When Did You Get Bored With Acquiring New Hockey Gear?

[caveman27 208]

1 hour ago, IPv6Freely said:

Sort of. The problem there is that each piece now costs a LOT to replace so unless you have unlimited funds you can't just try new stuff for the heck of it. Spending $600 for a mask and another $500 for a chesty means you're unlikely to buy either of those items again any time soon. 

Then there's the problem I've run into where I don't think I wear a single thing that you can buy off the shelf in a store - so I don't bother even going to the goalie store anymore. For example:

Mask - Retail Bauer, but custom paint
Chesty - Custom Passau
Glove/Blocker - Custom Passau
Leg Pads - Custom Passau
Knee pads - Stock Passau
Skates - Custom VH
Collar - Custom Maltese
Pants - Pro Stock CCM
Jock - Custom Monster Hockey
Socks - Pro Stock Reebok

I think the only thing I buy retail is baselayer (Bauer 37.5) and skate socks (Swiftwick Aspire Four).

Well that's true, it's not cheap. I'm just saying the options of goalie gear are wider than with player equipment. OP has run out of options and is bored. I'm just trying to help. 

[nutters 218]

49 minutes ago, caveman27 said:

Well that's true, it's not cheap. I'm just saying the options of goalie gear are wider than with player equipment. OP has run out of options and is bored. I'm just trying to help. 

my dad is a goalie and always tells me how happy he was i didn't decide to become one. he's also jealous i can get gear when I feel like it. clearance player protective is cheap, especially the top stuff. goalie? top of the line pads will still cost you $1,000.

[MrData 93]

2 things that get me excited about getting new sticks:

1. Finding classic / old-school / obscure sticks on the market
2. Trying new, unusual, or rare patterns

But yeah, the appeal of collecting sticks for its own sake has worn off, I will admit.

[OldCY 94]

After my kids were born. I am lucky if I get to play at all sometimes. So if I'm not playing as frequently then my desire to accumulate stuff has diminished substantially.  I do like a good closeout sale however.  

[start_today 770]

I got annoyed by all the dubious  marketing hype and improvements that are essentially “but this one goes to 11.”

But, even if I’m disenchanted by the marketplace, I still like staying on top of things and being aware of what’s available. I enjoy the minutia of this site and knowing what’s new and sexy, even if I personally don’t want to buy it  

Also, I’m at a point in life and hockey where I’m pretty happy and content in a good way. I think when I’m not in a good place mentally, I tend to “chase” and fetishize material things, which ultimately buying don’t make me all that happy anyway. We’ve all seen guys on here who obsess over a particular thing- “what if I switch from a p88 to a p92 and cut the length by  1/4” and go up 5 in flex, will I be better at taking off camber snapshots from the wing?” Nothing is gonna make that person happy (or better). There’s a certain zen to just giving up and having fun playing with your $100 stick and 5 year old skates, and not needing the latest and greatest. 

[Neo5370 132]

A combination of factors for me: 

1.  Decided to give mid to low tier gear a try and realized I played just as well/poorly; maybe even better honestly since I wasn't worried about breaking a $250 stick. 

2.  As I got older material things in general started to mean less; I'd rather spend money on experiences than things. 

3.  Running out of storage space.

4.  Back to point #1, which made me see the "this goes to 11" marketing mentality and kind of making me realize bauer/ccm doesn't care if I play better, they care whether or not they get my money.  

5.  When I was finally able to buy (almost) anything I wanted, the thrill of acquiring new stuff lessened. 

6.  I never have or will play at a high level (I'm in my late 30's) and my (unpopular) opinion is yes, people who just learned to skate or are not very good using top of line gear do look silly.  I'm sorry if I offend people with this one, I used to be one of those guys.  I know I shouldn't be judgmental and I am working on being a better person.  

 

[stick9 890]

10 hours ago, Neo5370 said:

I never have or will play at a high level (I'm in my late 30's) and my (unpopular) opinion is yes, people who just learned to skate or are not very good using top of line gear do look silly.  I'm sorry if I offend people with this one, I used to be one of those guys.  I know I shouldn't be judgmental and I am working on being a better person.  

 

Those guys who are really really good show up wearing ref pads or shit that's literally falling apart. Those are the guys who look silly. If that's all you can afford, fine. But when you buy new shit thats barely suitable for pond hockey, that's when it gets silly.

Newer players aren't always 100% sure what they need in terms of protection. It's better to go overboard and not need it. 

[BenBreeg 493]

I dont judge anybody by their equipment.  You want custom skates and that makes you happy, go for it.  You just like to play and still use wooden sticks go for it.  It’s a game.

I have always been a gear guy, wearing out Great Skate, Ocean, and Kemps catalogs when they showed up in the mail.  I still like researching stuff I need but once on the ice I don’t pay attention to it (my bad play keeps me distracted...)

