VH Footwear/TRUE by Scott Van Horne

[IniNew 53]

So we're going to see competition for mlx lovers from this me2 and mako skates? Oh boy!

Hahaha.

When JR posted "Me2 product" he meant "Me too" as in, another company offering the exact same thing as Easton is offering with the Mako now. He also said it was a one-off. So no, there won't be competition.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

I honestly thought ibeck was being sarcastic... heh.

[nyntwun 2]

Look at the logo on the pic Harv provided. It's VH Footwear.

http://www.vhspeedskating.com/products/vh-custom/

Pretty sick looking skate.

[Chadd 916]

Look at the logo on the pic Harv provided. It's VH Footwear.

http://www.vhspeedskating.com/products/vh-custom/

Pretty sick looking skate.

Nice find.

And here you have the MLX tie-in:

http://www.vhspeedskating.com/company-info/scott-van-horne/

[ibeck 38]

I honestly thought ibeck was being sarcastic... heh.

Nope, i guess I read it wrong

[iceman8310 105]

Big Buff does not stick to his skates for very long does he? He seems to be changing skates all the time.

Savard did the same

[flip12 714]

Nice find.

And here you have the MLX tie-in:

http://www.vhspeedskating.com/company-info/scott-van-horne/

Margarine! $1200 for a custom speed boot! I was prepared for much worse sticker shock.

I don't find the Me2 ripple effect implausible, looking at minimal running shoes, and even composite sticks. I remember Busch being around for a few years and then Easton brought "one-piece" composites to the distribution level that allowed/forced the everyone-in-the-pool inflection point.

Maybe that whole segment won't develop. I could also see some sort of hybrid dominating: a Supreme/Mako synthesis.

[JR Boucicaut 3797]

Scott emailed me yesterday morning with some info. Do note the skate is an earlier revision and isn't complete yet.

Press Release regarding the new VH hockey skate:

There has been some chatter lately relating to the skates that Dustin Byfuglien wore in the most recent Winnipeg Jets games. These are a brand new VH hockey skate.

Info on the VH hockey skate division:

Recently VH started developing an inline hockey skate boot. Throughout the shortened NHL season VH has also been making goalie skate boots. Feedback from NHL, AHL, and rec league goalies using VH goalie skates has been extremely positive.

Info on the VH hockey skate boot:

VH is rooted in speed skating, and has been producing custom made speed skates for almost 20 years. We werent interested in getting into the hockey business unless we could create a skate that was made with the same core structure as our custom speed skates, and that is a monocoque skate boot body. Unlike any other hockey skate boot, our patent pending monocoque skate boot body incorporates the foam liner and the eyelet cuff. Therefore, as the carbon fiber and proprietary composites are cured it forms a one piece boot body integrated with the liner and the eyelet cuff. Traditionally this type of construction is only found in $1500 speed skate boots. Traditionally hockey boots are/were made from multiple components being heat formed and then glued and stitched together. The advantages of a monocoque structure are: better/more direct power transfer, more responsive, stronger, much more durable, better wrapping/fastening of the eyelet cuff over the instep of the foot, complete foam lined toe box for comfort and protection, and extremely lightweight.

As with our speed skate boots, our monocoque skate boot body has integrated thermoplastic zones for optimal anatomical heat molding throughout the ankle, arch, and instep. This coupled with the heat mold-able tongue provides a truly custom fit, when properly heat molded.

Its taken us over 10 years to develop an efficient, scalable method for the monocoque boot construction for our speed skate boots. Recently, with the creation of an anatomically advanced, inline hockey compatible, foot last we were able to utilize the speed skate production technique for the production of inline hockey boots. Because of the complexity of the new foot last we had to develop a new production technique to accurately create the 3D foot last shape. Traditional methods did not have the cutting precision needed to mill the new foot last.

Although, the standard sized boot will fit like a custom boot when heat molded to the customers foot, we wanted to take it one step further and design a method for making a truer custom boot, or bespoke boot. What we developed was a technique to create a custom boot from a foot tracing and circumference measurements. This technique has worked exceptionally well for individuals with slight foot deformities, big pumps that just cant be accommodated in a normal skate, high insteps, and overly wide feet.

