Tblades, A Day by Day Journal.

[gavin 0]

That's what I've heard... basically admitting that they're not worth the time. But they're not willing to admit to me that I got a bum pair. Because that would cost them... 100$? if that??

LOSERS. They operate their business on the lever of children in junior high.

[Jason Harris 31]

CCM would not have put them on there skates if they weren't good.

Yes, CCM thinks so highly of them that they are getting rid of them.

They aren't better. It's a good alternative for those who can't get good conventional sharpenings, but that's about all...

I disagree, JR. As one who has skated hundreds of hours in both choices, the increased agility from the t'blades was noticeable from the first time using them.

Even if CCM is dropping them from their line, that's not an indictment of the technology; rather, it's an indictment of the sales. I don't blame CCM for dropping the t'blades, because they don't sell well. However, they are better than conventional blades.

It's kinda the Betamax - VHS argument. The Betamax was considered a superior system, but it wasn't marketed properly, so it eventually lost the race. I think a similar thing occured with t'blades. They should have introduced the runner on a conventional holder, then a couple of years later "discover" that the circular holder can be made lighter. I think they'd have penetrated the market better by now if they had gone about it that way.

[Jiveturtle 0]

Ive had t'blades for over a year now. I use the same rocker same pitch and same hollow as I always have. Not only are these capable of sharper turns and shorter stops but they are lighter and the glide is actually easier. I would say that T'blades truly are better technology than traditional steel. I also find that the people who don't like them are people who never tried them or didnt spend very much time on them, there are very few people I know who gave them a real try and didn't like them.

[Gnorts 0]

CCM ARE NOT DROPPING THE T-BLADE. Your just making things up. The ZG line is still there. The ZG 10.0 look sweet.

http://en.ccmsports.com/catalog/view_cat.p...7px&pypos=150px

[gavin 0]

Shut up and don't be so ignorant. Don't tell JR that he's wrong about what CCM is going to do because you found out you can still buy a ZG on a website. That is indicative of... NOTHING. Pretty sure I'm going to believe JR over your website.

[dix0r 0]

heh, that's CCM's official site...

[gavin 0]

It's a catalogue. Trust me, I've worked on developing websites and they are usually NOT showing the latest R&D of a company. In fact, the IT dept. is supposed to protect the R&D and business plans of a company, particularly re: products. CCM's decision (personally I know nothing about it) would fit into that category. And so I'm just saying I would definitly trust JR before i would believe ccm's website. Plus the whole "you are just making things up" PULEEZ JR? Making things UP? Get a life. JR almost never makes a wrong prediction, he is bang on with everthing and all of us are surprised when he doesn't know something. He doesn't pull his information outta his arse. So please don't say stupid things like that.

[dix0r 0]

It's a catalogue. Trust me, I've worked on developing websites and they are usually NOT showing the latest R&D of a company. In fact, the IT dept. is supposed to protect the R&D and business plans of a company, particularly re: products. CCM's decision (personally I know nothing about it) would fit into that category. And so I'm just saying I would definitly trust JR before i would believe ccm's website. Plus the whole "you are just making things up"  PULEEZ JR? Making things UP? Get a life. JR almost never makes a wrong prediction, he is bang on with everthing and all of us are surprised when he doesn't know something. He doesn't pull his information outta his arse. So please don't say stupid things like that.

that wasn't me that said that about JR ;)

my first post in this thread was to say that was CCM's official site.

maybe JR knows something we don't, maybe he's wrong...i don't know, or care really. he definitely knows what he's talking about and is very helpful...

but just for argument's sake - i can see what you're saying about a company not taking a soon-to-be-discontinued product off the website...but this would be CCM's IT guys making up a new product. i doubt that would happen.

anyways, lets just wait and see what JR has to say and not bicker about this :]

[kornsined 0]

why is this turning into a pissing match? t-blades are either hate 'em or love 'em. always has been from the start.

[BK 0]

why is this turning into a pissing match? t-blades are either hate 'em or love 'em. always has been from the start.

I agree. Its like coke vs pepsi.. some people like coke and say that pepsi tastes like pisswater and some say that pepsi is nector from god... there is no winning the arguement.

[t1tan 19]

why is this turning into a pissing match? t-blades are either hate 'em or love 'em. always has been from the start.

I agree. Its like coke vs pepsi.. some people like coke and say that pepsi tastes like pisswater and some say that pepsi is nector from god... there is no winning the arguement.

personally i hate both, haha, Monster is the elixir of life!

[mew1838 0]

I love SOBE, hate the coke and pepsi

[Jiveturtle 0]

This thread took an odd turn

[gavin 0]

T'blade threads tend to do that. Someone will give their experience (example: I did) and then a couple guys wring him out, thinking that's he's saying the idea sucks.

w/e sometimes I wonder if peope actually read my posts... I explicitly said that they might even be better than traditional blades. I tried them, they destroyed my game and I'm just here posting to say: if you think confidence is worth anything, don't try these skates. Just my story. And watch someone tell me it's like me preferring Sobe over Coke. I don't think this has anything to do with Sobe/Coke/Pepsi or anything wars. My mental confidence in a big game is way more important than what I slam down my throat wilst eating pizza.

