VH Footwear/TRUE by Scott Van Horne

[p106nut 1]

Recently picked up a pair of True Customs... The fit is incredible.  One question for the group: how do you deal with lacing?  After years of really bearing down on my laces, it's been a bit hard to find the sweet spot in terms of tightness.  

Also want to second (or third) whoever suggested Westside Skate in NYC.  Got fitted there and Tyson had a great attention to detail.  Highly recommend.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

25 minutes ago, p106nut said:

Recently picked up a pair of True Customs... The fit is incredible.  One question for the group: how do you deal with lacing?  After years of really bearing down on my laces, it's been a bit hard to find the sweet spot in terms of tightness.  

Also want to second (or third) whoever suggested Westside Skate in NYC.  Got fitted there and Tyson had a great attention to detail.  Highly recommend.

My laces are just barely snug up until the second last eyelet. With how much wrap you have around your foot you don’t need to tie your laces tight at all. I also ditched the wax laces as they weren’t needed anymore.

[flip12 715]

I just noticed today, TRUE also owns SVH's speed skate production now: http://true-speedskates.com/.

[p106nut 1]

1 hour ago, IPv6Freely said:

My laces are just barely snug up until the second last eyelet. With how much wrap you have around your foot you don’t need to tie your laces tight at all. I also ditched the wax laces as they weren’t needed anymore.

 

Funny you say that about the waxed laces... another modification for me too.  I laced them up with waxed laces and it was just way too snug.  Thanks for your reply.

[shoot_the_goalie 281]

2 hours ago, p106nut said:

Recently picked up a pair of True Customs... The fit is incredible.  One question for the group: how do you deal with lacing?  After years of really bearing down on my laces, it's been a bit hard to find the sweet spot in terms of tightness.  

Also want to second (or third) whoever suggested Westside Skate in NYC.  Got fitted there and Tyson had a great attention to detail.  Highly recommend.

I still use wax laces but I barely pull on them - just enough that there's no slack in them.  I find that unwaxed laces still slip in the Trues and change the way the skate feels during the course of a skate.  I lace all the way up to the top eyelet (which I never used to do) and I lace traditionally under the eyelet method.

An aside.  I went back to using the True insoles with the red footbeds.  I don't love them, but I did find that the Superfeet Carbons changed my pitch too much and made me a little less stable.

[joepaw 0]

With the snug fit around the ankles - do the true skates limit your ability to fully extend your stride when skating? 

[IPv6Freely 2092]

36 minutes ago, joepaw said:

With the snug fit around the ankles - do the true skates limit your ability to fully extend your stride when skating? 

Nope

[chippa13 1844]

I believe that is basically the entire thinking behind the True skate.

[nicktsigos 12]

Just picked up the skates and they look amazing.  Didn't notice any excess glue or manufacturing weirdness, I placed the order on April 5th True told me they shipped on Friday the 13th and Hockey Monkey got them Wednesday but processed them today.  Pretty damn quick, they did ship them with Step holders and steel but I tossed on some Tuuk edge and LS4 (ordering tydan now that I know exactly what size holder is on there) I decided to keep the True heal cup on there as well.  I went with the integrated shot blockers and holy shit are they stiff, I've been skating in Ccm super tacks so I'm hoping there isn't much of a difference.   I know people mentioned "comfort edge".  I'm not sure if its my skates or something they are doing but its actually pretty cushy at the top of the eyelits at the ankle, I can clearly feel where the shot blocker ends and a bit of cushion.  I was able to weigh them as well compared to a size 9 Bauer vapor x100 that I have as a back up pair.  Weighed without steel because the Bauers don't have any steel we are at 768 for the vapors and 863 for the True's.    My ankle isn't quite ready to skate them yet, but hopefully getting them out on the ice sooner then later.

[flip12 715]

14 hours ago, joepaw said:

With the snug fit around the ankles - do the true skates limit your ability to fully extend your stride when skating? 

