Aquilzz

Hurt the tops of your feet like lacebite? Ot do you literally mean on the top of your foot? True tongues come in standard, a standard but with a lace-bite protector and a reinforced (mostly for protection for blocking shots). Maybe try adjusting the tongues since they are velcroed in, or just skip the eyelets where there is pain. It's quite normal for people to skip eyelets. True's new player tongue is way different than the felt tongues of old. It's stiffer and not as padded but seems to be really well fitted to the foot.

Purely speculation on my part, but from the release pictures, the material texture looks just like speedskin to me. The Eflex customizer also recently changed and now they only offer 5 colours in weave/traditional jenpro (whereas as of last month it was choice between 5 weave colours and virtually the same amount of jenpro/speedskin colours).

Wonder what's gonna be different on the gloves

Nice! And holy shit do I feel old.

Hey I can help you with these questions. 1) Don't want to speak for the embroidery on the Gen4 specifically, but on the Optik/Gen3, getting a custom embroidered logo was a $100 upcharge. Can't comment if it cost extra to put it on the Y smart strap or the blocker sidewall, however. 2) I'm on my second set of Gens and this one I got with a stiffened thigh. Basically, I found a broken in "1" break from Brian's feels like it has an internal break, even though it doesn't. This affects the stopping power and rebound control of the thigh rise, but that's personal preference. See above for what the charge used to be on Optik custom embroidery.

My idea was to use the top optional strap as an elastic professor strap as the main anchor on the pad. I strap my knee cradle elastic at the knee anyways, so that calf patch has the space. After trying it though, I'm not entirely sure if it's going to be enough. If I were to get really picky, I would re-order the Y strap with elastic up top and the "seatbelt" nylon on the bottom as well as keep the top optional strap. Awesome set! I actually got to see these in person when I picked mine up from TGC. They got in I think a dozen sets that day. For the stiffened thigh, is there HD foam in there...similar to mine where it's a bit thicker than the stock? Or is it something else Brian's does?

By far the biggest change was adding HD foam to the thigh to make it stiffer. The stock Gens really softened up at the thigh for me...hard enough shots could cause it to bend. A stock Gen4 (and Optik to that extent) thigh can be easily bent with just a little bit of force on each end, but this thing doesn't budge. It's honestly like 2S Pro level of stiffness, which might actually be TOO stiff for my play style. I had asked them to make it sort of a Subzero 3 "1" break (which was quite stiff but had some flex) but it's crazy. It also added weight and made the thigh noticeably thicker than a stock Gen4. The Blocker foams were stiffened. I had asked for the sidewall to be stiffened with HD foam as well, but I believe they either forgot to, or they just won't put a Gen3/Heritage style sidewall on the Gen4. Pics...Might be a little hard to tell on camera but its more noticeable in person. Another change was including a nylon Y smart strap. Kind of an idea to mimic leather strapping. Same material as the nylon webbing straps you see on glove wrists. Some other smaller changes like removing some graphics/heat transfers, adding a script logo to outer roll and glove backhand (which turned out nice), Nash Anchor T

New stuff (again). Still looking for that "perfect pad". Lots of off-the-board specs on these.

Damn those are hot. Love how the "one colour" pads still have texture and gradients to it. Bauer did a great job with the 2X pros in every way.

Is it just me or are your skates on the wrong feet? Definitely enjoying my Kenesky ties as well. The bungee cord they use is really nice. Super flexible but still does its job.

Definitely this. After using the EF4s one more time, it's like the way the Speedskin material is stamped that causes it to stick to the ice. What I mean is the dotted pattern on the material almost has a Spider-man "sticks to wall" effect. It slides just fine but it's almost like it's delayed. Whereas traditional jenpro/weave/Optislide don't have that sort of pattern to it. I 100% agree with you. The quick motion doesn't feel like it's an anchor on the leg like the RRC is. Since its on the biggest part of your calf, right where the muscle is, it slides up and down. Whereas the RRC at the top of the calf acts like a really nice anchor point. I don't think it works well as a main strap on the pad. Even if there's science behind it saying it drops faster, comfort and feel are two huge contributors to a well functioning pad. I wish it was on a lace grid like the current Vaughn straps and could be adjusted to preference.