[mew1838 0]

Moral of the story, try the T-blades then if you like it, say its good if not, you will brag about how suck it is.

[Jason Harris 31]

T'blade threads tend to do that. Someone will give their experience (example: I did) and then a couple guys wring him out, thinking that's he's saying the idea sucks.

w/e sometimes I wonder if peope actually read my posts... I explicitly said that they might even be better than traditional blades. I tried them, they destroyed my game and I'm just here posting to say: if you think confidence is worth anything, don't try these skates. Just my story. And watch someone tell me it's like me preferring Sobe over Coke. I don't think this has anything to do with Sobe/Coke/Pepsi or anything wars. My mental confidence in a big game is way more important than what I slam down my throat wilst eating pizza.

As one who wrung you out, it seemed you allowed your whole experience with buying your skates (problems with HockeyMonkey and CCM) to color your opinion of t'blades. Yet to an outsider who read the thread it seemed that, outside of unluckily being sent a pair that had a manufacturing defect, most of your problems had nothing to do with t'blades.

(An example of this is I had a guy buy a G1 stick that broke in the first period, so I replaced it. That broke on his first shot -- and we both were bummed. Five had broken out of two-hundred, but this guy somehow had two of them? Yet he was obviously unhappy with Salming sticks. Finally, the third stick lasted and he grew to love it and has purchased more. Very similar to your story but, because he had a better resolution, he didn't walk away with a bad taste of the product or its design.)

Everyone here understands why you'd be upset with your experience, but when you break out the caps to forewarn people that they should be wary "FOR SAFTY ISSUES ALONE" it seems you're allowing your emotions to creep in and override objective analysis. And that's why I wrote that I felt your post was unfair -- taking one incident and suggesting it would happen for all others.

[mrusse01 0]

Gavin, it seems to me your argument would be akin to buying a new Toyota with Bridgestone tires, having a tire blow on your way home from the dealer and vowing never to buy a Toyota again. While that is a perfectly logical argument from your perspective, it doesn't really hold up if 1000 other people bought that car and none of them had a problem.

You just got a defective product, something that is mathematically certain to exist. You can blame CCM for their crappy customer service, and you can blame HockeyMonkey for their terrible custom service, but I don't think it is 100% fair to blame tblades or to say that they are a bad product because of your experience. Did you ever contact someone at tblade to see what their response was to your situation?

From reading your story I would certainly think long and hard before ordering anything from HockeyMonkey, I will probably never consider buying a pair of skates from CCM because of their poor customer service, but I personally would still buy a pair of skates with tblades on them. I don't think it is the possiblity of defect that I worry about when buying a product, because that possiblity will always be there, but rather it is how the company deals with a defect when it occurs that is most important to me. Of course if products are failing left right and centre I probably won't buy one, but your experience with tblades from what I've read sounds really rare.

[mew1838 0]

Yeah ccm custoemr service is horrible....I really would like to see T-blades on Eastons...

[gavin 0]

I see what you guys are saying. You're saying that my analysis is not scientific, as I didn't have enough test cases to provide meaningful statistics.

Ok you guys are right. But I was just following in the spirit of this thread. Go back and read the first post (by badkitty) which asked that we give our experiences. I'm just doing that. And, please don't ask me to "stick with the product, see if the 2nd or 3rd pair doesn't break" or even to enlarge my study group. First of all, skates cost me more than G1 sticks cost your buddy, SalmingUSA. Second of all, I don't care to start doing QC for anyone.

But since you guys seem eager to be more scientific about judging these skates (an ambitious task, I always buy skates and such things based soley on "what works for me") then I am assuming you guys are going to get a little more elaborate than "They didn't break for me yet, so therefore they do not break." Because that would not be very much like "objective analysis." If you want me to do "objective analysis" and are going to criticise me for not doing so, I expect that you would take it one step further and post up some more objective analysis than "mine aren't broke yet."

All in good spirits. BTW, SalmingUSA, what do you mean by "I have a slash in my holder for 2 years now and it hasn't gotten any bigger." I would think that would cause some concern on your part would it not? Like what if someone slashes in the same spot when you're chasing down an icing?

[NuggyBuggy 0]

w/e sometimes I wonder if peope actually read my posts... I explicitly said that they might even be better than traditional blades. I tried them, they destroyed my game and I'm just here posting to say: if you think confidence is worth anything, don't try these skates. Just my story. And watch someone tell me it's like me preferring Sobe over Coke.

You know what, your arguments are all over the map but completely inconsistent.

First, you said - in no uncertain terms - that t'blades "SUCK". Then later you concede that "they might even be better than traditional blades". Huh ?

