True One Piece vs True Two Piece Review

[Chenner29]

Well folks, with the bubble playoffs being over and another 3 months or so til the next season starts, I thought I'd put some words and sentences together to compare and contrast these two lines.

To start off with, bought a pair of two piece, V1 Trues back in 2017 and endured a strong love/hate relationship with them. 

The good:

• Fit, feel, performance

The bad:

• Finish, quality
• Uneven outsole (my right skate was slightly tilted)
• Constantly riveting and re-riveting the holder
• Super stiff high ankle area.  The tops of the boots above the ankle would dig into my leg.

• V1 Trues.  I grew to really hate how stuff the uppers were on these. 

• Here, you can see a spacer I needed to add because the bottoms were not flat.
• You can also see the extra brass rivets to keep the holder stuck on the skate.  Some shop employees have said this is a common issue, as the outsole does not have any flex to it.  It eats up regular rivets, so we ended up doing brass rivets every other hole to the back of the boot.

• Back view of the same skate.  You can see the excess glue at the edges of the carbon.  I tried to get an angle where I could show the slanted outsole, but it's pretty difficult to capture.
• Also note the Lundy loop - I ran my boot strap through here maybe once and it separated pretty damn quick.

After some back and forth with myself, and a really awesome Q2 performance bonus at work, I decided to give the one piece skates a shot.  I had a couple requirements in mind when going this route:

• Fit.  I was going custom no matter what.  I have had issues with every stock boot I have ever worn, except for the Graf 750.
• Shorter holder height (biomechanics; per Maria Mountain, shorter blade and holder height is better for the hips)
• A little bit of play in the high ankle area.

In the end, I think for me it was down to CCM and True.  Bauer has the highest holder on the market, so they were automatically out, as was anything with a cowling because that shit is old.  I think what kept me with the brand (at the time, this was a 55/45 in favor of True in my mind) was the fit - I knew that they could make something that works with my foot and that was enough for me to take a bit of a gamble.  I'm glad I did.

So here's some juicy pics and some narrative to go with it. 

• I opted for a white toe cap on this one.
• Went with silver because the red, blue, and yellow options they have are kind of...off from the traditional shades you'd expect.
• Also added embroidery (31) - my jersey number for my kids' birth years added up.  Fantastic goalie number because it's a prime number.
• You can see the finish is much improved.  No excess glue.  Carbon still doesn't look perfect in some places.

• On the order form, you can fill in spots that have given you issues in the past.  I made sure we put ankles on this one, and they put some medium firm foam here.  It is hard to flex, but it doesn't dig in anymore.

• I wanted to snap shots of the holder height at two points.  The first is right around the ball of the foot, as that is generally the area where we are loading our weight. 
• The tape measure is a little bit raised on the one pieces, but I did my best to line the camera up correctly to give you guys an idea. 
• Holder + Steel:
  • One piece with stock Step came in at 1 7/8" high at the ball of the foot. 
  • Two piece with Vertexx + Tydan came in at 2 1/4" almost exact.
  • Total height difference: 3/8"
• Holder only:
  • One piece 1 5/16
  • Two piece 1 3/4
  • Holder difference: 7/16"

• Same thing, this time right around the heel.
• Holder + Steel:
  • One piece with stock Step came in right around 2 3/8"
  • Two piece with Vertexx + Tydan at 2 11/16"
  • Total height difference: 5/16"
• Holder only:
  • One piece: 1 13/16"
  • Two piece: 2 3/8"
  • Holder difference: 9/16"

I didn't exactly have the best tools and methodology to get these measurements, and am probably off by at least +/- 1/16", but you can see in the holder alone you are at about a half inch height difference.  I understand there may be some give and take given the life and number of sharpenings on the steel, so I provided numbers both with and without steel.

Performance

To start, both pairs have been profiled to a Goalie SAM.  I have a 5/8" on the one piece (4mm steel) and 7/16" on the two piece (3mm steel).  It was a little bit of an adventure to get the feel dialed in just right.  I tried 1/2" and almost died, then went to 11/16" which was way too shallow.  I settled on 5/8" and 7/16" as feeling roughly equivalent to me when loading my edges.  The skates do occasionally howl (I think this is due to the steel vibrating in a holder that flexes substantially less than a traditional plastic one)

I have logged about 30-40 hours in these since I received them - I have been skating more since Covid than before, am having a blast, and my hips are feeling good.  Adjusting to the shorter attack angle took about 30 mins during my first skate to stop bottoming out.

I greatly prefer the one piece.  IMO there are two key performance benefits that the one piece carries over a traditional two piece skate that I will try to explain below.

First, the one piece at 5/8" feels "grabbier" to me while the 7/16" edge on the two piece feels "crisper".  I think the key difference is that since you have roughly the same amount of bite, but on a shallower hollow, you don't sink as deep into the ice.  This has translated to less energy expenditure on movement patterns when you are flat on both edges.  I have noticed slightly faster travel time to hit my  spots. Straight line T-pushes are definitely quicker point to point.

Second, I feel there is also a big difference between the two skates when loading for a push and digging in for hard stops.  Both actions feel like they respond a split second faster than the two piece, as there is little to no flex between the boot and steel.  I have had some occasions where it felt almost like the one piece was springing me into a push - but this again is probably due to the lack of flex.

That's all I got for now.  It's been a pleasure sharing content with you all given our current global situation. 

Please ask any questions you may have and I will answer them as best I can.

[Yzueblin]

Great reviews , I wait for mine une 1 week or two ... I hope they don’t have all the issue you had now in 2020