And they came in! Ordered May 9th so pretty much 6 weeks. Kinda bad for the offseason IMO but it's not a huge deal...they're still crazy comfy. At least I got the right colour tongue felt this time

Yep, inconsistent was the word I was looking for. It's REALLY good but then it gets bad pretty quickly. I wonder if we stuck with weave on the sliding surface if it would be more consistent.

Unfortunately hard to know for sure until you're on the ice

I guess it's not that I hated the EF4 set, it's just that the Gen4s do everything better. Between selling Gens and Eflex though, I'm not exactly "paying" out of pocket for these ones. What I didn't like: 1) The core of the pad felt too stiff and "sluggish" to me. It felt like I was fighting against the pad whenever I moved...ESPECIALLY on cross-crease/backdoor plays. It almost feels like they aren't an extension of your leg and is just a stiff pad with a soft boot labeled "Eflex". I'm sure if I got double internal it would have been slightly better. 2) Speedskin kind of sucks when the ice isn't under perfect conditions. In summer, the ice is quite soft here, and I find that Speedskin is pretty much the same as regular jenpro, maybe a little worse as it sticks to the ice. Optislide is fantastic and functions just as well on any surface and doesn't get noticeably worse when there's a ton of snow buildup. As we all know, in beer league, there's about a 95% chance someone is wide open back door or in the slot, so getting there quicker with optislide makes a huge difference. 3) The rebounds were unpredictable. CCM advertises these as soft rebounds, but I found that any decent shot that I couldn't fully control the rebound with goes right back out to the shooter. It's not dead enough to go for a freeze (like the Gnetiks are above the knee and boot) but not hard enough to launch into corner (like the shin area on Gens). 4) The glove has an inconsistent closure. On quick shots, you're not really thinking on how you close the glove, just that you close the glove. I find that if I don't close it very particularly with just my index finger and thumb (ie if I get a ring or pinky finger involved), it won't close fully. I also find the raised D30 palm made shots that hit the cuff pop out because of the ledge between them. I also find the palm to be way too big, but that isnt a deal breaker. There are some other nitpicks with the set, but those weren't any dealbreakers. Nothing else I would really consider abandoning a set for. Again, it's not that the EF4s are a bad set. They aren't AT ALL. I just found that the Gnetik4s worked so nicely that anything else felt off.

Biting the bullet again today! Wasn't a fan at ALL of my Eflex4 set. All the colours (non white) are weave on the Jenpro. Also have a literal laundry list of custom specs put on these!

That's a super nice way of doing the graphic

Could be that the one piece and two piece follow a different manufacturing process? VH is coming out with a new player skate (not sure if goalie too) next month, so they may be backed up making stock skates for HockeyMonkey, etc

It's been in "entered production" since June 10th

Currently going on 6 weeks for a pair of True skates. Yes, SKATES in MAY/JUNE.

This happened to me on my first set. They got lost in the mail. After three weeks, I sent an email and I got a new pair two days later. And then the other pair miraculously showed up. Love Michel's service.

Precisely why I go with a minimal silver/red scheme! I play in a league where we switch jerseys every season, so if I used something busy, it would look bad with Islander orange one season and then Bruins yellow the next. But I keep the scheme to match with my jerseys from my last years of hockey with real defense. No response to my email yet. Probably a safe bet to not use the glove in game tonight.

I have some old baseball gloves I should try

Correct! And an email was sent. I'm also certain it's a senior palm and not an intermediate (not sure how to check this on a CCM). Just would suck to be without a glove while it's being replaced.

Nope! Although I will still be buried in a 2 piece glove eventually! Not sure it's even a custom option on the EF4s anymore. Here's another hint!