had the same thought about the MLX skates.

I thought the G75 has a more pronounced heel shape than the 705/G5, no?

Are those contoured or straight? Are they planning on bringing something like that to retail at any point?

Did the heel of the APX2 get more pronounced than the original, or are my eyes deceiving me?

Couple interesting pics of the skate internals here http://blog.icewarehouse.com/hockey-skate-reviews/first-peek-at-the-easton-mako-skate/

Saw the new Mako protective at TotalHockey today. The shoulder pads were interesting, though they didn't have my size, as we're the shins. I wasn't a huge fan of the elbows, but I'm not a good person to evaluate elbow pads, I'm very picky and still using 15 year old elbow pads.

Fair point, but it's more narrow than the TotalONE D width.

Damn. Oh well, guess that means I don't need to wait for these to come out then. As for CCM, they don't fit me well at all in the forefoot and the depth. It seems like the only options I have that fit me right are the TotalOne (since its available in a C to fit my narrow forefoot) or the 705/g5.

I understand that, I'm just wondering if it is going to work for the shape of my heel or if mine is too straight to fully settle in the heel pocket. For instance, we all know the totalone fits wider than the vapor, but the heel of the totalone is straighter and the heel of the vapor is a little more pronounced, as a result, when I put my foot in each skate the heel of the vapor feels wider to me (even though it really isnt) because my heel doesn't settle properly in the pocket. I'm hoping I won't have the same issue with the mako because I would really like to try the skate.