Comparison/similarities to MLX:

We werent interested in reproducing the MLX skate. MLX was a first generation hockey skate that although had its positives, also had its negatives. As mentioned above our mission was to create a skate that incorporated a monocoque skate boot body, and to do this we had to start from scratch with the foot last. The easiest way to teach some of the major differences from the MLX boot is to describe the construction of the VH boot starting from the inside out: components of the VH boot are layered onto the inner foot last (as it is regarded in the industry) and then formed through the carbon fiber/composite wet epoxy lay-up process. With the VH boot, the wet lay-up process incorporates most of the major components (liner and eyelet cuff) in the one step, and therefore there is no need to glue and stitch them in place after. The VH tendon guard is permanently attached to a proprietary inner recessed part of the monocoque boot body, located over the Achilles tendon, and it is fixed in place, creating a seamless, clean look. We wanted to do 3 main things with the VH tendon guard: make it so it doesnt break, make it so it is substantially integrated into the skate boot body, and position it at the optimal angle so that players can extend their ankle adequately and still lean on it for posterior support. Through dart fish analysis we found that ankle joints only extend to 97° while skating at max effort, on hockey skates; speed skaters, using klap skates, maximally extend to just over 100°. We designed the VH tendon guard to allow 100° of ankle extension, which means when you are standing up straight, with your knees slightly hyper extended, the tendon guard will comfortably cradle the back of your leg. The tongue is the only component of the VH boot that is removable/replaceable, and it is held in place with a high grade Velcro strip. The advantage of the Velcro strip is that it allows the wearer the option to customize the position of the tongue, forward/backwards or side to side.

As far as VH vs MLX fit is concerned, they are different. This is mostly because of the different way in which the boot is actually formed, and the fact that they are made from different foot lasts. The biggest thing you will notice out of the box with the VH boot is a better heel lock, and substantially more wrap through eyelets 3,4,5,6,7. In fact, the most common feedback we hear is that the skate wraps like nothing else, which also means it is harder to get your foot into. You will find more depth with the VH boot vs the MLX although this aspect can be easily customized to be more or less, when a custom pair is ordered. The positioning and placement of the eyelets on the VH boot is very specifically located to maximize forward knee position as this is the critical factor for increasing push force and maximizing skating velocity.

The upper stiffness of the VH boot is similar to a Bauer Supreme. The weight of a size 9 VH boot (no holder and steel) with laces and insoles is 520grams, as a comparison the Vapor x60 boot is 632 grams. The MLX skate was north of 900grams with the holder and steel.

Why is Dustin Byfuglien using them??:

As a brief history, we are based in Winnipeg where you can find an outdoor skating rink on every corner. Throughout the winter we began testing the new inline skate boot, and because indoor inline rinks are hard to find we put ice blade holders on the boots and hit the outdoor ice rinks. Through a few weeks of daily testing we were very confident about the ice skate-ability of the boots, and with a few modifications for ice specific use, we were ready to get some high level feedback. We proceeded to send a few pairs to Europe for use in the pro leagues there. The feedback we received was very positive.

In the mean time I (Scott) had been working directly with the Winnipeg Jets and a handful of other NHL teams on protective equipment. I noticed Dustin started the season on Easton Mako skates and as far as I had heard he was happy with them. Then I noticed he switched to CCM, then to Reebok, then back to CCM. It seemed like, from my point of view, that he wasnt content. As a fan first and a business man second I approached the head equipment manager of the Jets and offered to make Dustin a custom pair of skate boots that they could attach whatever holder they wanted to. The response was: make sure the skate has at least conditional clearance from the NHL, and show me the skate first. From there we got conditional clearance for use in NHL games and we constructed a standard size 10 skate boot with white highlights. We showed the Jets equipment guys the boots and one week later Dustin was using them in a game.

The next step:

Our short term plan is to finalize the inline skate boot, the ice players skate boot, and the goalie skate boot. This summer we will start selling both lines through local pro-shops on commission (made to order), and we will launch an online presence. The online presence will be mostly for informational purposes as we plan to go to retailers as soon as we have a mass produced version of the skate to offer.

In the next 12 months we will finalize the design and production set up in our factories, with the goal of having a retail ready ice product for Christmas 2013.

Pricing:

The standard boot with a popular holder and steel will retail for about the same as the other top end skates. Complete custom skates will retail for approximately $1000.

For future info:

vhfootwear.com

[Jarick 5]

I like the concept of a velcro removable tongue with different options available from the manufacturer.

[smcgreg 81]

Scott emailed me yesterday morning with some info. Do note the skate is an earlier revision and isn't complete yet.

As a new Mako user, let me volunteer my services as a LTR for this bad boy when they come available ;)

Seriously, there are some issues with my Makos that these seem to address, primarily the tendon guard, but also the moncoque design. Damn... skate tech seems to be taking off. Will be interesting to see how they turn out as a retail product.