It can, depending on how far under your body your return phase begins. If you land with your foot in the middle of your body (or even beyond the midpoint like Mogilny did) instead of around the shoulders you may find the close fit prevents you from achieving the outward ankle rotation (aversion) you’re used to. I had this problem in my MLXs, and while I haven’t fixed it completely, I have somewhat successfully addressed it; just need a heat gun to finish the job. With the boots’ high tolerance for multiple moldings you can spot heat where it stays too close and remold it with one of the two methods demonstrated by Cruikshank (roll that part of the boot out) or Van Horne (mold your required range of motion into the boots).

Personally, I think the top of the boot is the biggest problem area for Van Horne’s hockey boots. The fantastic upside they provide from the second eyelet down is simply worth the rub. It takes a little “hacking” to address subtle fit issues, but that’s just a side effect of such a responsively thermoforming boot.

Edited April 21, 2018 by flip12
Errant accent égu

[nicktsigos 12]

Edited April 22, 2018 by nicktsigos

[navy21 4]

Finally picked up my True skates and have been doing quite a bit of "hacking" to get the skate to fit correctly, which has come as quite a surprise.  After returning home from the shop I wasn't even able to get my foot back into the boot due to the size discrepancy between my wide forefoot and skinny ankle.  I actually had to re-bake them and forcefully open up the throat area of the skate where the top of my foot meets the front of my ankle....any one else have issues like this?  The "wrap" of the boot prevented me from getting my foot down into the skate.        

Do any of you guys recall if the blue footbed came pre-trimmed directly from True or if it was the LHS/retail shop that trimmed it?  I've noticed the footbed from my right skate is significantly shorter than my left....to the point that it slides around in the boot because the length is so far off.  

Edited April 25, 2018 by navy21
grammar

[mc88 160]

I'm baffled as to why some people make it their mission to persuade/dissuade others on how they should spend their money based upon something they've never used... but I won't go down that avenue. Instead, I'll give a first-hand, unbiased, point-of-view about my experience with VH Footwear skates over the past 4 years. To abide by the forum rules, I won't turn this into a review, but instead an overview.

To preface this post, I've never been paid, sponsored, endorsed(bribed), nor influenced in any way to use VH/True products; nor am I "fan-boy". The only reason I even heard about VH Footwear in the first place was from this very thread!

To be brief, back in 2014, I became a coach/instructor/rink-rat at a local rink. As I spent more time at this place, I realized that having proper fitting skates was absolutely necessary when spending 6+ hours on the ice per day (getting all those blisters, sores, cuts, bruises, bunions... the whole gamut). Back in the early 2000's, Ice hockey in my city was somewhat of an up-and-coming sport. Vastly different from what it is today. So finding a local hockey shop that still had their doors open became a novelty (had 1 shop at the time that closed their doors shortly after I bought my first set of gear). Fast forward to 2014, and at that time, there are only two hockey shops in my city. A rather dumpy, tiny shop inside the local rink and a Hockey Giant down the street. During this time, I went on a spending spree trying to find a brand, model and size that fit my feet, starting from: CCM 1152 Tacks, 10.5D (had to double sock for these babies), Supreme TO 8.5D, Reebok 9K 8D (two pairs after I broke the first pair within a week), Reebok 20K 8D, Graf ??? 7R, Supreme NXG 7.5C (these gave me tailor bunions and were fitted by the small shop inside the rink--big mistake), and Supreme MX3 8D. Thousands of dollars wasted trying to find a fit that didn't leave me curdled up in the fetal position holding my feet after skating for a few hours. Fed up, I went to my local Hockey Giant and asked, "I'm looking to get some custom Bauer skates". An HG employee states, "Uhhhhhh... we'll have to call a rep for that and it can take anywhere from 3-6 months or longer before he'll be in town to fit you. And, uhhh, no guarantee he'll even show up".   

