VH Footwear/TRUE by Scott Van Horne

[no21kyle 5]

I just got shipment notification that they're on their way to my LHS.  I did the fitting on Monday. Jesus that's a fast turnaround.

[boo10 323]

On 9/19/2019 at 2:56 PM, no21kyle said:

I just got shipment notification that they're on their way to my LHS.  I did the fitting on Monday. Jesus that's a fast turnaround.

Pretty unimpressed with Pro Hockey Life and True at this point.  I ordered my skates one day before @no21kyle.  His are already on the way to him, but I can't even get confirmation that my order has been processed.  PHL tells me that the orders go through their HO, and that they've been instructed not to enter customer emails into the True order system.  That's pretty stupid as it denies their customer the opportunity to get the full experience.  True won't even answer an email submitted through their "contact us" email address, (4 days without an answer even though they say one business day).

I knew the skates could take several weeks and that's not my issue.  I just want to be informed of my order status.

@oldtrainerguy28 I guess I should have made the 45 minute drive to have you fit me.

[VegasHockey 1280]

12 hours ago, boo10 said:

Pretty unimpressed with Pro Hockey Life and True at this point.  I ordered my skates one day before @no21kyle.  His are already on the way to him, but I can't even get confirmation that my order has been processed.  PHL tells me that the orders go through their HO, and that they've been instructed not to enter customer emails into the True order system.  That's pretty stupid as it denies their customer the opportunity to get the full experience.  True won't even answer an email submitted through their "contact us" email address, (4 days without an answer even though they say one business day).

I knew the skates could take several weeks and that's not my issue.  I just want to be informed of my order status.

@oldtrainerguy28 I guess I should have made the 45 minute drive to have you fit me.

email skatesales@true-sports.com with your order info, and they will give you an ETA. 

Edited September 21, 2019 by SkateWorksPNW

[boo10 323]

1 hour ago, SkateWorksPNW said:

email skatesales@true-sports.com with your order info, and they will give you an ETA. 

That is the email address that is ignoring me.

[VegasHockey 1280]

45 minutes ago, boo10 said:

That is the email address that is ignoring me.

Weird. PM me your order number and I will see what I can find out. What store location did you go to? 

[z1ggy 81]

3 hours ago, boo10 said:

That is the email address that is ignoring me.

Mine took 4 weeks. With all good things comes patience. They could have had a weird down day in the shop and managed to push this persons order right through. 

[z1ggy 81]

As promised, here are some pics and my initial review of the skates. Will be getting them on ice tomorrow, if not then some time next week. 

From what I can see, my skates have pretty much 0 QC issues. The biggest thing I can see is what looks to be some glue/epoxy that dripped on to my toe cap, which I pictured above. All my rear tower rivets are copper thanks to the awesome crew at my hockey shop. When I got these on my feet after the bake, the length front to back was spot on... I did not experience any weird length differences or hot spots. Crazy comfortable right out of the box. I will say though... they were just a bit too roomie as far as volume in my upper ankle and mid foot went, heel lock was good but not great. We let them sit in the shop's fridge for an hour and I went to get lunch. I came back, we heated them up with a heat gun and put some C clamps on the looser areas, then let them sit for a bit. That helped quite a bit as these skates prettttyyy much turn into playdough when heated up then freeze into position once they cool down.

 

I'm going to take my heat gun out tonight and use some Saran wrap or an ace bandage to wrap around my ankle some more and just really try to get these as molded to my foot as possible. One major thing I feel is the blade under my foot. I'm like hyper aware where the steel is in relation to my foot so much so than with FT1 or FT2. I also went down to 5/8 hollow from 1/2. 

 

Edited September 21, 2019 by z1ggy

[Sniper9 530]

28 minutes ago, z1ggy said:

As promised, here are some pics and my initial review of the skates. Will be getting them on ice tomorrow, if not then some time next week. 

