Mission He950's Design Flaw?!

[clarko_99 1]

Ok so here's the deal, i recently had a pair of 2003 Mission D1 boots which i thought were fantastic - light, reliable, not full of usless gadgets, just a quality boot.

However, over time they started to fall apart, the sole fell away from the boot, i think this was a major problem with these boots. Anyways, with those boots out of the picture, i wanted to upgrade to the new He950's, after seeing them at summer narch 2004, i cudnt wait to get my hands on a pair.

So Tuesday night i orders my pair from hockeygiant.com and amazingly/to my disbelief they arrived Thursday morning - i live in the UK by the way.

Wow iv got a pair of the new mission skates, i get them out of the box, begin to lace them up around my foot loosely, and boom, i get to about the third (PLASTIC!!) eyelet up, pull on it not hard at all and one half of it snaps right off.......OH MY GOD, iv had my new skates 10 seconds and there already broke! - you can imagine my face - haha.

So i think oh well maybe i can mend that later, because i REALLY REALLY dont want that cost of shipping them all the way back.

Later in the day, i decide to lace them up missing out that eyelet because i was so desperate to get playing in them. Start of training, i slip them on, and lace them up as carefully as careful can be, and two more on the other boot break right away. So now im here absolutly gutted, that im going to have to send these darn good boots back for 'repair.'

i spoke to hockey giant this evening and they said that this is quite a common occurace, i no anybody will tell you that the bottom half of ure boot doesnt need to be tight, but firstly my boots have to be tight, i have to have that feel that the boot is following my foots movements precisly, and secondly i wasnt lacing these tight because i hadnt baked them yet and i new that the fabric would be really tough and brittle. I now have to send them back at MY EXPENSE!! for them to be repaired by Mission....which could take a while.

So i am told, once Mission have repaired them, they never hear of the boots again, so they must change the design and re-enforce them or something, i dont know yet there going to get back to me on that....it just best work thats all lol.

Anyways i have a few queries about this - firstly what made Mission decide to make this change in design (please dont get me wrong, i love mission products and im with them all the way but...) i mean my D1's are fantastic, same lacing system but the eyelet/plastic thingys are re-enforced with fabric and everything, you couldnt pull them off if u tried!! SO i ask the question - Mission, if it aint broke, they why did u fix it?! There was a perfectly good system in the D1's and for the sake of a few extra grams of weight, why put brittle, likely to break plastic in place at the oppertunity cost of robustness!

So you can imagine my situation, appologies if this has seemed a bit long winded but im so disspointed, and not only that, its going to hurt my wallet too, for something that i cant believe hasnt been picked up my mission in the testing and development stages of the heliums.

Does anyone have any comments on this? Anyone experienced this problem and has any words of wisdom to pass onto me? Or anyone got any advice on how best to lace my boots, because its looking like i will have to change my style.

What does everyone think of this? have i got a point? or better yet is anyone from mission around on this forum that could help me out?

Well...Cheers for your time.

Dan Clarkson,

England, UK

[Fletch 219]

I've heard of that problem happening but I haven't seen it personally. I haven't had that problem with my 950's. I'm sure Justin will reply to your post and help you any way he can.

[clarko_99 1]

oh cool so theres a mission guy here?

How tight do you lace the bottom of your boots then people?

Cheers

Dan

[mik3 1]

that's just a warranty replacement deal. it's not something I've heard happen on them since the d1s really.

[Chupacabraz214 0]

Real tight, you have no idea!!!

I'm checking my skates every 5 minutes or every shift, sometimes I tight them even more for the last period of the game

[BobEP 0]

Happened to me on my first lacing up of my 750's, sent em back got a new pair. First tightening on the NEW pair breaks off again. What a crock... $300/Mission = quality? Yet to see this..

[mik3 1]

I tighten the hell out of my skates and have no problems at all. Sometimes you'd almost think there were anti-mission plants on these boards.

