Puckstopper

That's insanely fast. As others have said, beautiful set. I'm interested in how (if at all) the new toe ties affect things.

I'm an old geezer with stiff hips and have no problems with Stabilislide in my Hyperlite setup. I spec'd the Stabilislide over Stabiliflex because I'd tried it and liked it, and at the time I placed my HL order we hadn't recieved our HL demo pads with the 'flex knee blocks. Honestly, when the stock HL's showed up, I didn't notice much difference between 'slide and 'flex, both were a huge improvement over anything I'd used previously or since.

Sorry for the quality, but at the Canes/Wings game and noticed that Kochetkov has made the change to CCM.

Pretty sure the replacement steel comes with a basic 30' profile.

I agree with the rack and fan solutions being most effective, but adding some Scenturion in my gloves and skates has ensured that they stay funk free for life.

Man, that's awesome! If you've got the patience it's got to be super rewarding. For paint I had better luck with automotive paints than anything else I tried. They're a little more expensive, but there are so many good options for color and topcoat effects, plus the primer helps cover minor scratches.

I worked for a pro shop for several years and prior to that, have been down the journey you're on, trying to get by on a pair of skates that weren't right, but were what I could afford. So I have experience to back up what I'm going to tell you, AND significant empathy for your frustration. At risk of being overly direct, you're spending an awful lot of time, effort and money trying to make a bottom of the range pair of skates feel like something they just aren't ever going to be. When you have a hard to fit foot the best solution is full custom. If you go that route, you'll never want to go back. Your next best option is finding something you can live with, and understanding that it's just not going to be perfectly comfortable. You may get lucky and your next pair of skates will be the magic bullet, or you may find yourself spending as much or more than you would have on custom skates. YMMV. A few specific things: As I'm sure you know, the materials in each skate line are the biggest differentiator between the lines. A major misconception is that the top line is the "best". You should buy what works for you, both in terms of price and performance, as top end skates aren't the best performers for everyone. As you'd expect, the materials in bottom of the line skates are not as strong, durable, moldable and resilient as the materials used as you go up the line. When you buy better skates, you get different materials that allow you to bake/mold more of the skate for a better fit, AND allow you to bake them more often without breakdown. I wouldn't recommend baking bottom of the range skates more than twice. Beyond that you run the risk of losing more in stiffness and boot life than you're gaining in comfort. You're reaching that point of diminishing returns and I'd be extremely cautious with further baking. Contrast that to top end custom skates. Our old True rep stated that my custom boots could be baked as many times as I wanted without compromising the materials. When pressed, he admitted that baking them monthly probably wouldn't be a good idea, but that if I felt the need to rebake several times throughout the life of the skates to dial in fit or account for wear it wouldn't be an issue. To your specific question: Cello wrap works wonders with composite skate boots that will hold the shape they're baked to after they cool. It will do very little for bottom or even mid range skates. We actually tried it for a former co-worker and a couple customers, hoping to reduce stress on the eyelets. The consensus was that it wasn't nearly as effective as using the laces with most skates. I've had my True custom skates since 2017. I play 1-3 times a week on average and am absolutely fanatical about their care. I'm talking blades dried, footbeds removed after every use and I dry them in front of a fan. I unpack my bag immediately upon getting home no matter how tired I am. With that level of play/care the skates have held up beautifully and have no issues recommending them. On the other hand, I've seen players treat them poorly and the skates will not last nearly as long. If you're going to buy a Ferrari, treat it like one.

I have learned that the hard way. The best paint job I ever did was the first one because I was meticulous (for me anyway) in my sanding, dust removal, etc... and when I made a mistake I started all the way over and did it all again. Future endeavors were not as successful due to lack of patience. Going forward, it's a "pay the man" sort of thing.

You're not going to make wallets out of them are you?