From what I can see, my skates have pretty much 0 QC issues. The biggest thing I can see is what looks to be some glue/epoxy that dripped on to my toe cap, which I pictured above. All my rear tower rivets are copper thanks to the awesome crew at my hockey shop. When I got these on my feet after the bake, the length front to back was spot on... I did not experience any weird length differences or hot spots. Crazy comfortable right out of the box. I will say though... they were just a bit too roomie as far as volume in my upper ankle and mid foot went, heel lock was good but not great. We let them sit in the shop's fridge for an hour and I went to get lunch. I came back, we heated them up with a heat gun and put some C clamps on the looser areas, then let them sit for a bit. That helped quite a bit as these skates prettttyyy much turn into playdough when heated up then freeze into position once they cool down.

 

I'm going to take my heat gun out tonight and use some Saran wrap or an ace bandage to wrap around my ankle some more and just really try to get these as molded to my foot as possible. One major thing I feel is the blade under my foot. I'm like hyper aware where the steel is in relation to my foot so much so than with FT1 or FT2. I also went down to 5/8 hollow from 1/2. 

 

Any reason why you went full Coppers in the back? Do you have any coppers in the front? I think having all coppers in the back is overkill. If done properly and the rivet holes are aligned you only should need the two in the back and two in the front towers.

 

What size skates do you generally wear/holder size? I ask this bc it looks like you could go up a size in holders as there looks like a decent sized gap between the front of the holder and the toe. 

Lastly, the shop should have baked them with the shrink wrap method to begin with. The traditional way isn't sufficient to really eliminate all negative space esp in the areas you're talking about. Using the shrink wrap is unreal and locks your foot in completely. 

Be aware that as discussed briefly by myself and @SkateWorksPNW that the true heel pocket is a lot deeper than other brands out there so when in a standing or walking, the heel may not feel completely cupped, but once u lean in ur heel should suck into the heel cup and lock in (ie skate stance). I think a lot of ppl mistaken that for a poor heel lock. One way to test actual heel lock is to stand and lunge forward as if in stride and see if u can lift ur heel while holding ur skate down... Also can do this while sitting and leaning one leg forward so the ankle and knee bends. 

Edited September 21, 2019 by Sniper9

[Sniper9 530]

17 hours ago, boo10 said:

Pretty unimpressed with Pro Hockey Life and True at this point.  I ordered my skates one day before @no21kyle.  His are already on the way to him, but I can't even get confirmation that my order has been processed.  PHL tells me that the orders go through their HO, and that they've been instructed not to enter customer emails into the True order system.  That's pretty stupid as it denies their customer the opportunity to get the full experience.  True won't even answer an email submitted through their "contact us" email address, (4 days without an answer even though they say one business day).

I knew the skates could take several weeks and that's not my issue.  I just want to be informed of my order status.

@oldtrainerguy28 I guess I should have made the 45 minute drive to have you fit me.

Seems more like a PHL thing than true. Esp if they didn't send the info to true yet. 

[boo10 323]

22 minutes ago, Sniper9 said:

Seems more like a PHL thing than true. Esp if they didn't send the info to true yet. 

Agreed.  My issue with True is that they have ignored my attempts to contact them.

To reiterate, I'm not concerned about delivery time as I fully expected it to take several weeks.  What I am concerned about is my order falling into the abyss and being unnecessarily delayed.  I've read more than one account of True and the Fit Centre failing to communicate effectively, ( things like problems with the initial scan, etc.).

Also, part of the "custom experience" is getting the email updates.  It's fun to see your order move through the system.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

To be clear though, it’s not on True to be interacting directly with the customer. So it seems like your expectations may be a bit higher than they should be. 

[boo10 323]

1 minute ago, IPv6Freely said:

To be clear though, it’s not on True to be interacting directly with the customer. So it seems like your expectations may be a bit higher than they should be. 

Nope, I simply went to their website and used the "contact us" info to send them an email.  It's absolutely unacceptable for them not to respond to an email sent following the instructions they've provided.  Even a "we can't help you" reply would be ok.  Radio silence is not ok.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

LOL okay

[boo10 323]

2 minutes ago, IPv6Freely said:

LOL okay

Not sure if you're mocking me or not, but either way I don't mind.  My email to True was just asking them what I need to request of PHL to ensure I begin getting updates.  I wasn't asking True to take any action or provide any updates.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

Probably better to ask the store.