In a last ditch effort, I began researching online forums. This is where I stumbled upon an ever growing post about Dustin Byfuglien using some custom hockey skates by a guy named Scott Van Horne. I wasn't completely sold, and waited a few months before I saw other members skates/heard their experiences. I took the plunge, traced my feet, and bought a pair. When they came in the mail, I was initially a bit disappointed in the craftmanship and followed that up with my subsequent negative response (pics are broken, but it was a reference to a bad weld versus a good weld) among others. After some clean up with some scotch tape, they came out pretty sexy. After a year or so of usage, I developed a few issues with the skates: Rusty eyelets and instep peeling on the left boot. I wasn't too concerned about the instep, as there was still material underneath where it tore, but the eyelets and rivets needed some TLC. I took them to HG, where they attempted to install new eyelets, but within a few days they came loose; and by this time, the Velcro on the tongues were shot and I needed to glue them together (red dots illustrate where I had glued the two pieces together). The stiffness in the boot became too flimsy for my skating style and, to pile even more to the list of problems, the rivets that were replaced by the rink shop, popped out like popcorn as soon as I took a puck to the holder (I did, however, use some nuts and bolts, which remedied the problem; full breakdown posted after the fact). Unfortunately, after a year after purchasing, I realized it was just time for another pair of skates.

By this time, VH had made some updates to their custom skates. They also made some updates to their pricing. They started to charge customers USD and CAD, despite only operating out of Canada. This left a bad taste in my mouth because they didn't operate nor have much of a presence within the US, nor pay US taxes (their reasoning was that some of their materials came from the US, therefore, it was their right to charge international customers USD). I said, "No." And stated I would no longer support/recommend this company nor its product (even had someone claim he was the VP of VH Footwear contact me, but who knows if that was real). 

As such, I vainly tried to buy their closest rival, the Easton Mako. Unfortunately, the Mako skates left my feet cold after about 30 minutes of skating (I'm told that's a sign of poor circulation -- not enough width). I also felt a fair bit of rubbing down the outside of the ankle that I just couldn't fix. I just had to sell them and move on to something else. So, I tried some Apx2 skates in a 6.5EE, but it felt too cramped in the toe area, and around this time the original 1X came out, so I tried a 7EE, but that felt too loose lengthwise. Seeing that I was heading down a path of buying one retail skate after another, like I did above (at this time, still only 2 hockey locations, the local rink that didn't carry EE and the local HG that had a very limited selection of EE -- so it was a fair bit of guessing), I reluctantly decided to give VH another try.

As mentioned previously, along with the price updates, VH made some updates to their skates.  Along came a thermo-modable plastic toecap, rust-resistant coated COPPER (not steel) eyelets, integrated shot blockers (for me, rigidity was what I was most excited about) and an enhanced metatarsal tongue. Pretty much all the issues I had faced earlier, were addressed with this new update. I ordered a pair with the new updates. First thing I immediately noticed was that the craftsmanship was vastly improved. I didn't have to take scotch tape to the outside of the boot to clean up the skates. They pretty much came looking sex-waxed and ready for war. However, no boot is perfect. I did have to tweak the sidewalls for more depth, trim the tongue near the toebox so that it'll lay flat across my foot, and lastly mocked up a tongue tab idea, sent it to VH and purchased new tongues with tabs because over my overpronation was causing the tongues to slide toward the outstep which was causing some discomfort. 3 years later and to this very day, I still use these skates and skate in them at least 3 times a week at about 2-3 hours per session. They've been rock solid skate after skate after skate. And here's what they look like today, flaws and all. 

