Larry54 243 Report post Posted February 20, 2017 (edited) ^^^ I didn't write the above quote. ^^^ Edited February 20, 2017 by Larry54 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
smu 29 Report post Posted February 20, 2017 49 minutes ago, Larry54 said: ^^^ I didn't write the above quote. ^^^ My apologies! It should get sorted though. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Larry54 243 Report post Posted February 20, 2017 9 hours ago, smu said: My apologies! It should get sorted though. No problem. I assume the quote was your own response. I'm happy to see that the orthotics allowed you to get back to normal hollows. I'm always pleased to hear stories of how people succeed in overcoming problems that were preventing them from enjoying the sport that I love. Cheers! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
smu 29 Report post Posted February 20, 2017 1 hour ago, Larry54 said: No problem. I assume the quote was your own response. I'm happy to see that the orthotics allowed you to get back to normal hollows. I'm always pleased to hear stories of how people succeed in overcoming problems that were preventing them from enjoying the sport that I love. Cheers! Thanks Larry, I spent most of my life asking myself why do I need extra-sharp skates and not until 6 or 7 years ago that I had finally figured it out after a lot of research. First it was outside shims, then orthotics and now posting my medial heel area using the older Superfeet that incorporate a small amount of posting anyway.. It is so nice to be in control of your edges and have a fast glide on the ice with a flatter ROH. I will be ordering mine in late July for September so the warranty will start then. I only have until the end of March for hockey and I just miss a month because I sprained my neck crashing headfirst into the boards to the left of the goalie, and glad to have it not serious. I was on a breakaway and I deked right the went left to my back-hand and then right next thing I knew I was that I had hit the boards with my head just over my left eye area as the helmet made a good chaffing mark on my forehead. The first thing I did was to wiggle my hands and feet! The goalie told me later that he tried poke-checking me and I tripped over his stick. My neck is still sore and I expect to miss more games until my neck settles down. I have been wanting the VH skates for over a year now, but before I know it July will be here and my order will be going in. Cheers! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AfftonDad 88 Report post Posted February 20, 2017 On 2/19/2017 at 10:43 AM, Chip N Chase said: Curious about skate hollow after switching over to VH. All my life I used a 1/2 inch hollow as my go to. I feel now that the 1/2 inch is really sharp. I can really dig in on turns. I'm wondering if I should bump it down to a 5/8 hollow. Anyone do the same? I observed the same thing when I got mine a couple of years ago. I asked Scott Van Horne about it and he said yeah, that's typical and you can either go to a shallower hollow or a longer profile radius. He said that most of the Winnipeg jets on them felt the same thing and made similar adjustments to their hollow or profile. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
boo10 323 Report post Posted February 22, 2017 No pic, but I noticed Tyler Bozak was in VH tonight. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
uclaman 6 Report post Posted February 22, 2017 (edited) Has vh been doing 3d foot scanning for their hockey skates? Where can one get this done? Edited February 22, 2017 by uclaman Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
adams2001 54 Report post Posted February 22, 2017 Check the dealers section of the home page. https://www.vhhockey.com/dealers/ If you are near one I would call and ask if they have 3d scanning at that location. It looks pretty cool, there are a couple of youtube videos on it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chip N Chase 1 Report post Posted February 22, 2017 Would like to hear how everyone is tightening the laces. I am so used to cranking on laces to tighten my old skates. But i cant seem to find a comfortable balance with VH. How tight are 1-4 eyelets and 5-7 and last two? Do you skip the last eyelet? I'm guessing you only really need to "tighten" 5, 6, and 7. Would like to hear others lacing patterns and tightness. I wear my tongues outside of my shinpads if that makes a difference. Just trying to dial these puppies in. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nicker87 47 Report post Posted February 22, 2017 5 hours ago, Chip N Chase said: Would like to hear how everyone is tightening the laces. I am so used to cranking on laces to tighten my old skates. But i cant seem to find a comfortable balance with VH. How tight are 1-4 eyelets and 5-7 and last two? Do you skip the last eyelet? I'm guessing you only really need to "tighten" 5, 6, and 7. Would like to hear others lacing patterns and tightness. I wear my tongues outside of my shinpads if that makes a difference. Just trying to dial these puppies in. Skip 1 2- 7.5/10 3- 8 4- 7 5 to 9- 5.5 I was tightening everything a little tighter than listed but I have been getting cold toes this season, so I loosened up everything and it seems to helped. I think it might have been to my foot swelling as I played and I due use wax laces. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IPv6Freely 2093 Report post Posted February 23, 2017 7 hours ago, Chip N Chase said: Would like to hear how everyone is tightening the laces. I am so used to cranking on laces to tighten my old skates. But i cant seem to find a comfortable balance with VH. How tight are 1-4 eyelets and 5-7 and last two? Do you skip the last eyelet? I'm guessing you only really need to "tighten" 5, 6, and 7. Would like to hear others lacing patterns and tightness. I wear my tongues outside of my shinpads if that makes a difference. Just trying to dial these puppies in. Only barely removing the slack in the bottom 4-5 eyelets and tightening more as I move up. There's just no need to tie them tightly with how well they wrap your foot. I could probably skate without laces at all. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