[MDE3 0]

This problem has occurred fairly widely with at least one build lot of the new 950's, not to say on all their skates...I have seen posts on it on other boards..one from a player on a Mission sponsored team and by a self admitted Mission afficianado, who said almost his whole team had the problem....This is not an "imaginary problem", nor artificially created by anti Mission people....

However there are those who also have the 950's without this problem, so there is obviously a solution to it, as some skates are having no problems at all, while others are seeing this almost immediately. Based on Justin's past performance on here, I am sure he will look after you.

[jimmie 0]

I order some HE950 three weeks ago, still haven't come in. But here is the intersting thing, the mission people told me that the shipment to the united states missed the boat from china. This is what there calling there second batch. I really don't think they missed the boat I think they had to make a few ajustment on the skates before they released there second batch.

[notorious#29 0]

The bottom of my skates have to be very tight. I also "have to have that feel that the boot is following my foots movements precisly."

[Kovy_Ribs_Fedo 3]

Damn, I was looking to buy some 950 but now I don't know if I should buy them.

[mik3 1]

Damn, I was looking to buy some 950 but now I don't know if I should buy them.

try a pair on, if they fit your feet there isn't another skate I'd suggest.

[clarko_99 1]

i just dont understand why they would use such a brittle plastic design - its kind of asking for trouble....

thers no doubt though that these are the best skates around, after just one training session you can notice how effective these boots are over what i have had previously and how much better they are than missions from previous years.

i like my skates tight, so how do people get around not pulling the eylets out? do you guys like really yank the hell out of em to get em tight, or have you gota be careful when lacing them?

well it looks like my boots are going back to repair, hopefully this should take too long, id just like to know what they are going to do to this plastic to make it so it cant break?!

Cheers,

Dan

[SailRace 1]

Guys, i have spoken to a Mission Rep about this problem. This guy himself evens topped using his 950's because of the problem.

Apparently what happened is that for whatever reason, on the first few runs of these boots, the needle that was used to sew on the eyelets for the DNA system, or whatever its called now, was too big. Meaning that it was making holes in the leather and plastic that was causing a failure in the tensile strength of the material when pulled on hard. That is why so many of them have been breaking.

Mission knows about the problem, and has supposedly corrected it on every new skate shipped, but many stores still have some of the older stock.

At least they are willing to stand by their product and replace or repair as needed.

[clarko_99 1]

hey guys, cheers for all your help this is great, keep the information comin! lol

Iv taken a pic of the one skate where two of the eyelets have broke...but i dont know how to upload it onto this site, can anyone tell me how i get it onto a post so i can show you guys.

cheers.

dan

[Justin 1933 134]

Believe me, we know of the problem...What SailRace stated is correct. We have changed the composition of the DNA strand and changed the thread/needle so that this issue would be solved. The reason some skates break is the needle hits the edge of the plastic and creates a perforation. Once you pull on the skate the strand breaks. The bad/good news is it happens right away, so you'll know if you have any issue.

We will replace all skates with this problem..

As for the cost of shipping from UK to the US, I am sorry but there is nothing we can do. We have dealers in the UK and would prefer that you buy from them. They would have been able to replace you skates.

Justin

[clarko_99 1]

ok, thats great thanks a lot for your help, its much appriciated...iv been reading the stuff you've put on here recently to help all these guys out and uve been fantastic so thanks!

yeah well the uk are in very short supply at the moment and how can i resist not taking advantage of the exchange rate at the moment, i mean i no its a risk beacuse if they go wrong (like now lol) youve got a problem on your hands getting them back over.

So anyways im going to send them back over to the usa and they should be replaced...but what your saying now is that although the plastic looks a little brittle....the new boots should be able to fully withstand the strain of lacing the boots tight, from the first to the last moments of the boots life?you see i just want to make sure that the next pair i get i wont get the same result...although im confident mine was just in that 'bad batch'...if thats the case then i have never seen a better boot in my career in hockey...il be with mission until the end!

cheers again,

dan