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Custom Gear Wait Times


Goalline

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Wait times suck!  The idea for this thread is to create a central repository of wait times for custom gear (any and all manufacturers welcome) and, in the process, give transparency to the prospective customer.  My personal POV is that the wait times in our industry are just way too long on average.  I hope this thread can bring awareness to this issue and also give back some knowledge and/or leverage to the customer.  

Please post whatever wait times you've been quoted for custom gear that you've ordered or discussed with your local retailer / sales rep., or with the mfg directly.  Obviously, wait times change all the time based on demand for the product, time of year, whom the retailer is, level of pro orders, etc.  For this reason, if you can remember it, please include the details of the time of year of your order!  I'll kick it off with a couple (not so recent anymore) examples:  

  • True Skates - Spring 2018 order.  Was told 6 weeks by the retailer, but that they'd been receiving them faster lately, in about 4 weeks.  The 4 weeks turned out to be a good estimate.  
  • Protechsport Mask - Jan 2017 order.  Michel is a bit notorious here, but at least he is up front about it!  He quoted me 19 weeks before he could "start the process".  In reality, it was 17 weeks before he started it, but by the time the mask was finished and ultimately shipped/delivered to me, it was closer to 25 weeks all-in.  The mask is great, don't get me wrong, but I don't think I can put myself through this again, haha.
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Great topic, thanks for posting this. 

I placed an order in 2018 with Vaughn for pads and gloves on July 19th and got the gloves on September 19th and the pads  in the third week of November. 

Aside from my order and more generally, something I  wonder about with custom wait times is this: the relevance of volume of orders vs. efficiency of a manufacturer.  So right now if company A has a wait of 1 month and company B has a wait of 3 months, it's easy to say that company B is busier so the longer wait is completely justified.  But, it could also be the case that company A and B are equally busy, but A is just more efficient than B.   This obviously has to do with number of people on staff building gear, material availability, time of year,  etc. I just wonder how much of wait time is determined by order volume vs. output capability.

I would love to see insider info on how many custom orders each company has piled up relative to their potential output as a company with X number of employees.

I totally understand the thought that "wait times are way too long" as a customer, but from the manufacturers' perspective, the question is how are those wait times justified.

Edited by seagoal
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Custom Warrior Ritual GTs leg pads.

Did an in-store custom order at my LHS on 11/29/2017.

The store quoted me 6-8 weeks.

I called Warrior's hotline directly and was told 10 weeks.

They showed up on my doorstop, Sunday, December 24, 2017, 25 days later, or about 3 and a half weeks later.

It was crazy fast. After calling Warrior, I wasn't expecting them until maybe the end of January.

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It depends on so many  factors that it wouldn't matter.

for example is the product custom or stock?  material avail - stock or rare?,  weather hold, customs,  holidays, time of year,  labor strike,

retailer in good standings,   sports association buying group, canada or europe and or US. personal health,  too many to list.

new rules and regulation , back orders,... etc.

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5 minutes ago, Goalline said:

Pretty impressive on Warrior's part.  Good to hear. 

@cwarnar @ZeroGravitas Were these full blown custom with multiple changes? or simpler, like color zones?

Impressive, yes.  Is it a good thing for Warrior and Warrior customers if they are not busy enough to warrant long wait times?

There's a reason we don't see their gear on TV (sticks aside) and I think that may very well correlate to why you can get gear from them super fast.  It may, just as well, not correlate at all.  But, it's possible.

Let me stress, this is not me hating on Warrior by any means.

Edited by seagoal
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There's really not a whole lot of options with Warrior custom other than colors. You can have them not install some straps but that's about it. Their stuff is kind of designed to be customizable after the fact so that mixed with them not having a bunch of pro customers to bump regular joes down the list would probably explain why the wait times are quick with them.

Edited by wox33
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43 minutes ago, Goalline said:

Pretty impressive on Warrior's part.  Good to hear. 

@cwarnar @ZeroGravitas Were these full blown custom with multiple changes? or simpler, like color zones? 

Like @wox33 says, there isn't much that Warrior allows you to do with custom. With the GT leg pads, all you can specify is size, color and whether you want an external break (or two). That's it.