All of this^^^ If you're actually seeing color build up rapidly you're probably spraying too heavily. Also, using a good quality primer that matches that paint being applied over it and working in a dust free environment are equally crucial. Good paintjobs cost a bunch because it's meticulous, time consuming and detail oriented work. Great paintjobs require all of that plus experience and an artist's touch. I've never even managed a mediocre paint job, and it's largely because I get impatient with the amount of detail work in the prep. Edit: I forgot to wish you luck. You probably won't actually save money painting your mask, but it's worth trying at least once for the opportunity to learn.

But did you use any patented, custom, exclusive FX? Nah, just kidding. Absolutely beautiful work that should be visible at a distance but have extra meaning up close. This is top notch!

I'm a huge True slappy, but I get wanting to keep new(ish) steel. I'm with ZG, look at the HF2. The Elite won't feel like much of an upgrade, more like a lateral move.

I'd agree that you won't find anything lighter than the Warrior stuff. The flatter blocker is supposed to be slightly heavier, but it's so well balanced that it feels like wearing a player glove. Combine that with the ability to accurately put rebounds where you want them due to the more uniform surface and it's one of 2 blockers I've ever owned that's elicited a reaction from me beyond "eh, it's a blocker". To be fair, the other is my Bauer rocket launcher. It weighs more, but the rebounds come off it with noticeably more velocity.

You do have options. You can buy custom, request extra break-in time and pay more. Personally, I prefer to do the break-in myself to ensure that it's done to the shape of my hand and done the way I prefer, but the option is there to pay more for a premium service. Overall the pro level gloves produced by most companies ARE game ready with significantly less work that used to be needed. The fact that you had an awful experience doesn't mean that your experience is typical. I submit that your issues demonstrate one end of the extreme, and were compounded by the choice to have the glove worked on by a 3rd party instead of spending that money shipping the glove back to the MFG for repair/replacement. I get that the 3rd party guy made a bunch of statements that support the need for his services, but my preference would have been to have the people who designed and built the gear be the ones to determine if there were issues. Again, not trying to diminish or blow off your experience, it sucks and I don't blame you for being frustrated. But I do feel like you're making a sweeping statement out of a single data point. I'll admit that CCM gloves are probably the best example of his point. They're not great and the ones I tried on recently felt worse than the EF4 and Axis gloves that we got in back in the day. But he's talking about Brian's, and almost every single one of their gloves I unwrapped were butter smooth, and the worst Brian's pro level glove I can think of was still better than anything by CCM/Lefebvre. He absolutely got a lemon glove, but it doesn't mean they're all, or even mostly, bad.

Ouch! I've jacked up both MCL's over the years and that injury is no fun at all. Your point A most certainly describes me to a tee, so believe me, I sympathize and feel your pain. It's certainly good advice to test the fit and function of the gear. I find it interesting that people are finding Bauer's bungees too tight. I had to tie a knot in the front of mine (in front of the toe bridge) to get them short enough to feel right.

This is why I'll always buy in person or order custom. Unusually the guy building custom orders is a little more experienced than the guy building retail orders. After all, the new guy has to learn somewhere, right? I know you don't want to hear this, but it comes down to cost. These are handmade products and it takes time and training to learn the craft of doing it properly. Time and training cost money. Retention of staff you've invested in training costs money. Failing to retain those staff members and starting the cycle over costs more money. Adding cost to a product that you already charge more for due to low volume of sales and relatively high complexity to manufacture is a non-starter. Unfortunately, there's just no world where every glove can be 100% "pro quality" perfect. As mentioned earlier, there's the experience of the builder, and for every glove to get the pro treatment on the break-in machine you'd either have to increase both staff and machines, or push out lead times. Neither of these options are palatable. Small companies like Vaughn and Brian's would be gone, and CCM/Bauer would look for cost savings by reducing the number of lines offered. The other option would be to increase retail price further, and you're not alone in feeling like those costs are already unreasonable. Honestly, I do think a lot of these companies lost valuable employees both in the manufacturing and management spaces during COVID. The pro level gloves I saw on the shelf pre-COVID were really starting to show improvements in consistency and feel right out of the box. I went to a couple stores last weekend and almost everything on the shelf felt worse than expected. So I do feel your pain to a degree and sympathize that you got a glove from an extreme end of the bell curve. But honestly, that's what I think happened here. You got the worst one that came out of the factory that month and it sucks.