[bunnyman666 445]

I love looking at gear. It’s the crazy stuff that was ahead of the game 25 plus years ago that is still in service that excites me. There is one guy I occasionally play with who has a pair of Bauers that have grey Tuuks with a funky looking black steel with triangular cut outs. I kinda remember those, but am sketchy on the details. I seem to remember that the steel was really difficult to sharpen. 

There’s also a guy who plays in a pair of what looks to be high-end leather Hespeler gloves with high cuffs in Rangers colours. They look damned near brand new. Are they Gretzky pro stocks? He always dresses in a different room and leaves before drop in is over, so I have not asked him the story. That is fascinating. 

I don’t tend to judge based on equipment unless somebody has something that is clearly unsafe, like the goalie wearing a street hockey mask (?!?). The goalie wearing a 30 year old chest protector and then bitches about the bruises is one I tend to judge. The guy wearing holey equipment bitching about getting hurt is another one. The bender who is kitted to the hilt with top end stuff? To me, that person is stylish. Haters are gonna hate...

I have been long immune to the latest marketing. I like what is comfortable. I was jazzed when I found two NOS Easton aluminium shafts! New isn’t always better. 

[BenBreeg 493]

2 hours ago, bunnyman666 said:

I love looking at gear. It’s the crazy stuff that was ahead of the game 25 plus years ago that is still in service that excites me. There is one guy I occasionally play with who has a pair of Bauers that have grey Tuuks with a funky looking black steel with triangular cut outs. I kinda remember those, but am sketchy on the details. I seem to remember that the steel was really difficult to sharpen. 

There’s also a guy who plays in a pair of what looks to be high-end leather Hespeler gloves with high cuffs in Rangers colours. They look damned near brand new. Are they Gretzky pro stocks? He always dresses in a different room and leaves before drop in is over, so I have not asked him the story. That is fascinating. 

I don’t tend to judge based on equipment unless somebody has something that is clearly unsafe, like the goalie wearing a street hockey mask (?!?). The goalie wearing a 30 year old chest protector and then bitches about the bruises is one I tend to judge. The guy wearing holey equipment bitching about getting hurt is another one. The bender who is kitted to the hilt with top end stuff? To me, that person is stylish. Haters are gonna hate...

I have been long immune to the latest marketing. I like what is comfortable. I was jazzed when I found two NOS Easton aluminium shafts! New isn’t always better. 

I think some version of old Vapors (Vapor 10?) had that steel, not sure what others.

[bunnyman666 445]

3 minutes ago, BenBreeg said:

I think some version of old Vapors (Vapor 10?) had that steel, not sure what others.

His boot looked like some 90s Supreme boot. I may have dreamt this, but somehow I remember the steel supposedly being stoopid difficult to sharpen on that particular holder.

[Monty22 832]

2 hours ago, bunnyman666 said:

His boot looked like some 90s Supreme boot. I may have dreamt this, but somehow I remember the steel supposedly being stoopid difficult to sharpen on that particular holder.

The Vapor 10 , and maybe the 8 had the triangular cut outs on the steel, and it had a black finish. That was great quality steel and sharpened really well.  The First generation LS2 holders had scalloped cuts on the bottom edge making it really difficult  to hand stone.   You may be thinking of the Tuuk V2 steel for the Custom + . It was "normal" width for the front 1/2 , and then was about half as thick from the middle to rear of the blade.   Jay McKee used that stuff forever. 

[flip12 714]

The triangle-perforated steel debuted on the Vapor 8, I believe. I had Vapor 8s with that steel and grey Tuuk Custom+'s. I think they stuck around and were also stock on Vapor 10s, like @BenBreeg mentioned, and Nike Ignite 1s.

With the Vapor XX, the perforation pattern changed as @Monty22 pointed out, matching the form of the LightSpeed holder visually.

[bunnyman666 445]

@Monty22 and @flip12 thanks for the clarification! Maybe this guy had it thrown onto a Supreme style boot. The holder and steel is the same, but no Nike swoosh on the boot.

[stick9 890]

On 4/21/2019 at 10:18 AM, bunnyman666 said:

There’s also a guy who plays in a pair of what looks to be high-end leather Hespeler gloves with high cuffs in Rangers colours. They look damned near brand new. Are they Gretzky pro stocks? He always dresses in a different room and leaves before drop in is over, so I have not asked him the story. That is fascinating. 

@bunnyman666 These the mitts in question?

 

[bunnyman666 445]

47 minutes ago, stick9 said:

@bunnyman666 These the mitts in question?

 

Yes, sir!

[Monty22 832]

If I recall correctly, Hespeler released  black and NYR color scheme gloves patterned after Wayne's specs. I believe this was soon after he became involved in the company financially.  The retail NYR ones had a white stripe across one of the lower two backrolls.  