Maybe that's why Warrior is able to build them so quick.

I remember when Reebok's option program was essentially the same as Warrior's - size, color and break(s) only. Now CCM has one of the more robust custom programs around.

Edited by ZeroGravitas
Correcting some typos.
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1 hour ago, Goalline said:

Pretty impressive on Warrior's part.  Good to hear. 

@cwarnar @ZeroGravitas Were these full blown custom with multiple changes? or simpler, like color zones?

Warrior doesn't do mods or changes such as a bespoke company like Passau.

They have 2 perfected platforms which allows for easier mass production.  

These are mine:

image.png.9a6af83ff0a9a24431f5fbc04a559af4.thumb.png.7f85499085c772ca281e6720c8be0b7a.png

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1 hour ago, seagoal said:

Impressive, yes.  Is it a good thing for Warrior and Warrior customers if they are not busy enough to warrant long wait times?

There's a reason we don't see their gear on TV (sticks aside) and I think that may very well correlate to why you can get gear from them super fast.  It may, just as well, not correlate at all.  But, it's possible.

Let me stress, this is not me hating on Warrior by any means.

Not having NHL or NCAA orders aside... There's something to be said for the stupid 16-20 week wait times for Vaughn.

Warrior is massive in the Europe pro ranks.

I think their production process and simplified build model makes for fast turnaround.

If Carey Price started tonight in GT2s naturally I would be expect 4-6 weeks to be more like 10-12... But 4 months for gear... Come on now

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6 minutes ago, cwarnar said:

Not having NHL or NCAA orders aside... There's something to be said for the stupid 16-20 week wait times for Vaughn.

Warrior is massive in the Europe pro ranks.

I think their production process and simplified build model makes for fast turnaround.

If Carey Price started tonight in GT2s naturally I would be expect 4-6 weeks to be more like 10-12... But 4 months for gear... Come on now

Fair points.

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On 1/15/2019 at 5:09 PM, DL42 said:

It depends on so many  factors that it wouldn't matter.

for example is the product custom or stock?  material avail - stock or rare?,  weather hold, customs,  holidays, time of year,  labor strike,

retailer in good standings,   sports association buying group, canada or europe and or US. personal health,  too many to list.

new rules and regulation , back orders,... etc.

A retailer that is behind on paying their bills is a huge reason so some extend wait times. 

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I do recall hearing that the year the first E-Flex was released, Vaughn lost HUGE momentum and was down 40% (as I was told) in custom orders and retail booking. SO they scaled back their labor. And I do remember Vaughn's wait times only being something like 10 weeks back around 2009.

Here we are some 10 years later. and wait times are 16 weeks average. Have they still not recovered? Are more people ordering more Vaughn products but still haven't hired back workers?

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10 hours ago, ULTIMA said:

I do recall hearing that the year the first E-Flex was released, Vaughn lost HUGE momentum and was down 40% (as I was told) in custom orders and retail booking. SO they scaled back their labor. And I do remember Vaughn's wait times only being something like 10 weeks back around 2009.

Here we are some 10 years later. and wait times are 16 weeks average. Have they still not recovered? Are more people ordering more Vaughn products but still haven't hired back workers?

That's great info, thanks for posting that.  These are the types of details that really matter in our assessment of wait times.

Your final question is the golden one.

Edited by seagoal
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On 1/15/2019 at 5:12 PM, Goalline said:

Wait times suck!  The idea for this thread is to create a central repository of wait times for custom gear (any and all manufacturers welcome) and, in the process, give transparency to the prospective customer.  My personal POV is that the wait times in our industry are just way too long on average.  I hope this thread can bring awareness to this issue and also give back some knowledge and/or leverage to the customer.  