But like all good things do, they eventually come to an end. The skates have lost some of their rigidity, the tongues are absolutely shot, from time to time, the lack of depth of the forefoot area numbs my toes (usually the result of over-cranking the laces), the rivets are super rusty and look like they're holding on for dear life (we have 3 hockey shops in the city -- local rink, Pure Hockey, and a small mom/pop shop -- and I guarantee that they will mess up the rivet replacements, so I may poke one of you shop guys with VH rivet replacement knowledge and have you replace when the time comes), and the Velcros are starting to lose their tackiness. Seeing that VH has been bought by True, I took the plunge and ordered a custom pair of True skates. I was fitted at Pure Hockey by one of the best managers I've ever dealt with (super attentive, answered all my Q's, and went above and beyond what I asked -- great customer service... just wow). My main reason for ordering new skates was that if these ever failed, I'd be up a liquid chocolate infused creek without a paddle -- at least now I would have something to fall back on.

If it's the same folks that are behind my current VHs that are making the True skates, I expect nothing but good things. But, but... I'll hold judgement 'till I get some mileage with them...

Edited April 25, 2018 by mc88

[IPv6Freely 2092]

10 hours ago, navy21 said:

Finally picked up my True skates and have been doing quite a bit of "hacking" to get the skate to fit correctly, which has come as quite a surprise.  After returning home from the shop I wasn't even able to get my foot back into the boot due to the size discrepancy between my wide forefoot and skinny ankle.  I actually had to re-bake them and forcefully open up the throat area of the skate where the top of my foot meets the front of my ankle....any one else have issues like this?  The "wrap" of the boot prevented me from getting my foot down into the skate.        

Do any of you guys recall if the blue footbed came pre-trimmed directly from True or if it was the LHS/retail shop that trimmed it?  I've noticed the footbed from my right skate is significantly shorter than my left....to the point that it slides around in the boot because the length is so far off.  

Having to heat them up to open them up a bit is a common thing. There’s even a video about it from VH on YouTube. It’s normal and expected.

 

[mojo122 535]

Pretty sure he is talking about after having them baked at the LHS and getting them home.  Only thing I can think of is whether or not during the initial bake they overtightened the laces beyond the 75% tight that is recommended causing more overwrap.  

 

[navy21 4]

1 hour ago, mojo122 said:

Pretty sure he is talking about after having them baked at the LHS and getting them home.  Only thing I can think of is whether or not during the initial bake they overtightened the laces beyond the 75% tight that is recommended causing more overwrap.  

 

Right.  I have feet shaped like a duck and I couldn't get my wide foot in and down once I tried them on several hours after baking them at the LHS.  Took a little more work than what the video suggested.  The curve/transition at 3/4 eyelets  was so sharp I could not get my foot around it.  I still have trouble, but with a shoehorn and standing I can get them on now.

 

Any input on the footbed?  It was cut comically small for my right foot....to the point it is unusable.  The customer service at the store was poor, so I was curious if this was on them or someone at True just had a bad day with scissors.  

[shoot_the_goalie 281]

12 hours ago, navy21 said:

Finally picked up my True skates and have been doing quite a bit of "hacking" to get the skate to fit correctly, which has come as quite a surprise.  After returning home from the shop I wasn't even able to get my foot back into the boot due to the size discrepancy between my wide forefoot and skinny ankle.  I actually had to re-bake them and forcefully open up the throat area of the skate where the top of my foot meets the front of my ankle....any one else have issues like this?  The "wrap" of the boot prevented me from getting my foot down into the skate.        

Do any of you guys recall if the blue footbed came pre-trimmed directly from True or if it was the LHS/retail shop that trimmed it?  I've noticed the footbed from my right skate is significantly shorter than my left....to the point that it slides around in the boot because the length is so far off.  

First part is normal as IPV6Freely said.  (edited: however if the shop baked them and tied the laces too tight, that could be the problem.  When I had mine baked, I only tightened about 70% at suggestion of the shop)

The second part about the footbed...  My footbeds are different sizes cause my feet are different sizes.  However, I don't have any slop.  Contact VH and tell them about the problem.  Their customer service is excellent and I'm sure they will remedy the issue, probably by sending you new footbeds to try.  And my footbeds were not trimmed.  They came a different sized stock as labeled on the bottom.