greyskull 21 Report post Posted February 23, 2017 Yeah, I'm doing mine up looser and looser these days, 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
oldtrainerguy28 478 Report post Posted February 24, 2017 Bozak in VH Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
oldtrainerguy28 478 Report post Posted February 24, 2017 Man i forgot to push send. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Monty22 833 Report post Posted February 24, 2017 Toes on were getting kind of beat up (old style carbon with epoxy coating) so I hit them with some truck bed liner. Seems to be holding up pretty well. 3 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kgbeast 195 Report post Posted February 25, 2017 (edited) Edit: I should have put this in Gear Sighting thread. Sorry. Edited February 25, 2017 by Kgbeast Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hkyfn 10 Report post Posted March 2, 2017 On 9/26/2016 at 1:48 PM, hkyfn said: 30 day VH skate feedback: I would imagine that many, like me, have been reading this forum to try and decide if they should get VH skates. Hopefully for those trying to make the decision my posting will provide some information. After reading this forum for a bit and realizing that my son needed new skates, we took the plunge and placed our order through Kennebec Skate Shop in Maine in late July of '16. Got the skates about 35 days after placing the order. My son is 6'3", 175 lbs., plays defense. Has numerous foot issues including pronate issues, flat feet, narrow heels and low volume feet. Said it took about 3-4 practices to get fully comfortable. He has skated on them about 15 times now and loves them. He describes them as comfortable, light and quick in movement. No wasted "space" between his foot and skate. He is impressed with the light weight compared to his Graf 703's. His experience is that the first couple of times he skated on them they were somewhat awkward. Much stiffer boot than his Graf's. He said he has had to loosen the top couple of eyelets a bit to get some flexibility in movement compared to the Graf's. Early on he said they just felt strange. We had needed to move the right skate blade holder in on his Graf's about an 1/8 of an inch to offset the pronate issue for balance but VH said there was no need. They said they would build the skate boot to compensate for that without blade holder relocation. I think his center of balance was off on the right skate as he got comfortable in them. The boot has "fixed" his pronate issue with extra padding and I am sure the stiffer boot. They have cobra 3000 holders as he wanted to same "Graf" pitch. Says they are as comfortable at the end of the game or practice as they are at the beginning. So far, feels like money well spent. I would also say the customer communication at VH as been great. Every email was responded to and all questions were answered as needed. Nice to know that when you are spending $800+ that you can get specific questions answered that makes you feel better parting with that kind of money. So far nicely done both in product and customer experience. End of season VH skate update: My son has now used his VH skates for two half seasons of hockey here in New England, fall half season and high school. He has about 50 games of use along with approximately 75-100 practices. If you read the original posts, he has several issues including pronating and flat feet. So how have the skates held up? In a word: Excellent with one exception. My son is a now 18 year old, 185 pound defenseman. Been playing since the age of 5. The skates continue to be very comfortable for him. He states that they still have "no lag" from movement to action, do not hurt his feet in any area and feel as good now as when he first got them. No arch problems, no instep issues from the pronate padding and no lace bite. Watching him play I see the skates are still lined up properly from the knee down to the blade holder with the blade sitting properly on the ice. I was concerned that his pronate issue would eventually wear down the padding on the inside of his right skate and he would again have the pronate issue of only skating on his inner edge, but that has not happened. The one exception I mentioned above is that one of the copper rivets for the tendon guard popped off after a practice and we scrambled to get a new one re-installed prior to his game the next day. The second replacement rivet popped off a few days later so I found a small, black screw and sleeved nut setup, similar to what holds cobra holders on Graf skates, and used that to re-install the tendon guard. Has not come loose since. I contacted VH and they sent me out new inner padding that covered the rivet head which I glued in and problem solved. Interestingly only one tendon guard rivet came lose. The other is still holding strong. The best thing of all in this is his improvement in skating. Neither of us knew how much the pronating was affecting his skating until we got skates that corrected it. Forward, backward, initial acceleration, cornering all improved. All that brought his game up a notch which helps me to justify the additional expense of custom skates. Plus going from Graf 703's to VH, we saved some weight too. My conclusion is that these are great, custom made skates that can help players play better if they have fit issues. I can't comment on skaters that have skates that already work for them now but certainly if you have fit issues, these skates should help you. If you are a serious player, these are well worth the money. 4 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Squid02 5 Report post Posted March 8, 2017 Received notification yesterday that my VH Skates have been shipped. Now I just have to wait a week for them to be shipped half way around the globe to me in Sweden. The wait is killing me. Hopefully they will arrive on time so that I can use them in a tournament next weekend. Feel like a kid at christmas haha. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
