Are custom hockey skates worth the money ? CCM FT6 Pro Custom VS Retail 

I've been skating in my FT6 pros for about 5 months with the Marsblade I2 Ice skate holder. Best dang skates ever. My kids also wear them for hockey, 6 days a week. 3 hour x 5 day kids hockey camps, no problem for my kids and myself when I helped out on-ice at a recent camp (12 hours wearing my skates over 3 days). We're now in the most intensive March break hockey camp with their team practices in the evening on the same days, over 26 hours of hockey per kid over 7 days, not one complaint their feet hurt in the FT6PRO. Honestly, get the skates baked!

Very well said. I actually have the EXACT same skates as Tommy… I’m on my third pair of custom CCM skates, since I have navicular bones that cause pain (typical Bauer bump) However these last pair of FT6 Pro customs, I ordered the extra stiff option… and unfortunately they’ve been very painful, likely due to the fact that I only weigh 145 lbs. I had to send them back to CCM for adjustments, and bought a RETAIL pair of Hyperlite 2 skates just to test… I ended up really loving the Hyperlites… Funny enough I felt like I needed the custom skates due to my navicular bones, but looks like retail work fine as long as I bake. So yeah, I’d recommend anyone to try the retail skates first (especially if the store allows returns). If you have major foot pain due to feet shape/bone issues, then custom would be necessary. Otherwise, save your money and go with retail. Great video, as always!

I coach full time so I can justify buying full custom skates. The other reason: My feet don't fit well into retail skates so they've never really fit me properly. My feet used to hurt so badly in retail skates (Graf, Bauer) that I could barely stand up. Toughed it out for two summers of camps then I decided to go True ( a month after VH was sold to True). They fit like a pair of socks. 3 seasons later, I decided to get a 2nd pair so I went back to True. Unfortunately, that was about the same time, CCM and Bauer also started to build "custom" skates. What I found out during the process of getting fitted for the new Trues, is that like CCM and Bauer, True had gone the "semi-custom" route. Semi-custom meaning, they still 3D scan your feet but rather than build the boot on the mold of your feet, they find the best pre-fabricated parts to fit your model. Which in my case, didn't work out. The new Trues are rarely used, I took them back to the store that I bought them from to do a second heat mold but they still don't fit very well. My feet don't hurt but they slide around quite a bit inside the boot. If you're in them for a game 2 times a week, you probably won't notice but if you're in them up to 3-4 hours in row, you notice. If the skate maker is putting in donuts, your skate is not fully custom. My OG VH/Trues which I still use, didn't need extra padding, etc. Yes, I heat molded them a couple of times but the pressure points go away within minutes of wearing them.. My lesson in terms of types of skates. Retail: Fully built to a generic mold. Companies will use "custom" as a marketing tool so yes, I would really be aware and make sure you clarify how "custom" they really are. I would break custom down into two very obvious categories. Semi-Custom: Scanning your foot, using the mold of the scan and fitted with the closet pre-built parts. Full custom: Scanning your foot, using the mold of the scan to build the skate from scratch materials. My situation will be different from most who read this, so I don't really have any advice. Fully custom skates (to me) are definitely the way to go and this is ignoring your personal financial situation. If you can afford or justify it, it will be the best/most important piece of equipment money can buy.

Going from retail skates to customs is totally worth it especially if your feet are different. My left foot is an 8.75 wide and my left is a 8.5 standard so all the foot pain issues and fit issues I had before disappeared. That being said I am and advanced skater with powerful strides and am on the ice 3+ times a week so I love the stiffer boot for the power transfer, another plus of customs because they are stiffer than the retail model. For a newer skater the boot stiffness will most likely be a big negative for them, I just had this conversation the other day with a guy I skate with who is newer to skating and still building proper form, I told him to stay away from top end skates until he feels the skates he has are working against him then work his way up to stiffer boots, he is currently in a lower end skate. I see a lot of newer guys struggle to skate either because they got fitted poorly or they when out and spent $700+ on skates that are just too stiff for them.

Make a video comparing the different price ranges of the ccm jetspeed skate!!