[bunnyman666 445]

53 minutes ago, Monty22 said:

If I recall correctly, Hespeler released  black and NYR color scheme gloves patterned after Wayne's specs. I believe this was soon after he became involved in the company financially.  The retail NYR ones had a white stripe across one of the lower two backrolls.  

I won’t be back for awhile, but he is there a lot so I will most likely see him when I am cleared to play. I seem to recall branding more like the above photo, but I may not be remembering correctly 😉He also wears an original Protech cage on a very old HT2 (with foam side bumpers). 

[flip12 714]

3 hours ago, Monty22 said:

If I recall correctly, Hespeler released  black and NYR color scheme gloves patterned after Wayne's specs. I believe this was soon after he became involved in the company financially.  The retail NYR ones had a white stripe across one of the lower two backrolls.  

Some of Gretz’s gloves also had one or two white backhand rolls.

 

Edited April 23, 2019 by flip12

[bunnyman666 445]

9 hours ago, flip12 said:

Some of Gretz’s gloves also had one or two white backhand rolls.

 

Those are not it, but I do recall a few versions of the true pro Hespeler gloves. Something makes me think they were manufactured to spec by someone else (such as the Eagle factory) as I don’t recall any good, top level gear from that company for a long time even before then. I may be wrong here, or as I say, “the somestimer’s is really strong”.

[Karly14 21]

Although I'd still consider myself a gear guy, my interest has definitely wained. This might be Grandpa Simpson yelling at cloud territory, but for the most part, hockey and hockey equipment have become so 'clinical' for lack of a better term.  Again, just my opinion, but I don't see a lot of brand distinctiveness between the two dominant players Bauer and CCM.  I've used most of the top end of both (save skates), and overall they seem to perform on equal levels and have really similar product offerings.  Warrior has a bit more personality to their brand and I like they've gotten away from the 'edgy' narrative, but still, walking into a giant hockey shop is just way less interesting to me than walking into a smaller shop even ten or fifteen years ago.   

To be completely honest, although I love the game of hockey as it's given so much to me (played pro in Eur, I still teach at a high-performance hockey school twice a week, so many lifelong friends etc), the game overall seems to me to have lost some its nuance and quirkiness and whether through my own biases or not, I feel like I see that in the gear.  Kid's skillsets are so practised and refined, everyone is so good, for me it feels like it's diminished the different roles and personalities that made up a hockey team. Similar to this, I loved seeing someone express their game through their gear, and the dominance of Bauer and CCM gear seems less conducive to that, although there are still players who pull it off (our boy DP57 for example, Ovi, Pasternak, O Reilley). To become good enough to play aaa or junior, you basically require a certain degree of wealth or access and a lot of parents consider their kid playing hockey as an investment for a future pro or full ride payoff.  It's really becoming almost explicitly a rich person's sport and it feels more 'corporate' and straight-faced to me than it ever has (maybe I'm naive?). This bums me out, and the increasing exclusivity of formulaic looking and performing gear (it's like 360$ for a custom Bauer stick -- many of the kids I teach have already had their parents put an order in) reminds of this truth I don't particularly like.   

This is probably a long-winded way of saying that the sport and the equipment are getting better, more expensive, more formulaic (because companies know what works), and overall simply more serious and money focused and that makes this ageing dude uncomfortable. "Back in my day..." 

Please disagree with me. I really want to be less cynical.

[flip12 714]

23 minutes ago, Karly14 said:

Please disagree with me. I really want to be less cynical.

No.

Because your cynicism is spot on.

[Kevin 5]

On 2/2/2019 at 8:39 PM, dkmiller3356 said:

Wine......  we haven't met yet.  If we had you'd understand.

Same with me.  I will be drinking the equivalent of a brand new top of the line stick tonight.

[GregHenn19 6]

On 2/4/2019 at 7:39 AM, Cavs019 said:

Exciting: Finding Eagle/Warrior/MIA/TPS gloves from the mid to late 2000s, or heel curve sticks that aren’t made anymore.

Not exciting: The latest iteration of a P92 stick with a new paint job and gimmick taper. 

 

When I am bored at work, all i do is scour Ebay, Sideline and Kijiji looking for Old Equipment that i used when I use to think i was a good player lol, thinking maybe it will take me back to those old days.

I pretty much purchase any old Drury RH Easton stick i can find in a reasonable price range. 

[Theloknesmonster 2]

I get bored after I use it a few times and it all seems to work like I need it to.  Until I get to that stage, I am pretty obsessed.  Everything suffers until I get my skates dialed in, or decide if I am going to use a half shield, full shield, or cage, and so on.  

Some gear I have tried to replace like shins and elbows, and I end up just using my old ones because of comfort and familiarity.  That alone often reminds me that new gear is something people get just because they get bored with their hobbies, and just want to freshen it up.