flip12 715 Report post Posted March 8, 2017 50 minutes ago, Squid02 said: Received notification yesterday that my VH Skates have been shipped. Now I just have to wait a week for them to be shipped half way around the globe to me in Sweden. The wait is killing me. Hopefully they will arrive on time so that I can use them in a tournament next weekend. Feel like a kid at christmas haha. Congrats :) How / where did you do the fitting / tracing? Is there a place up by you? I've only spotted a couple of pairs down here, but I haven't seen many elite games so there might be more at that level that I'm not aware of. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Squid02 5 Report post Posted March 9, 2017 22 hours ago, flip12 said: Congrats :) How / where did you do the fitting / tracing? Is there a place up by you? I've only spotted a couple of pairs down here, but I haven't seen many elite games so there might be more at that level that I'm not aware of. I did all of the tracings and measurements at home in accordance with the instructions from VH. Had some e-mail correspondence with VH prior to doing the measurements and tracings and they where great in their feedback. Also I discussed with them after I had placed my order and they said that if they had any questions or needed more measurements/pictures they would get in touch. I haven't heard anything so I am assuming that what I provided was sufficient. Based on what I have read on this forum the tracings and measurements are enough for them to make a perfect fitting skate. I will post a review once I have been able to test the skates properly. In terms of pro use in Sweden I haven't seen any players here using it yet. I have a few teammates who are very keen on seeing the result of the skate, but no one here has heard of them before. Apparently the skates have arrived in Sweden this morning so fingers crossed they might arrive before the weekend. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Pez68 4 Report post Posted March 9, 2017 For those that have had these for an extended period of time, how is the durability? I'm really on the fence here. I probably need to go with VH for my next pair of skates due to fit issues, but if I'm spending a thousand plus on skates, they better last a really long time. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
greyskull 21 Report post Posted March 9, 2017 1 hour ago, Pez68 said: For those that have had these for an extended period of time, how is the durability? I'm really on the fence here. I probably need to go with VH for my next pair of skates due to fit issues, but if I'm spending a thousand plus on skates, they better last a really long time. Maybe I should do that follow up video! Mine are holding up pretty darn well. Much better than my Vapor x90's which started coming unstitched around the tow after six month. Will add pics soon. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nicker87 47 Report post Posted March 10, 2017 4 hours ago, Pez68 said: For those that have had these for an extended period of time, how is the durability? I'm really on the fence here. I probably need to go with VH for my next pair of skates due to fit issues, but if I'm spending a thousand plus on skates, they better last a really long time. No real issues after almost 2 full seasons of twice a week or more. Some cosmetic stuff like the color fading around some eyelets from the laces and socks rubbing against it and the screw on the toe cap rusting a little but they have a new toe cap with out the screw. I took a shot off the back of the heal and it cracked the epoxy but didn't effect the structure of the skate. Some of the epoxy that is around the leather trim so it has a smooth transition has chipped away from shots and sticks but again cosmetic. I don't know what most consider a long life span for top of the line skates but I expect about 5 years out of them and these seem to be about right on track for that. You may get a year or two more from a retail pair but you won't find anything that fits as well as these, and to me that's worth more than an extra season from a pair of skates. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Pez68 4 Report post Posted March 10, 2017 I've had middle of the road skates last me around 5 years, playing 2-3 games a week, so I expect AT LEAST 5 years out of a "top-of-the-line" custom skate. I don't care about cosmetic stuff, but if they start falling apart, or break down, I'm going to be pretty pissed. I'm really interested in the CDN vs. US pricing difference here too.... If I order these and have them shipped to a Canadian address, it looks like a savings of more than $150 even with tax and shipping... The exchange rate is .74 to 1 right now. It's kind of amazing to me that they are charging US customers 25% more.... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
218hockey 50 Report post Posted March 10, 2017 40 minutes ago, Pez68 said: If I order these and have them shipped to a Canadian address, it looks like a savings of more than $150 even with tax and shipping... The exchange rate is .74 to 1 right now. It's kind of amazing to me that they are charging US customers 25% more.... I never noticed that. So they just ignore the exchange rate? Or it's a Canadian discount? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