Edited April 25, 2018 by shoot_the_goalie

[IPv6Freely 2092]

2 hours ago, mojo122 said:

Pretty sure he is talking about after having them baked at the LHS and getting them home.  Only thing I can think of is whether or not during the initial bake they overtightened the laces beyond the 75% tight that is recommended causing more overwrap.  

 

Yup, that's how I read it too. 

[puckpilot 312]

Was at stick and puck today and saw some guys wearing VH skates. One of them had their laces wrapped around the ankles, strangling the outside of the boot. I wanted to cry.  :(

[chocks86 82]

34 minutes ago, puckpilot said:

Was at stick and puck today and saw some guys wearing VH skates. One of them had their laces wrapped around the ankles, strangling the outside of the boot. I wanted to cry.  :(

Lol, there should be no reason they need to do that. Maybe it's some superstitious thing they have done since they were kids because obviously the point of the skates is to be completely formed to your foot negating the need for all the ad hoc things we did in retail skates to get the best fit and performance. 

[adams2001 54]

On 4/25/2018 at 12:19 AM, mc88 said:

They've been rock solid skate after skate after skate. And here's what they look like today, flaws and all. 

But like all good things do, they eventually come to an end. The skates have lost some of their rigidity, the tongues are absolutely shot, from time to time, the lack of depth of the forefoot area numbs my toes

Thanks for the insight. I took the plunge after checking out this thread as well. Mine are starting to get worn down after 3 years.

Thanks for mentioning your experience of trying to go retail as well. I thought I would give that a shot before ordering Trues. Every time I consider it I circle back to the possibility of retail not working and losing hundreds of dollars on something that could have been corrected by buying what worked in the first place.

Please keep us posted on the True skate experience I'm curious if they stack up to the VHs. That might get me to pull the trigger on my next pair. 

[IPv6Freely 2092]

That's kind of what got me here as well. After wasting way too much money on skates that felt great in the store but hurt like hell on the ice I finally found the Mako, which to this day is very comfortable. When I switched to goalie I had some cheap Reactors just to try the position. Once I committed, since there was no Mako goalie skate, I said screw it and went straight for VH. Ended up being the right decision. I also didn't have to put a silicon sleeve on my big toe anymore like I had to do with the Reactors (and every other skate I've worn except the Mako and VH). 

[Sniper9 530]

On 4/24/2018 at 9:19 PM, mc88 said:

I'm baffled as to why some people make it their mission to persuade/dissuade others on how they should spend their money based upon something they've never used... but I won't go down that avenue. Instead, I'll give a first-hand, unbiased, point-of-view about my experience with VH Footwear skates over the past 4 years. To abide by the forum rules, I won't turn this into a review, but instead an overview.

To preface this post, I've never been paid, sponsored, endorsed(bribed), nor influenced in any way to use VH/True products; nor am I "fan-boy". The only reason I even heard about VH Footwear in the first place was from this very thread!

To be brief, back in 2014, I became a coach/instructor/rink-rat at a local rink. As I spent more time at this place, I realized that having proper fitting skates was absolutely necessary when spending 6+ hours on the ice per day (getting all those blisters, sores, cuts, bruises, bunions... the whole gamut). Back in the early 2000's, Ice hockey in my city was somewhat of an up-and-coming sport. Vastly different from what it is today. So finding a local hockey shop that still had their doors open became a novelty (had 1 shop at the time that closed their doors shortly after I bought my first set of gear). Fast forward to 2014, and at that time, there are only two hockey shops in my city. A rather dumpy, tiny shop inside the local rink and a Hockey Giant down the street. During this time, I went on a spending spree trying to find a brand, model and size that fit my feet, starting from: CCM 1152 Tacks, 10.5D (had to double sock for these babies), Supreme TO 8.5D, Reebok 9K 8D (two pairs after I broke the first pair within a week), Reebok 20K 8D, Graf ??? 7R, Supreme NXG 7.5C (these gave me tailor bunions and were fitted by the small shop inside the rink--big mistake), and Supreme MX3 8D. Thousands of dollars wasted trying to find a fit that didn't leave me curdled up in the fetal position holding my feet after skating for a few hours. Fed up, I went to my local Hockey Giant and asked, "I'm looking to get some custom Bauer skates". An HG employee states, "Uhhhhhh... we'll have to call a rep for that and it can take anywhere from 3-6 months or longer before he'll be in town to fit you. And, uhhh, no guarantee he'll even show up".   

