raganblink

You can always go custom, too. Shockingly less expensive than what you're thinking it'll be. At least, in my opinion it is. For guys that love the old classics - Forsberg, Lidstrom, Iginla, etc. who don't want to switch it up - custom is definitely the way to go.

Most credible shops will have them, but not everyone will. I'd wager to say, if you've seen the store stock top-end CCM skates in stores in the past, that you'll see them with the scanner now. Only exception could be the stores that have 2-3 locations in a city, the biggest one will probably have it while the smaller stores may not.

That's funny, I had the opposite experience. Half of the Easton bags we sold ended up ripping out. The reason they sold so well I don't think had to do anything with how good they were, but rather that they offered good sized and cheap youth bags. Plus when I am at my max with Bauer, CCM doesn't have great offerings for bags and neither did Warrior, AND I had to get my dollars up with Easton, it made sense why a lot of dealers went with Easton bags to stock. I remember the last booking we had with them was literally for 70 youth bags, a dozen stick bags and some regular bags simply so I could add 4 more pairs of Bauer skates into my order. They're definitely an improvement on what they had before the buyout, however, I don't think you'll see similar numbers in terms of sales due to people still wanting to put their Bauer dollars into other products (skates, helmets, sticks, protective, etc etc).

But how many players are there that are 30 years old or older, and how many need new skates every season? The market is changing a little bit right now, with more and more players giving CCM a chance, especially since they have a money back guarantee right now on their new Tacks line, but, skates are still dominated by Bauer. For us its still 70% Bauer, 30% CCM. A little better from a couple years ago when it was 80-85% Bauer, 2-3% Graf and 10-15% CCM. I say give it another 2 or 3 years and we'll start seeing some 50-50 sales for the average skater, but until then Bauer is still king with skates. As for the Graf skate stuff - its delaying the inevitable I think. They're going to die. With lower and lower margins, and retailers not wanting to dive into large stocks of skates due to so much turnover and clearance product out there, its not the most incentive business. Vaughn if the move is to improve their goalie skate sales, I don't know how much this will help. It will I think but is the investment worth it? Goalie skates are a niche market since how many goalies are there to skaters? And a lot of goalies also have a pair of ice skates, so the sales are probably 1 goalie skate to 15-20 player skates. There currently isn't a company out there I think that can compete with Bauer and CCM in the overall department, especially skates. Warrior, STX, True, Vaughn, Eagle, Sher-wood, Graf, Brian's, Winnwell, Montreal, Tackla, etc etc etc etc all have their niche. Bauer and CCM are so great overall. Warrior, Sher-wood, True, STX are probably best known for their sticks. Eagle gloves, Tackla pants, Graf skates (although not popular skates), Vaughn and Brian's goalie, Winnwell and Montreal ???, There are so many companies out there and some definitely have the capital to get a start in the skate department to try to become an overall brand in the hockey game, however none of them have the shelf appeal to become an actual important factor in skates. I know a lot of retailers would just prefer if they all died and it left CCM and Bauer standing. I try to give options to customers, for instance I have True, STX, Sher-wood, and Warrior composites in this year in addition to CCM and Bauer, however unless the margins are there for us and are better than what Bauer is offering, I'd rather sink that money into Bauer product since I know its going to sell and its going to sell quickly. And for the companies who aren't going to make it worth the while for us, I'll still get some but the quantity isn't going to be much. The only way I can see Graf (or whatever becomes out of this stuff) to succeed on the market is ditching the name and do a Vaughn powered by Graf (for goalie - maybe get True/STX/Warrior on board for player skates?) but make it the most valuable skate on the market at the price. Example - for $70 PP have it comparable to Bauer's $100 PP. have the $150 PP be the market's standard for a $200 PP (with removable steel, etc), have the $200 like the $300, $300 like $400, then maybe have a $500 skate worth a $600-700 skate, and have a skate retailing at $850 that's just as nice if not nicer than the top-end on the market. THEN, to make it worthwhile for the retailers, give them amazing margins. Better than anything out there on the market. That is the only way I can see a new skate company being successful - higher quality products and lower than industry standard wholesale prices.

The Vector series of skates are SMUs for SFS and another buying group dealers. CCM offered some amazing products at great price points for the consumers, so if a store is apart of this I would be surprised if they didn't purchase them. We've been overjoyed with these SMU skates. The Vector Plus & Pro are insane quality for the price.

G3035 is the widest heel and instep IMO of the G series from Graf. The padding in the G5035 - 9035 is a lot more substantial and therefore takes up a little more volume. From experience selling these skates, they are very similar in nexus instep depth, however a little wider in the heel and narrower in the forefoot.

I skated on them in January - no bake or anything, they felt good. Turns were really responsive, they were light on my feet. I didn't feel any spring in my step compared to the Nexus skates I was in earlier and later on in the day. However they were a definite upgrade over the Ultra Tack...if you're thinking between the Super and Ultra, go Super. The money is worth it. On sizing I had some severe issues with the ball of my foot like JR, which I assume would go away with a punch out. I skated for about 15 minutes and after 3 I was in trouble.... 15 it was definitely time to come off and take them off. For comparison sake on sizing, I skate in 9.5EE Nexus and I was in a 9.5EE ST. Had to go up to a 10EE in the Ultra Tack, not sure if the sizing is still off with those two models. A 9.5D Nexus felt better in the forefoot compared to the 9.5EE ST. The only downside I could think of is questionable durability. Is this skate going to handle a season of high end hockey? I don't want to crap on CCM, but, I have yet to see a player on my USHL team make the season through a pair of Tacks, RBZ, JetSpeeds, Ribcore, etc. All the guys who buy Bauers from me to begin the year - not counting the 6'7" kid that was drafted, they've all had their skates last all through the year no problem. We've seen 1 piece boots before and they didn't quite go for that long. Who knows if that was Easton Quality or if it was an inherit flaw in the 1 piece boot process. You'd think Bauer for all of its R&D and innovative skates would have brought a 1 piece to retail a long time ago and they never have. Maybe they know something we don't? Saying that, I feel as if any issues do come up they will come up quickly, and CCM is offering the demo to try the skates out and if you hate them you can return them....they must be truly committed to thinking their product is superior and is going to work well. Hoping these are a home run for CCM as its good to have a healthy competition in skates, as we're only down to 2 (basically) manufactures.