[boo10 323]

16 minutes ago, IPv6Freely said:

Probably better to ask the store.

This is quickly devolving into a SMUesque rant so I'll just say one final time, when I realized I was not receiving updates that I should be, my first action was to contact the store.  My second action was to go into the store again.  Next was trying the HO of PHL, as they apparently submit the orders.  Fourth action was to contact True to ensure I knew exactly what I had to push PHL to do.  Both PHL and True are failing on the customer service here.

While it may not be evident by my posts, I've been very laid back in my communication with both parties.  Not pushing and being pleasant.  At the end of the day, I forked over $1,100 dollars and have no indication that anything has been done to date. 

Hopefully everything will go smoothly and I'll finally have a skate that doesn't hurt.  On the other hand, if I get a call in a week saying there was an issue and I need to be scanned again, I will be pretty pissed off.

[z1ggy 81]

2 hours ago, Sniper9 said:

Any reason why you went full Coppers in the back? Do you have any coppers in the front? I think having all coppers in the back is overkill. If done properly and the rivet holes are aligned you only should need the two in the back and two in the front towers.

 

What size skates do you generally wear/holder size? I ask this bc it looks like you could go up a size in holders as there looks like a decent sized gap between the front of the holder and the toe. 

Lastly, the shop should have baked them with the shrink wrap method to begin with. The traditional way isn't sufficient to really eliminate all negative space esp in the areas you're talking about. Using the shrink wrap is unreal and locks your foot in completely. 

Be aware that as discussed briefly by myself and @SkateWorksPNW that the true heel pocket is a lot deeper than other brands out there so when in a standing or walking, the heel may not feel completely cupped, but once u lean in ur heel should suck into the heel cup and lock in (ie skate stance). I think a lot of ppl mistaken that for a poor heel lock. One way to test actual heel lock is to stand and lunge forward as if in stride and see if u can lift ur heel while holding ur skate down... Also can do this while sitting and leaning one leg forward so the ankle and knee bends. 

I didn't ask for anything special, they just did that on their own. I've also never seen copper on front towers ever, although I've personally done it after I've have rivets fall out in my old Mako's. 

These are 271 holders. I normally wear 8.5 or 9 depending on brand, and when I got sized, my one food was about 8.6 (just over the 8.5 line) and the other foot was 8.75-ish. Honestly, if I was right between holder sizes, I'd rather go the smaller size and have a larger radius on my runner than have it be a little too long and then have my toe and heel catching... have to shave those areas or make a custom profile I'm not used to. 

Let me pop them on again real quick. When I was in store I just walked around and kind of hopped side to side. I didn't want to stress the eyelets and do any kind of damage, even though the skate had pretty much fully cooled off once I was on my feet. 

 

Also to this Boo10 guy... you need to chillax my friend. True didn't say squat to me and I understood it may take up to 3-4 weeks to get them. I got them just now because I went on travel Sept 5 and just got back. Boots had already been done by that point, but I didn't ask True... my LHS contacted me. 

[z1ggy 81]

Never mind my part above about finding out how to do the wrapping, etc. Found it in the True skate manual. Going to go to Pure Hockey tomorrow (skate shop I got these from is an hour away, thru Manhattan) to use their oven and see if they'll help me wrap my feet and use the bar clamps on them. They do still feel just a touch loose/sloppy in that heel/ankle zone. 

Edited September 22, 2019 by z1ggy

[VegasHockey 1280]

2 hours ago, z1ggy said:

Never mind my part above about finding out how to do the wrapping, etc. Found it in the True skate manual. Going to go to Pure Hockey tomorrow (skate shop I got these from is an hour away, thru Manhattan) to use their oven and see if they'll help me wrap my feet and use the bar clamps on them. They do still feel just a touch loose/sloppy in that heel/ankle zone. 

The shrink wrap method will remove all negative space if you do enough wraps so you shouldn't need to use the clamps. Just have them keep going around until it feels super snug, then wrap it one more time. 