Belfour Hockey Night in Canada (I lived just across the border in Toledo, OH and LOVED that theme song).

Yeah, I may obsess on this stuff a little.

I thought in light of the V1 stick thread being resurrected I'd dig this up and report some results. I've tried cutting a variation of the Lundquist grip into 4 different stick types: Warrior RV1 Pro+: 1 of 2 sticks cut failed. Failure was after many uses and I was really leaning on it. Uncut 3rd stick from the pack was given away 2 years ago and is still going strong in low level beer league. Warrior M/1 Pro+: 2 of 2 sticks cut failed. Failures were almost instant and with minimal force. Uncut 3rd stick from pack is taking up space in my stick rack. I may dig it out occasionally if I want to try a stick without a custom grip, but that's unlikely. CCM Eflex 4: 2 sticks cut, 0 failures. These are my primary game sticks and I have an uncut, unused backup from the 3 pack, which I'm profoundly thankful for! Bauer Supreme Ultrasonic: Picked up a pro-stock one of these in red to match my EF5 setup. So far so good, it's been used 3 times since being cut down and hasn't show any signs of failure. I see others cutting Warrior sticks in this thread, but the circular cuts are a little less aggressive than what I do. If I were going to cut a Warrior, I'd do so carefully and stay to just trimming the paddle a bit.

The hollow is the same, but the 1mm of difference in the steel results in a difference in feel. Generally speaking you want to start about 1/8" deeper when transitioning from 4mm to 3mm, and the reverse if going the other direction. Even with that there's quite a bit of adjustment due to the difference in feel, but most goalies make the switch fully after a couple hours of ice time. What most people DON'T do, that I'm a big advocate of, is backing the hollow back down after the initial switch. Say you go from 5/8" on 4mm down to 1/2" on 3. Try a 9/16" after getting comfortable on 1/2", leave it for a couple sharpenings, and then try 5/8". Some people can go back to their old hollow that way and shuffle easier. Others can't, but for the price of a couple sharpenings it's worth trying to dial in. The final piece of the puzzle is the skates themselves. You're in an X700 (flexible boot, so needs a deeper ROH) with 4mm steel (easy to grab and maintain an edge on, so you can shallow your ROH slightly). If you were to go to a stiffer boot, you'd actually want to go shallower in ROH for your sharpening. So, hypothetically speaking you buy True TF9's and decide to try the 3mm steel instead of sourcing 4mm. For this example, I'm going to assume your preferred ROH is 1/2". For the steel, I'd recommend trying 3/8". However, making the jump from an X700 boot to a TF9, I'd probably be encouraging you to go between 5/8" and 3/4" for ROH. Combine the two and I'd put you in either a 5/8" cut or a 7/16" cut if jumping to 5/8" made you nervous. The boot is the bigger adjustment for sure.

2 out of 3 of my custom V1's are still useable. I've just moved to my Eflex 4's as my stick of choice. Love that softer feel!

It won't hold up well, especially if you've already baked them multiple times. Lower end skates aren't meant to be baked over and over, eventually the materials will give out. The better materials and adhesives used in mid and upper tier skates are one of the things that are rarely discussed but are a real thing. Even top tier skates can only be baked a finite number of times, but usually something other than the boot itself is what gives out. I feel your pain, although in the opposite direction. Having non-standard feet makes for an expensive buying experience or a lot of compromises on comfort!

If anything the 1 piece Trues sit lower than the Bauer Vertexx cowlings, although that largely depends on the steel. The store I used to work at had plenty of old stock goalie skates to compare to the True's. There were 3 factors in me picking the 2 piece True skate over the 1 piece and the largest one was I was used to a taller skate and didn't want to go back.

Throwing down a gorgeous 2 pad stack is nothing but fun. Especially against younger players who have NO clue what you just did to them. Love the stick position too, picture perfect!

To be fair though, the cowings you're showing are the final evolution of cowling design and sit slightly higher than the Gen 1 Vertexx's being discussed earlier.