In a last ditch effort, I began researching online forums. This is where I stumbled upon an ever growing post about Dustin Byfuglien using some custom hockey skates by a guy named Scott Van Horne. I wasn't completely sold, and waited a few months before I saw other members skates/heard their experiences. I took the plunge, traced my feet, and bought a pair. When they came in the mail, I was initially a bit disappointed in the craftmanship and followed that up with my subsequent negative response (pics are broken, but it was a reference to a bad weld versus a good weld) among others. After some clean up with some scotch tape, they came out pretty sexy. After a year or so of usage, I developed a few issues with the skates: Rusty eyelets and instep peeling on the left boot. I wasn't too concerned about the instep, as there was still material underneath where it tore, but the eyelets and rivets needed some TLC. I took them to HG, where they attempted to install new eyelets, but within a few days they came loose; and by this time, the Velcro on the tongues were shot and I needed to glue them together (red dots illustrate where I had glued the two pieces together). The stiffness in the boot became too flimsy for my skating style and, to pile even more to the list of problems, the rivets that were replaced by the rink shop, popped out like popcorn as soon as I took a puck to the holder (I did, however, use some nuts and bolts, which remedied the problem; full breakdown posted after the fact). Unfortunately, after a year after purchasing, I realized it was just time for another pair of skates.

By this time, VH had made some updates to their custom skates. They also made some updates to their pricing. They started to charge customers USD and CAD, despite only operating out of Canada. This left a bad taste in my mouth because they didn't operate nor have much of a presence within the US, nor pay US taxes (their reasoning was that some of their materials came from the US, therefore, it was their right to charge international customers USD). I said, "No." And stated I would no longer support/recommend this company nor its product (even had someone claim he was the VP of VH Footwear contact me, but who knows if that was real). 

As such, I vainly tried to buy their closest rival, the Easton Mako. Unfortunately, the Mako skates left my feet cold after about 30 minutes of skating (I'm told that's a sign of poor circulation -- not enough width). I also felt a fair bit of rubbing down the outside of the ankle that I just couldn't fix. I just had to sell them and move on to something else. So, I tried some Apx2 skates in a 6.5EE, but it felt too cramped in the toe area, and around this time the original 1X came out, so I tried a 7EE, but that felt too loose lengthwise. Seeing that I was heading down a path of buying one retail skate after another, like I did above (at this time, still only 2 hockey locations, the local rink that didn't carry EE and the local HG that had a very limited selection of EE -- so it was a fair bit of guessing), I reluctantly decided to give VH another try.

As mentioned previously, along with the price updates, VH made some updates to their skates.  Along came a thermo-modable plastic toecap, rust-resistant coated COPPER (not steel) eyelets, integrated shot blockers (for me, rigidity was what I was most excited about) and an enhanced metatarsal tongue. Pretty much all the issues I had faced earlier, were addressed with this new update. I ordered a pair with the new updates. First thing I immediately noticed was that the craftsmanship was vastly improved. I didn't have to take scotch tape to the outside of the boot to clean up the skates. They pretty much came looking sex-waxed and ready for war. However, no boot is perfect. I did have to tweak the sidewalls for more depth, trim the tongue near the toebox so that it'll lay flat across my foot, and lastly mocked up a tongue tab idea, sent it to VH and purchased new tongues with tabs because over my overpronation was causing the tongues to slide toward the outstep which was causing some discomfort. 3 years later and to this very day, I still use these skates and skate in them at least 3 times a week at about 2-3 hours per session. They've been rock solid skate after skate after skate. And here's what they look like today, flaws and all. 

