What now? Loved Bauer Vapor X7.0 Skates

[HockeyTalker 1]

Hi! My son has skated on Bauer Vapor X7.0 skates for the last 5+ pairs of skates. He is now squeezing his Men's street shoe size 11 or 11.5 foot into a size 8 skate and he is losing circulation in his toes in the cold--yikes! I have managed to find new Bauer Vapor X7.0s in the past with persistent searching but I think time has caught up with me and I can't seem to find these new but old model skates anywhere.

He is 14 and about 6ft, 160 and plays pretty competitively so I don't mind spending money on his skates but I have usually found them for much under original retail.

What model skates should we look at? This year equivalent? Last year or 2 years ago equivalent (maybe I can find more deals)?

I would appreciate any help.

Thanks!

[tpedersen3118 58]

The skate you are going to want to look at is the Vapor X800 which is the current year skate or the Vapor X90 which is the previous generation. The X90 might be a little hard to come by, but I'm sure there are a few around if you take the time to search for them.

I should also mention that the x800 is a curve composite boot where as the x90 and x7.0 are/were tech mesh material boots.

Hope this helps! 

[flip12 717]

Even the X90 might be hard to find already. Maybe see if he'll even like the CURV boot, as there are still quite a few skaters out there who love the tech-mesh and prefer it over CURV. If he prefers sticking with tech-mesh and is ready to change sizes that could be an opportunity to try a CURV boot out. Otherwise, you could follow the search on eBay for X90's and Nexus Pro Stock (you can easily spot the difference between boots from the retail Nexus family and the Nexus dressed tech-mesh Vapors like these) in his size. Those are the closest to X7.0's. The pro stock on eBay option might not be optimal though because you often don't have the full picture of what the skate is actually like, as so many facets can be customized. If it's not financially unbearable, you could look into custom ordering the Nexus dressed vapors (also called V-Cut Nexus) which Bauer's making look like this now. I'm just not sure if they're only doing it for players under official team accounts.

[Jamarquan 201]

Just looked, no more X7.0s or X90s. The $399 X700 is still Tech Mesh though, so think about that before you go with Curv in the $549 X800s, if boot material matters to you or your son.

[tpedersen3118 58]

21 minutes ago, flip12 said:

Even the X90 might be hard to find already. Maybe see if he'll even like the CURV boot, as there are still quite a few skaters out there who love the tech-mesh and prefer it over CURV. If he prefers sticking with tech-mesh and is ready to change sizes that could be an opportunity to try a CURV boot out. Otherwise, you could follow the search on eBay for X90's and Nexus Pro Stock (you can easily spot the difference between boots from the retail Nexus family and the Nexus dressed tech-mesh Vapors like these) in his size. Those are the closest to X7.0's. The pro stock on eBay option might not be optimal though because you often don't have the full picture of what the skate is actually like, as so many facets can be customized. If it's not financially unbearable, you could look into custom ordering the Nexus dressed vapors (also called V-Cut Nexus) which Bauer's making look like this now. I'm just not sure if they're only doing it for players under official team accounts.

Do you suppose he could drop to a x700 as that has the tech mesh boot? I'm guessing boot stiffness might be a factor though given the OP's description of his size and level of play? Good call on the Nexus v cut, I forgot about those.

[flip12 717]

19 minutes ago, tpedersen3118 said:

Do you suppose he could drop to a x700 as that has the tech mesh boot? I'm guessing boot stiffness might be a factor though given the OP's description of his size and level of play? Good call on the Nexus v cut, I forgot about those.

I don't know Bauer's recent skates well enough to say really. I think the outsole being TPU instead of composite might make it too flexy if he's used to X7.0's, and I definitely agree there's also overall stiffness to consider. He might just blow through X700's too fast to make it worth while, but that's purely a guess.

[HockeyTalker 1]

Thank you so much! I will look at the X800s and try to find a pair of X90s.  I would have never known about the pro stock nexus and the v cut Nexus but I think I'm in a little over my head about the subtle differences and am afraid to mess him up .

One deviation he had from the x70s was a Pro stock total one supreme nxg (?) we picked up at a Perani's warehouse sale ($400 versus retail over over $900) and although they were stiff etc they had vent eyelets in the footbed that made skating in MN quite cold and his feet would get wet (I ended up duct taping those under the liner and solved the issue) but he NEVER loved the slight pitch difference of the Total One. He felt that the pitch was slightly different in the boot of the Vapor x7.0 and could skate better with them. We have his skates profiled by an expert in MI and even with that he never loved those skates as much as the x7.0s. He is back in the x7.0s but they are definitely too small.

He has always mentioned he liked the stiffness of the X7.0s (even as an 11 yr old). He said he can carve turns so sharp his ankle almost touches (is that because the boot is stiff enough?). 

So, just to make sure I understand the X90s are  tech mesh (is that also a composite?) and the X800s are composite curv? And the X700s are tech mesh but might not be as stiff as he might like?

He seems to like wearing kind of smaller sizes that what a person would usually expect.  We should probably go to a brick and mortar and try on the x800s and still search for a X90. I'm a little leary of the pro stock with our last experience and I am not sure I would know the difference enough to select the right ones online unless you all sent me the link like above.  LOL. Thanks for that. It looks like a good option too.

Thanks again.

 

[boo10 323]

3 hours ago, HockeyTalker said:

So, just to make sure I understand the X90s are  tech mesh (is that also a composite?) and the X800s are composite curv? And the X700s are tech mesh but might not be as stiff as he might like?

Yes, you've got it right.  Tech mesh is a composite material.  Curv is stiffer and lighter than tech mesh. 

You may want to look at the X900, as I know at least one major Canadian retailer has them on sale for $399 in store. It's basically the 1X with regular eyelets and a different liner. 

As for the vent holes in the outsole, unfortunately you're likely to find those on all top end skates now. 

 

[Jamarquan 201]

54 minutes ago, boo10 said:

Yes, you've got it right.  Tech mesh is a composite material.  Curv is stiffer and lighter than tech mesh. 

You may want to look at the X900, as I know at least one major Canadian retailer has them on sale for $399 in store. It's basically the 1X with regular eyelets and a different liner. 

As for the vent holes in the outsole, unfortunately you're likely to find those on all top end skates now. 

 

Even 200$ skates have vents. Look:http://www.icewarehouse.com/CCM_Tacks_4092_Ice_Hockey_Skates_Sr_2016/descpage-C492IS.html

[HockeyTalker 1]

Thanks! I had always thought we had bought a weird custom feature with the vent holes.  Good to know it is standard on a lot of skates.   Great, I'll report back when we find his new favorite skate!

 

[CTB 32]

I had the 7.0s a few years back and in X800s now. They're similar but as others mentioned it's not quite a one for one replacement. Other than the tech mesh vs Curv difference the main area I noticed was the tongue. The 7.0s had the thinner but stiff tongue while the X800s has the softer felt material but a very stiff insert which for me took a lot longer to break in.