Dallas area players: Hockey Monkey or Pure Hockey?

[CigarScott 132]

I'll be passing through the DFW area in a few weeks on the way to Austin and it'll be my first chance to be in an area with real hockey shops where I can get things done that I can't dream of in Alabama, Georgia, or Tennessee. I need to get my boots stretched so that they're wider and would like to get scanned for a set of True Hockey skates. I've been to several Pure Hockeys in other states and know what to expect and while I read that Hockey Monkey is this giant emporium and have ordered stuff off their site before, their reviews on Yelp and their own Facebook page for their store are iffy. In short, if you were going to get scanned for True skates and needed work done on your current ones, which shop would you trust?

[jared9356 39]

2 hours ago, CigarScott said:

I'll be passing through the DFW area in a few weeks on the way to Austin and it'll be my first chance to be in an area with real hockey shops where I can get things done that I can't dream of in Alabama, Georgia, or Tennessee. I need to get my boots stretched so that they're wider and would like to get scanned for a set of True Hockey skates. I've been to several Pure Hockeys in other states and know what to expect and while I read that Hockey Monkey is this giant emporium and have ordered stuff off their site before, their reviews on Yelp and their own Facebook page for their store are iffy. In short, if you were going to get scanned for True skates and needed work done on your current ones, which shop would you trust?

For any skate mods I’d recommend Blades by Todd(Only their North Richland Hills shop is open at the moment). As an official, they’re the only shop I’ll let touch my skates and that goes for a vast amount of officials/ players here including some current and former Stars. They’re not a huge chain store, but they’re incredibly knowledgeable and helpful.

For the True scan, you can go to Pure or Monkey, but I’ve personally gotten more in-depth info and fitting at Pure.

Hope this helps, enjoy your time in DFW!

[chocks86 82]

Hockey monkey has a little more of a selection of product than Pure but has less knowledgeable employees working there. I did get my True scan done at Monkey, but only because they had the equipment first.  Skates fit well, so they did a good job on the scan but other than that I won’t let them touch my skates. I get them sharpened at Pure and if I need anything else I usually get it while there. Will only go to Hockey Monkey if Pure doesn’t have what I need. 

[shoot_the_goalie 281]

12 hours ago, chocks86 said:

Hockey monkey has a little more of a selection of product than Pure but has less knowledgeable employees working there.

I have found this to be my experience as well.

[LoneStar77 25]

I saw Pure Hockey has the Bauer 3-D scan machine when I was there this weekend. I've been to Hockey Monkey once & I agree it appeared to have more gear out for you to try on. I miss Players Bench down in Richardson for sharpenings (NRH is too far away when I already live 2 hours from the rink)...

[chocks86 82]

I was also in Pure hockey last week and saw that they are now equipped to do the True custom skate scan. 

[CigarScott 132]

I'm back from Dallas and I agree with everyone's assessments on here. I didn't have time to venture into Fort Worth so I didn't check out Blades by Todd's shop. Hockey Monkey is what you all described: a giant place with a huge showroom but I wouldn't trust any of the employees that I dealt with to do anything to my skates. Their warehouse has to be bigger than a Wal-Mart. Granted, they also sell baseball/softball and lacrosse gear but it is impressive. I found it odd that I couldn't collect rewards points for in-store purchases and some of the prices were different between the online store and in-store but they applied some kind of discount code and was able to get a good price.

Pure Hockey was a great experience for me. It's a large store but their stock was a little low which is understandable as they're waiting for all the new stuff to come in next month. Chase, the manager was fantastic and bent over backwards to help me and my fiance. He scanned my feet for True's and once I sell a kidney, I'll pull the trigger and order a pair. He figured out that my fiance was in the wrong type of skate and we were able to order a pair to be shipped to us from the store with free shipping, no tax, and was able to use my reward points on them. After countless emails back and forth with him regarding the work on my skates, he took care of them and was quite generous with his time and could have charged me for a lot more than what he did. I will be back the next time I'm in the neighborhood.