But like all good things do, they eventually come to an end. The skates have lost some of their rigidity, the tongues are absolutely shot, from time to time, the lack of depth of the forefoot area numbs my toes (usually the result of over-cranking the laces), the rivets are super rusty and look like they're holding on for dear life (we have 3 hockey shops in the city -- local rink, Pure Hockey, and a small mom/pop shop -- and I guarantee that they will mess up the rivet replacements, so I may poke one of you shop guys with VH rivet replacement knowledge and have you replace when the time comes), and the Velcros are starting to lose their tackiness. Seeing that VH has been bought by True, I took the plunge and ordered a custom pair of True skates. I was fitted at Pure Hockey by one of the best managers I've ever dealt with (super attentive, answered all my Q's, and went above and beyond what I asked -- great customer service... just wow). My main reason for ordering new skates was that if these ever failed, I'd be up a liquid chocolate infused creek without a paddle -- at least now I would have something to fall back on.

If it's the same folks that are behind my current VHs that are making the True skates, I expect nothing but good things. But, but... I'll hold judgement 'till I get some mileage with them...

How did you get the t nuts to claw into inside sole of the boot? Or did u snip the claws off and just use lock washers to ensure it tightened properly?

[mc88 160]

11 hours ago, Sniper9 said:

How did you get the t nuts to claw into inside sole of the boot? Or did u snip the claws off and just use lock washers to ensure it tightened properly?

I took a pair of pliers and twisted off most of the teeth, leaving only a tiny bit. Then, I took a hammer and punch and tapped the nut into the bottom of the boot. This way, the nut wouldn't spin/dig a channel around the bottom of the boot when screwing the bolt in. The washers were used between the holder and bolt -- to spread the pressure across the holder created by the bolt.

There's a lot more to these nuts, bolts, and washers than just buying them from a local hardware store. You have to do research on steel grades and understand how using different grades affects the properties of the steel (and how there is still oil on them after the machining process that prevents sprays from sticking). As such, I wouldn't recommend this method as a first option. Try having one of the shop guys above replacing your rivets first before going down the nut and bolt route.

Edited April 27, 2018 by mc88

[Curtiss 2]

Hi all, avid reader of MSH for years but this my first post.

I recently picked up a pair of True’s from my LHS in Sheffield, UK. 2 weeks after sending scan details off they were back, impressed with how quick the turnaround was. I’ve struggled to fit into skates for years, with a high arch and instep so decided to take the plunge. I’ve only had 2 hours on the ice so far this week, they felt really comfortable after a few tweaks but will definitely take a period of time to get used to. After reading all the comments here I was under no illusion they’d be perfect out of the box. Just wondering if anyone has had the same issues as me:

- Had to remove the ‘packers’ in toe caps to give me a little more space in the boot as they felt too short. Removing the packers gave me a great fit.

- After the initial bake, fitting and taking the skates home I had to reheat the eyelets and softly curl them out to get the skates back on (common issue seen on this thread)

- Was in MX3’s previously with Tuuks/LS2’s & detroit1 profile, now in step steel with same holder/profile, pitch from these seems to be more aggressive? (My first time using step) 

- Part of the boot seems to have broken down after a mere 2 hours on the ice. Bare in mind I’m not the biggest or most aggressive of skaters out there! I understand there’ll be a slight period of getting used to changes and how the skate feels/reacts etc so I’m waiting for more time on the ice to judge. Really happy overall with no foot pain for the first time in a long time, the comfort and responsiveness of the skate is great, but should this concern me? My LHS are sending images and videos to True to ask.
 

https://imgur.com/a/11POAuy