Sniper9

Interesting that your cat pros are 40 grams lighter than mine. With the same holders and steel.

It's worth it for the people who want to keep their gloves.

My cat pros are 900 grams in size 7. My tf customs were 950 grams.

Probably is since it helps with more flex too I'd assume. Also my tf customs with SB holders and step blacksteel were 950 grams My cat pros with shift holders and steel are 900 grams. So not as drastic as the 850grsms I've seen but those specs are prob for the cat 9s which have less foam inside

.

No harm giving it a shot since the retail skates have a 30 day satisfaction guarantee. I will say as Hills posted on YouTube, the retail skates have noticeably less padding/ foam inside. Especially around the ankle area. I'm still getting used to the height of the holders and the flex of the boot vs my tf customs. I do feel I was more connected to the ice in the tf customs vs the cat pros however, it could be simply me using speed plates in the tf customs vs the genetix insoles now. The extra plastic in the shift max holders might have something to do with it as well. It's not a negative just different. Time will tell if I prefer the stiffness of the tf customs/svh. Comfort and fit/feel is pretty much the same between the tf customs and the cat pros for me other than the reduced toe box volume. Those who compare the tf9 and cat9 will probably notice a larger fit difference as my tf customs were made to fit my feet exactly and the cat pros are supposed to be similar on that sense as well.

So after the rebake I did the other day I was able to test the skates out at stick and puck. I actually switched back to the car pro tongues bc the felt tongues actually caused some rubbing on the outside of my ankle bc it was so tight against the cuff. I could've opened up the cuff with a heat gun but decided to try the pro tongues again to see how those felt l and to my surprise it felt very good. I was on the ice for an hour straight with no break and the cuff area that was bothering me before was 95% resolved. I felt it but it didn't hurt. I actually think the only reason I kind of felt it this time was because the area is still a bit sensitive from my game on Sunday. So needless to say I'm pretty happy overall. I have another game on Sunday and we will see how it feels then. If anything I might need to flare the inside of the cuff 1/16" to perfect it but I'm just glad it's not causing me any pain anymore. I'm pretty sold on the genetix insoles as the speedplates feel odd in this skates, probably because I would need to rebake the entire skate with the speed plates for it to feel better and I'm not doing a rebake lol. Genetix provides good support but like I said earlier, it's just a touch on the thick side but I'll just deal with it. Still debating on whether to put an extension on my sticks bc of the taller holders and steel. Overall the skates feel great and how I expected them to feel from the get to. Took a little bit of tinkering but I also had to do this with my tf customs. They do feel very similar except for the noticeable flex of the cat boots. Anyways. Unless something else crazy pops up with these I won't bore you guys anymore with my skates.

There's a difference between supporting as a fan and supporting as an employee

This is the protective film that's applied to the cat pros now.

That actually looks like epoxy. I'll take a pic when I get home of the film. If yours has a protective film you should see the lip/ridge under the river shield logo. It wraps both sides and also the heel of the skate. You can't miss it if you have it. Not sure when they started putting it on but they aren't on the demo skates.

I'm not home but it just looks like bubbles that occur when you don't properly squeegee vinyl stickers or paint protective film. It's really just cosmetic since the film itself is a protective film and not part of the skate.

This is what my LHS told me was a protective film to slow down and prevent chipping and damage to the carbon from skate cuts etc. I agree that they could've done a better job applying the film bit I appreciate the added protection. Mine only has a couple areas that have small bubbles. Btw, have you tested yours out yet.

I always thought it meant hk too lol which actually prevented me from considering buying them. Good to know.

Ya its confusing and annoying so the best thing to do is to actually try them on in person if possible.

Well I rebaked for 10 mins. And the pliability was night and day. Stretch wrapped the heck out of it. There is also wayyyyy more wrap now on the upper 3 eyelets. Going to let them cool overnight and then deal with the rubbing cuffs.

Let's be honest, you already knew it wasn't going to work for you before you even bought them.

If I had an agenda I wouldn't be making an objective post about the negatives I'm experiencing with this skate. My issue is the cuff and not the eyelet rubbing my ankle bone like you had. There's a way to take the skate off and put them on without having the eyelets scrape your ankle bone. And that doesn't really have anything to do with the fit itself. Trues are known to be hard to put on and off. My issue is the rigid cuff on the top of the boot which I never had issues with on my customs. You posted your issues and people provided you with feedback and information. You already made up your mind about true skates without even ever trying them and your limited knowledge about them and when people provided you with advice you ignored them. Since you already know true skates don't fit you just return them and stop posting in this thread. You obviously have nothing beneficial to add to this thread anyways.