Please post whatever wait times you've been quoted for custom gear that you've ordered or discussed with your local retailer / sales rep., or with the mfg directly.  Obviously, wait times change all the time based on demand for the product, time of year, whom the retailer is, level of pro orders, etc.  For this reason, if you can remember it, please include the details of the time of year of your order!  I'll kick it off with a couple (not so recent anymore) examples:  

  • True Skates - Spring 2018 order.  Was told 6 weeks by the retailer, but that they'd been receiving them faster lately, in about 4 weeks.  The 4 weeks turned out to be a good estimate.  
  • Protechsport Mask - Jan 2017 order.  Michel is a bit notorious here, but at least he is up front about it!  He quoted me 19 weeks before he could "start the process".  In reality, it was 17 weeks before he started it, but by the time the mask was finished and ultimately shipped/delivered to me, it was closer to 25 weeks all-in.  The mask is great, don't get me wrong, but I don't think I can put myself through this again, haha.

Michel's masks are something you order and forget about until the glorious day it arrives on your doorstep.  The guy does it as his side job, so I've never worried about the timeline, just trust that I'm going to get another awesome mask within the year...lol.  22 weeks is average for him and well worth it in my opinion.

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17 hours ago, seagoal said:

Impressive, yes.  Is it a good thing for Warrior and Warrior customers if they are not busy enough to warrant long wait times?

There's a reason we don't see their gear on TV (sticks aside) and I think that may very well correlate to why you can get gear from them super fast.  It may, just as well, not correlate at all.  But, it's possible.

Let me stress, this is not me hating on Warrior by any means.

I'd be willing to bet Warrior is one of the most profitable gear manufacturers out there.  

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15 minutes ago, jayluv54 said:

I'd be willing to bet Warrior is one of the most profitable gear manufacturers out there.  

It's possible, sure.   Just as easy to speculate the opposite as well, for any of the companies. 

It's tough with Warrior for me, personally, because I have never touched any of their gear (minus a trip up to a shop in Surrey, BC), I regularly see only 1 goalie wearing their gear and I'm in rinks including lots of WHL games 2-4 times a week, and they are not visible on TV (again, sticks aside and only talking goalies).

So I personally have very good reasons to speculate the opposite of you as an American in a relatively small hockey market (right now).

Profit is just more earned than spent, so if they are small and super busy, it is quite likely Warrior is profitable.  I think of Brian's as a great example of being perfect for speculation that they are profitable:  tiny company that appears on some level of speculation to be very busy and producing lots of gear with great international television market exposure.

Edited by seagoal
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1 hour ago, seagoal said:

It's tough with Warrior for me, personally, because I have never touched any of their gear (minus a trip up to a shop in Surrey, BC), I regularly see only 1 goalie wearing their gear and I'm in rinks including lots of WHL games 2-4 times a week, and they are not visible on TV (again, sticks aside and only talking goalies).

Pretty sure the WHL is sponsored by CCM. There's a reason every single goalie is in eflex gear lol.

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13 minutes ago, coopaloop1234 said:

Pretty sure the WHL is sponsored by CCM. There's a reason every single goalie is in eflex gear lol.

Yup.  CCM and Vaughn.  Starting to see more Bauer, too, but I think they're on their own for that.

CCM is basically crushing it across the board right now.

All speculation is based on visibility and Warrior has very poor visibility as a goalie gear company.

Edited by seagoal
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11 minutes ago, seagoal said:

Yup.  CCM and Vaughn.  Starting to see more Bauer, too, but I think they're on their own for that.

CCM is basically crushing it across the board right now.

8 minutes ago, cwarnar said:

WHL goalies can ONLY USE CCM, Vaughn or Bauer.  True Skates were just green lit this past season.

That's what I thought. It's probably why seagoal isn't seeing any during his many WHL games. ;)

I see a bit of warrior around here but it's a very limited amount of overall users. I think in my league, there are four guys that use Warrior pads/gloves and I'm one of them. The usual culprits of CCM and Vaughn being the most used.

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5 minutes ago, coopaloop1234 said:

That's what I thought. It's probably why seagoal isn't seeing any during his many WHL games. ;)

I see a bit of warrior around here but it's a very limited amount of overall users. I think in my league, there are four guys that use Warrior pads/gloves and I'm one of them. The usual culprits of CCM and Vaughn being the most used.

If I wasn't a regular on here and trust guys like you and a few others I would have almost zero access to anything Warrior other than sticks, which I use.  I wish they had better visibility.  Their gear is beautiful and very intriguing.  I think it's the sexiest looking gear on the market. 

Edited by seagoal
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