Graf Canada out of business

[JR Boucicaut 3797]

Multiple reports that Graf Canada have closed their doors for business today. 

[orlandkurtenbach 6]

Sad day but I think we all saw this coming. 

[iceman8310 105]

does this mean graf europe as well or just graf canada?

[JR Boucicaut 3797]

Title says Graf Canada. 

[iceman8310 105]

yes it does, my bad.  I wonder who will acquire them

[Troubadour 46]

Fuck, that really sucks. They made some of the finest skates and had some of the best innovations. Will be sad to see them go, looks like when it comes time I'll be moving on to a pair of VH skates.

[sparky1 29]

That sucks.

 

I just saw the 50% off all Graf PK series sticks email from Total Hockey.

 

Oh well.

[Monty22 832]

I'm honestly surprised they lasted this long.  

[sectachrome 40]

Bummer. Not surprised though. 

[Scurvy 3]

All I can say is it's about time.

[MyBoxersSayJoe 133]

Wow. Wow...loved my Graf 703's but they fell behind the skate tech in the early to mid-2000's.

[DEATHTRON 19]

Guess this means we wont be seeing the PK7700 Skate?

 

Zach

[chippa13 1844]

38 minutes ago, MyBoxersSayJoe said:

Wow. Wow...loved my Graf 703's but they fell behind the skate tech in the early to mid-2000's.

Tech wasn't their problem. They had plenty of people in their traditional skates. The issue was quality control.

[Allsports&Cycle 0]

Glad I wasn't supposed to receive my product in-store until the summer. Sucks for those that received their product earlier. =(

[mojo122 535]

3 hours ago, chippa13 said:

Tech wasn't their problem. They had plenty of people in their traditional skates. The issue was quality control.

 

This and poor customer service.

[akravetz 29]

How are those PK sticks. My son, 10, just broke his CCM Tacks 5052 and well, he's 10. He doesn't need a high end stick. He plays defense. I figure for a kid who is 4'3, 65 pounds, any stick will do as long as it's not a huge piece lumber. Are you guys cool with a Graf stick for a kid? 

[mc88 160]

Sad, but...

 

 

[MrData 93]

Yeah, crappy news. I love my 535s. I guess my next skates will have to be VH customs! (Great excuse to blow a lot of money on skates now haha)

[icewalker_bg 126]

For long time, a lot of hockey the stores did not really carry any Graf skates in the MTL area, the few employees I spoke with were not too keen to do business with them.  I see maybe 100 Bauer / CCM skates on the ice before seeing a Graf skate, they are really not popular. 

[Monty22 832]

28 minutes ago, icewalker_bg said:

For long time, a lot of hockey the stores did not really carry any Graf skates in the MTL area, the few employees I spoke with were not too keen to do business with them.  I see maybe 100 Bauer / CCM skates on the ice before seeing a Graf skate, they are really not popular. 

 

This was true in most of  North America, due to the reasons cited above- Poor quality control and poor/non existent customer service.  Most of the shops near me (Northern CT/Western MA)  dropped their accounts over ten ago.  The demand was so small (and the problems so bad) that shops could cut them loose without a second thought.  Their product "development" reminded me of Sherwood - basically getting left behind clinging to wood sticks when the market changed to OPS and composites.  

[IPv6Freely 2092]

Yea they were pretty rare around here, too. Part of the issue is with how many different fits they had, nobody wanted to stock all the sizes in all those different models. So nobody ever had your size, even if they carried Graf. 

[Chadd 916]

Beast wishes to the folks I knew (and didn't know) at Graf Canada. A lot of good people are now looking for work in a shrinking industry.

[Zac911 317]

20 minutes ago, Chadd said:

Beast wishes to the folks I knew (and didn't know) at Graf Canada. A lot of good people are now looking for work in a shrinking industry.

THIS.  There is a human side to everything that is going on in our industry.  It's a terrible situation for all these families.

[shooter27 116]

Wonder if the PK series skates ever made it to retail. Or were they so capital constrained they couldn't afford manufacturing?

[Giraffe14 23]

3 hours ago, akravetz said:

How are those PK sticks. My son, 10, just broke his CCM Tacks 5052 and well, he's 10. He doesn't need a high end stick. He plays defense. I figure for a kid who is 4'3, 65 pounds, any stick will do as long as it's not a huge piece lumber. Are you guys cool with a Graf stick for a kid? 

 

My son is 8, (almost 9) and he was using a Graf G95 Revolt youth stick for several months.  He liked it, and it was noticeably lighter than the APX2 youth stick that replaced it.  Durability was fine, and he isn't easy on sticks.  He would probably still use it except it is now a bit too short.