[z1ggy 81]

2 minutes ago, SkateWorksPNW said:

The shrink wrap method will remove all negative space if you do enough wraps so you shouldn't need to use the clamps. Just have them keep going around until it feels super snug, then wrap it one more time. 

Okay I will buy a brand new box of the saran wrap and tell them to go to town haha. The LHS near me wants to charge me $40 to use their oven lol hopefully the kiddies at Pure are cool and won't charge me... I usually buy some laces or a few other rando items just because I know time isn't free. I do maybe need some new elbow pads....

[Sniper9 530]

I wrapped it so many times the clear wrap looked solid and you couldn't see anything under Neath. And when the skate cooled my feet were numb lol that's how tight I did mine. Once the skate breaks in a bit it'll also loosen a touch due to materials softening up a touch and also when the tongues compress a bit. 

Since dropping the eyelet my skates obviously aren't as tight but the extra flexion makes up for it. So much more agility. Really like it. I do miss the super locked in feeling of having all eyelets done but the pros of the on ice performance with dropping the top eyelet squashes and "psychologicall" pros, lol. 

As for the my socks experiment, I got a 6 pack of Hanes 80% cotton over the half socks for 16$ from Amazon and my theory was right. The cotton not wicking as much sweat keeps the clarino dryer and I didn't feel any slip near the end of the game from sweet. The clarino liner also felt just a touch moist and no where near as slick as when I use my UA socks. Now what am I going to do with my three pairs  UA socks???? Hope this helps ppl that experience the same sweaty ass feet as me. 😬

Edited September 22, 2019 by Sniper9

[VegasHockey 1280]

26 minutes ago, Sniper9 said:

I wrapped it so many times the clear wrap looked solid and you couldn't see anything under Neath. And when the skate cooled my feet were numb lol that's how tight I did mine. Once the skate breaks in a bit it'll also loosen a touch due to materials softening up a touch and also when the tongues compress a bit. 

Since dropping the eyelet my skates obviously aren't as tight but the extra flexion makes up for it. So much more agility. Really like it. I do miss the super locked in feeling of having all eyelets done but the pros of the on ice performance with dropping the top eyelet squashes and "psychologicall" pros, lol. 

As for the my socks experiment, I got a 6 pack of Hanes 80% cotton over the half socks for 16$ from Amazon and my theory was right. The cotton not wicking as much sweat keeps the clarino dryer and I didn't feel any slip near the end of the game from sweet. The clarino liner also felt just a touch moist and no where near as slick as when I use my UA socks. Now what am I going to do with my three pairs  UA socks???? Hope this helps ppl that experience the same sweaty ass feet as me. 😬

I use these socks and they are fantastic

https://zenkaisports.com/products/zenkai-hockey-compression-lace-bite-sock/

[Sniper9 530]

6 hours ago, z1ggy said:

I didn't ask for anything special, they just did that on their own. I've also never seen copper on front towers ever, although I've personally done it after I've have rivets fall out in my old Mako's. . 

 

Aside from custom bauer and CCM, All skates have at least the inside most rear front tower rivet a copper one. CCM does the most rear front tower copper x2 and trues do the same thing. As for rear tower rivets all companies only do the most rear two of the rear tower coppers. I've seen alternating but all rear Coppers is new to me, esp in combination of no front tower ones. 

I'm a size 7 in all retail skates and have been on 263 holders with Bauer and CCM... And now on my trues. The holder line up all the way to the edge of the heel and pretty much as far as you can at the toe without the holders being "oversized"

Edited September 22, 2019 by Sniper9

[Sniper9 530]

31 minutes ago, SkateWorksPNW said:

I use these socks and they are fantastic

https://zenkaisports.com/products/zenkai-hockey-compression-lace-bite-sock/

Pretty much majority cotton but I'm not down to spend 16usd for a pair of socks esp since the fabrics are pretty much same as most other cotton based socks. But I guess being waterproof it keep the water from soaking up the sock and transferring into the skate as well. 

Edited September 22, 2019 by Sniper9

[BenBreeg 493]

Out of curiosity, why not just use more copper rivets as a matter of course?  I am sure there is a price difference relative to non-copper rivets but it is a drop in the bucket when compared to high end skate cost.