Its heavier, so probably. Hard to speculate on something that came out a week ago though...

Interesting that they only owe Sakurai $369K, and Graf Switzerland $2.6M. I am guessing that is a bulk of the manufacturing that has been unpaid? Meanwhile they claim to have $3.7M in inventory and $866K in accounts receivable (honestly criminally low compared to what Bauer/CCM/Warrior has open with just some retailers, let a lone all of them). Seems like they could have made it work and get out of the hole if they paid off the debt to the bank first. Makes sense though why they were offering insane discounts on skates though 6 months ago, they definitely needed to get rid of that inventory that they have.

Hey this sounds familiar. Warrior definitely hasn't sold as well as it has in the past with the new Dynasty sticks, Covert sold pretty good though (I think colorway has a lot to do with it). Unfortunately, give it a couple of years and you'll see primarily Bauer & CCM at a LHS, then 10-20% of the inventory a mix between True, Warrior, STX, Sher-wood, etc. The 10-20% may be generous though, I know a couple of stores who are doing quite well for themselves right now and they literally only carry Bauer & CCM. The only things they carry that aren't from those two companies are Sher-wood sticks & some Howie's Hockey Tape, maybe some random apparel company, but for the most part, 95% of the store is Bauer or CCM.

I don't feel like they were directed at you, just hockey world in general. As for the new True stuff, its great. About a month ago I got to use the sticks and gloves and it was my favorite there (6.0 #1, xcore #3..QRL #2). I didn't want to leave actually and stayed a little long into that next session. The gloves felt good and for the price they are in-line with everyone else at that price. We aren't going to order them due to low volume sales at that $150+ glove but I know other dealers who are ordering these and will blow out of them.

They wont until 2016, as mentioned earlier in the thread somewhere.

Okay guys lets act a little older than 13... As for the launch, we haven't gotten the product yet, either, and we haven't received a shipment notification. My knowledge during booking was it was 6/1, same with the RX stick launch.

Ha yeah they didn't even both changing the colors. Pretty apparent what CCM is doing. But all of that information is correct

SpeedPlate is being pushed back for accessory release until April, 2016. They will still come with 1X skates.

Its all about saving face. I've had multiple people ask about the Krown 360 - I bet Warrior, Peranis & Hockey Money are loving this - they'll finally be able to get rid of those buckets that didn't sell and broke easily. With the testing they've done - we haven't had time to examine their methods, but based on the short video ESPN had - to me it seems a little flawed. Looked the same as football testing, which we know is not the same as hockey, as hockey has much more linear impacts rather than straight on (the reason why Bauer & CCM have spent millions of dollars in R&D on protecting against linear impacts). Its also interesting that helmets, with the same interiors are rated different with their shell being the only difference. Further what is the difference between their star ratings? Is something a high 1 star that was almost a 2, or was one a low 1 star that almost was not recommended? What do they constitute a 4 or 5 star helmet? Once we have those parameters than the companies can design a helmet that fits that mold, but again, would it be too heavy of a helmet and therefore cause whiplash issues, especially on those who do not have strong neck muscles? Lastly, the video by ESPN is ridiculous - girl in a helmet that wasn't produced for several years before she bought it, then her cage is too large and has no jclips, and lastly, is she still using a helmet that she got a concussion in? Uhh talk about bad parenting. If I have children who play hockey, I'll be buying them a new helmet seasonly. You don't know what kind of fractures have happened in that helmet, and the constant expanding and contracting of the interior cannot be a good thing.

Minnesota market is messed up in fairness though. When I played in the cities I saw 1 or 2 people in the Mako 2 stick - once they went on clearance everyone had them. You also may not notice the Stallion in a game live - its an all black stick with a little bit of yellow, looks very similar to Nexus & Stealth sticks.

Speedplate is not being released (after market) until Spring 2016, it is being released with the 1X skate. Edit - wrote 2015 instead of 2016.

Mid-June, so anytime between May 1st and August 1st Special colored ones (red, blue, black) are released mid-July.

MAP should be $49.99

We just saw the line... the Surgeon 500 protection is incredible. Some of the lightest best fitting shoulders I've tried on, incredibly low profile. The elbow pads - I will be putting these on myself when we get them. I have had the Warrior Projekts for years (Blue ones) and those are by far my favorite elbows...these blow them out of the water. Incredibly comfortable.

Vapor carries over in gloves, so not this year... if they make it, which they probably will, it'll be 2016.

The replacement for the MX3 wont come out until Spring 2016 - we're a solid 16 months away. If that works for you then I'd wait - if you need them sooner than get them. The speedplates and LS4 will be available standalone in June.

To be frank Neo, if you were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for advertisement on this product, where there are other established competitors already in the market place (Dr Scholls, Shock Doctor, CCM, Graf, Superfeet, to name a few) you'd be dumb to say its just another footbed. From a customization standpoint, this is head over heels anything I've seen, and everyone I've heard who has skated in it has loved it.

So for clarity sake - bake 1x skates for 3 minutes, put speed plate in halfway through, put speed plate into skate after baking is done, lace up skate and stand up for 10 seconds?