Fit will be a bit diff bc of wider toebox and forefoot area in mach. Mach also has more padding in general. Fit 2 3s pros were really narrow for me in forefoot and was more narrow than a fit 1 mach for me.

I did this and it didn't really work. Maybe I didn't flare it out enough. I was thinking of flaring the outside cuff so there's some give on that side so there's room for the ankle to move and not mainly sit up against the inside cuff. It was just a thought. I don't want to end up flaring the cuff so much that it totally messes with the lock and wrap of the boot. The area isn't just solely the top of the cuff but also a bit lower too as it's pretty hard in that area with minimal padding. This is that picture of the general area. The first two pics are my current cat pros and the last was my tf customs. As you can see the wrap is similar. But maybe it's just diff enough to cause me issues with the current skates. I also noticed that the cuff area just before the top eyelet has a bit more padding in the tf customs vs the cat pros which is pretty hard. I have a game plan right now and hopefully it'll work.

Did this ever resolve itself completely? I'm having this issue with my cat pros and never had this on my tf customs. Might be because the new baking instructions is only 6 mins vs 10 mins for tf customs and the skates never got as pliable. How long did you bake yours for? Going to try a full rebake for 8-10 mins and see if that helps. I skate without the top eyelet done and it seems worse with this vs lacing up all the way to the top but I don't like the loss of ankle flexion with the latter. I even flared the top cuff on the medial side but it didn't really do too much. Maybe I need to flare the outside cuff too.

I didn't actually measure but there height difference of the holders and new steel combined was about1/4" taller. Holder itself looked at least 1/8" taller just visually.

So I was able to play in them earlier tonight. Very interesting experience. Good and bad. The good: more or less felt like how trues should feel. Foot felt hugged all around and comfortable around the forefoot heel and arch. There actually is noticeably more flexions when taking strides side to side but forward flexion seems similar to svh/tf line. Shift max holders seems very nice and the dlc steel is nice as well. What I found interesting was even after getting it re sharpened at 1/2" it felt more like 9/16. So something is either up with the steel not biting as much or the genetix insoles being pretty thick that it absorbs most of the "connected" to the ice feeling. Either way it's not a big deal but just interesting. The bad: even though I flared out the medial side of the cuff I'm still having rubbing on the inside of my shins just above the ankle. This is on both skates. I had this issue creep up on me in my old tf customs on the right foot and was able to fix it with spot heating and pushing it out but that area wasn't as near the eyelet but more the upper cuff. This concerns me as I might not be able to fix this issue without compromising the wrap if I flare the actual top two eyelets. I even notice my ankle bone rubbing on the top eyelets when I remove and put on the skates which I never ever did on my tf customs. This is probably due to the cat pros having less wrap and the eyelets are in a position where my ankle will graze everytime I put on or remove the skates. The neutral: the shift max holders are taller than ccm and Bauer and it made it feel like my stick was too short by about 1/4". Noticed this on some plays where I reached for the puck and missed. Overall if I can resolve this pesky ankle rubbing, the skates are very good. Even with the skates being more flexible I still felt most comfortable playing without the top eyelet done. I really hope either my ankles get used to the rubbing or am able to fix it bc it would suck. There's no visible mark on my ankles as it's not chaffing but more the hardness of the eyelet cuff. I will do a full rebake having the skates in the oven longer. I reached out to true and they said that their new recommendations are 6 mins Max but they can still be safely heated longer into they are pliable to my liking. Hopefully the reason for this is bc as I mentioned in my post above it never really got that soft after 6 mins Anyone else have this rubbing issue and was able to resolve it please let me know what worked. Stay tuned....

Love it. Amen.

Hmmm I can't comment on the midsole as I use speedplates and those are rock hard lol. I'm testing out the new genetix as they seem pretty good and actually support my arch and doesn't compress with weight. That's the only reason I like speedplates is bc it supports the arch completely and doesn't give. Makes the fit way more locked in imo. I have a game tomorrow so I'll be able to test out the insoles but I'll bake my speedplates so they're ready. Speaking of baking I rebaked my skates just now and was shocked that the instructions said to bake no more than 6 mins. The previous trues and vh were always 8-10 mins. After 6 mins the skates were no where near as pliable as if they've been in for 8-10 mins. I've done my share of baking true customs and this was odd. I didn't want to sway from the instructions so I popped them on and shrink wrapped them. I'm kind of disappointed if the different materials used now prevents from longer baking times or whether it has to do with the holders potentially warping if it's heated too long. I can see it from a liability stand point where if people don't know exactly what theyre doing they can damage the skates and or holders baking for x amount of time. Anyways, well see how they feel tomorrow. Going to let it cool down overnight before I walk around them in the house.