You say that because your holders broke, your confidence is shot and you don't trust them. Fine, fair enough.

But then elsewhere you concede that you may have had the misfortune of a manufacturing defect, which one would expect to be rare. Then you go on to admonish others that "If you think confidence is worth anything, DON'T TRY THESE SKATES". This is not your opinion. It is a hard statement that implies the skates will fail on someone else, and implies that our confidence in a piece of equipment should depend on (just) your experience. If noone should buy a particular skate because someone, somewhere in some far corner of the hockey playing world had the skate fail on them, I'd imagine that there wouldn't be any skates left to buy.

If you can provide the faintest of statistical context in which to evaluate your experience, your admonition might mean something. You work at CCM and see x% of the ZGs fail catastrophically ? That means something. You work at t'blade and know there is an engineering or manufacturing flaw that predisposes the holder to failure ? That means something. You work at an LHS and see a large number of ZGs being returned because of an immediate failure of the holder ? That means something.

But with nothing but your own isolated experiece to count on, and nothing even remotely similar that I've seen in these forums, the notion that noone else should consider these skates because you received a lemon is, well, statistically fatuous.

It'd be like reading a post where some guy says "my stick broke in an important game situation, so if confidence is important to you, don't try this stick". Uh, yeah, if you say so boss.

[Jason Harris 31]

BTW, SalmingUSA, what do you mean by "I have a slash in my holder for 2 years now and it hasn't gotten any bigger." I would think that would cause some concern on your part would it not? Like what if someone slashes in the same spot when you're chasing down an icing?

My circumstances were different from yours, so I didn't quite have the level of concern that you understandably would.

I noticed about a 3/16" gouge in my stabilizer (not holder) about two weeks after I owned my skates when I was swapping out to test a different runner. It had obviously come from a skate, so I told myself I had to monitor it. That was two years ago and it's never grown since.

Yours obviously came from a manufacturing defect. I wouldn't even worry about monitoring a manufacturing defect. I'd return it and ask for a replacement, just like you did. Unfortunately, both HockeyMonkey and CCM dropped the ball at that point.

[gavin 0]

NuggyBuggy: Us guys here are just sharing our experiences and hoping people will learn from them. You're right this is not very scientific, but forums are not experts and I'm not claiming to be one either. But with everyone here sharing what happens when they try something, it's like we all share from trying them. All your accusations against the horrible flaws in this way of learning about the product are true: it is not very scientific. This forum is by it's nature rather "statistically fatuous" whatever that means.

However, I don't trust the guys at t'blade or CCM to tell me, even if they DID have horrible problems with QC or whatever. So I'm assuming that since you're so much better than me, you are a 3rd party, unbiased tester who examines "a large number" of holders or whatever other criteria you want to make this more "statistical." If you want to post the results of your research, please do. Until someone does, we are not going to stop posting. If we waited for your statistics, then no one would ever post on this forum. And that would be stupid.

[Jason Harris 31]

Gavin, no one is expecting science here. We're just looking for fair feedback on any product -- pro and con. You had fair feedback in your HockeyMonkey thread. I'm paraphrasing here and adding to it, but this is essentially what you could have written in this thread based on your earlier posts:

"I purchased a pair but the holder developed a crack during my first skate. I ended up ordering a second pair because I wanted to try the t'blades and had assumed it was a manufacturing defect. However, I got such a runaround by HockeyMonkey and CCM, that I never used the second pair. I now have such a sour taste for HockeyMonkey, CCM, T-Blade -- the whole lot of them! -- that I can't give you more feedback than that. I have no idea whether it really was a manufacturing defect or something that happens with every skate."

That's a fair assessment of your experience with t'blades. However, two months after your initial postings in which you said you still wanted to try skates with t'blades, you finally became fed up with the runaround and allowed it to color how you described them:

...THEY SUCK. ...BIG TIME. ...JUST NOT WORTH IT. ...FOR SAFTY ISSUES ALONE

Again, your irritation toward HockeyMonkey and CCM is understandable, but you've created a political agenda against t'blade based upon HockeyMonkey's and CCM's rep's actions.

[mew1838 0]

T-blade is ok, CCM AND HOCKEYMONKEY RUINED your impression on them....

[gavin 0]

Perhaps you guys are missing a key ingredient here. Bill Finneran told me that there was no problem with the holder, there was no defect. I then queried him. I asked him therefore if the skate that I was using held up to The Hockey Company standards for a product. He answered that yes indeed there was no defect and that what happened to me was... key word here.... NORMAL.

I don't want Bill's brand of normal thank you very much. I would feel more confident skating with higher quality equipment. In the words of my coach, that's a bunch of malarkey.

K you guys are right, it's not t'blades fault that they are reselling with a crappy company. Or is it? I can't tell. For all I know they could be a crap product backed up by crappy customer service, sold by liars. Who knows? And you can't really say otherwise (except for the fact that so far, nothing bad has happened to you).