[JR Boucicaut 3797]

Before considered for a LTR, you have to volunteer your services for regular, user-submitted reviews first. :)

[AIREAYE 248]

I like the concept of a velcro removable tongue with different options available from the manufacturer.

Wow, you haven't posted here for a while!

It seems like even greater customization is available with monocoque. Even the toebox? Everything is integrated together, no longer glued or stitched.

This a very ambitious thing they're doing and quite admirable. They're slotting this skate right in amongst the other top ends and with a fully custom boot at around the same price if not slightly more expensive. I see this as a very niche product unless they get a greater presense both in NHL rinks and in stores.

[smcgreg 81]

Wow, you haven't posted here for a while!

It seems like even greater customization is available with monocoque. Even the toebox? Everything is integrated together, no longer glued or stitched.

This a very ambitious thing they're doing and quite admirable. They're slotting this skate right in amongst the other top ends and with a fully custom boot at around the same price if not slightly more expensive. I see this as a very niche product unless they get a greater presense both in NHL rinks and in stores.

Sure, but even a niche hockey skate is still likely a bigger market than the other markets they currently have to compete in. They obviously have all the elements in place to know exactly what it's going to cost to produce and sell their product, and they are going to scale up incrementally. Seems like they're just growing and will be able to support themselves if they're a niche player, and yet, if they make an impact, potentially be a target for acquisition by another bigger player.

[AIREAYE 248]

Sure, but even a niche hockey skate is still likely a bigger market than the other markets they currently have to compete in. They obviously have all the elements in place to know exactly what it's going to cost to produce and sell their product, and they are going to scale up incrementally. Seems like they're just growing and will be able to support themselves if they're a niche player, and yet, if they make an impact, potentially be a target for acquisition by another bigger player.

Hmm, not knowing much of anything about speed skating, I would tend to agree. They absolutely sound like they know exactly what they're doing and have a plan set up, judging by that release.

[Krev 86]

Very interesting. The two issues I had with the MLX were the tendon guards snapping and the tower peeling away from the bottom of the heel. Sounds like the construction method that VH would be using addresses that. Count me in.

[DEATHTRON 19]

They had me at 520 grams (drool). I love me some super lightweight skates. Reminds me when the First Easton carbon skates came out (though not 520 grams), and how far ahead they were concerning weight. Unfortuantely, with the low weight of the skate, came other problems. Still, $1000 for a fully molded custom carbon skate seems AWESOME. Time will tell though if they are durable enough for hockey.

Zach

[Neo5370 132]

I'll believe the hype if they can make them fit my E/AAA feet.

[althoma1 574]

They had me at 520 grams (drool). I love me some super lightweight skates. Reminds me when the First Easton carbon skates came out (though not 520 grams), and how far ahead they were concerning weight. Unfortuantely, with the low weight of the skate, came other problems. Still, $1000 for a fully molded custom carbon skate seems AWESOME. Time will tell though if they are durable enough for hockey.

Zach

That's 520 grams WITHOUT holders and steel - that's compared to a Bauer X60 without holders and steel at 632 grams, but the comparison to an MLX skate at 900grams isn't fair because that's including the holders and steel. A comparison to the Mako boot without holders and steel or both skates with holders and steel would be more appropriate.

Having said that, more innovation and competition should be good for players in the end. It also seems that they're planning to offer just the boots to be mounted on your chassis of choice (either roller or ice) which is what many roller players have desired for years. I imagine these with a set of Sprungs would make for a very nice roller setup.

[laserrobottime 149]

I may not know much about skates, but I know this: that there is a referee skate.

And I can't wait.

[DEATHTRON 19]

520 grams WITHOUT holders or steel? Thats lame. VHFootwear needs to be realistic with their skate weights. I now rue them for getting my hopes up.

Zach

[IPv6Freely 2092]

So would that make them possibly another prototype that may go the same route as the MLX at some point?

^ At least I'm not a COMPLETE idiot

[Krev 86]

I may not know much about skates, but I know this: that there is a referee skate.

And I can't wait.

Every skate is a referee skate...

[laserrobottime 149]

Every skate is a referee skate...

Well, yeah, but this one is mostly black. (said with a tinge of sarcasm)

Edited April 17, 2013 by laserrobottime

[IPv6Freely 2092]

Every skate is a referee skate...

I think he was referring to the all-black look instead of the fruity pebbles mako graphics :P

EDIT: dammit he beat me to it.

Edited April 17, 2013 by OptimusReim

[jlp15 13]

Can't wait.

JR thanks for posting this!