Hi there Chris and Tommy! I have custom 100k pros that are awesome, but I am interested into purchasing the new ft6 pro’s! Besides the donut ankle foam what else do you guys use for the other liner materials if you can remember? I want to make mine as comfy as possible! Thank you

I cannot comment on CCM custom skates, but I can say with confidence that for me Bauer customs were not fit for purpose. After 5 years I replaced them with True TF 9 skates. The Trues were more comfortable, as the Bauers hurt my toes. And I’d been struggling for years to master various edge drills such as powerpulls, backwards crossrolls and inside three turns. A few weeks after I bought the Trues, I had mastered those edge drills. I had much more control and agility in the Trues. Comparing the two skates, I can see that the Bauers look like boats around my ankles. My heels were locked, but there was no lateral support. The Trues are far more supportive as they wrap my lower legs. I have flipper shaped feet and very narrow leg bones. They don’t fit standard Bauers and now I know that they don’t fit custom Bauers. They do fit Trues because those skates are very thermoformable, unlike Bauers. They can stretch at the front, and compress at the rear. So, buy Bauer customs if your feet fit stock boots, but have some oddities such as bone spurs that rub on stock boots. Don’t buy them if you don’t have Bauer feet. The problem is that Bauer customs are really stock skates sized to each foot with a few tweaks. Is the same true for CCM customs? Dunno.

I’m on the ice 5-6 days a week. And I’m skating in CCM Super Tacks (Player, not pro) with the single full body design (not two pieces). After three years they are still going strong. I can’t push the “eyelets” together don’t seem to have broken down much. They fit so amazingly well and are more comfortable than my shoes.

Tip for the fellow beginners: The skates won’t make you better if you don’t know how to skate

That rink looks sick! Where is that?!

Chris, you're the best!

I've never done custom so I can't really speak to that but I do always buy top of the line retail. I've never had a pair of skates breakdown as fast as they are discussing here. That said I'm only on the ice once to twice a week these days. But even when I was on the ice four and five days a week skates with at least last me 4 years. Maybe I just do a really good job of taking care of them. My stuff is always dried out perfectly That said I really want to try the donut foam so it sounds like my next pair will be custom. Years from now

For me they are absolutely worth it! I tried many topmodel skate including the FT2 and Ribcore 100K, my FT6 total custom are so much more well fitting and comfortable

can i fit in these customs when i normally wear hyperlites?

these boots are a insane price wise, but its all about what makes you feel comfortable. I love the blue ones they look sick.

I just got a pair of CCM Total Custom Pro AS-V Pros. Can't rave enough how comfortable they are. I need customs because my foot is an odd shape and I like getting extra stiff. If you can swing it, I think highly worth it. Also, donut foam is where its at, but man it adds some chunkiness to the ankle.

Does this mean that the pair of you are no longer skating at Cambridge...? Was hoping to bump into you at some point at ask about the True custom skates.

The CCM FT6 Pros at @2:21 are not worn down nor do they look beat up, those look new with some minor wear.

My kid is 14 and I will not but him a custom skate yet. He prefers Graf skates and he prefers the PK5900 at minimum. Reason is comfort, durability and stiffness. He went to a tournament 300 miles away. When we got to the hotel, he realized he left his skates at home on the drying rack. Picked up a cheap ($150) set of Bauer's and they barely lasted him the tournament.

I know people who public skates with a pair of customs… I have a pair of retail machs, I’m thinking about custom CCMs, I’m getting whacks from pucks, sticks, other skates. Tommy is to blame for some of those whacks but I can feel the majority of them. I’ve only had them for a year…

I’ve been looking into custom skates only because my feet are so wide they don’t make a skate wide enough for my feet

The Ccm “controls” that he uses are probably the FT690s here in the states. Sold exclusively by pure hockey.

I can i get custom ccm ft6 pro skates ??

hi everybody from the uk

Tommy needs custom because it's the only way he can get ones narrow enoght to wear 2 sizes too long

Problem for retail skates for those who have feet problems, custom skates will help with those who have feet issues . Was looking at trues this summer cause I have flat feet and ccm skates have been giving me issues .

Blue all day

If you play regularly and can't fit in retail skates with any ease, custom is the only option in my opinion... if you can afford it

If you have more advanced edgework and skate over 2 hours a week, I would say customs are worth the money.

FT6 Pro skater here, coming from the AS3 Pros. It’s a super comfortable skate that’s a bit wider than the previous model, so if you’ve been used to wide models, the regular may fit nicely. I feel like the black STEP steel is overrated as it definitely doesn’t hold an edge very long (a bit better than the XSi blacks in the AS3 Pros but just barely - or perhaps I’m just pushing the FT6 Pros harder now). Generally I’d say the FT6 Pro holds up just as well as the AS3 Pro (I am on the ice 3 days a week on average for the entire year). Highly recommended. A super comfortable skate. Go with custom if you really need the individual sizes, else stick with the retail.

If you are buying custom skates because of durability, then you missed the point. Custom skates are about fit. If you understand how skates are built, and you have a good shop or your own set of tools, you can have retail skates fit like custom. For years, different models catered to foot shape. You couldn’t have high volume feet and wear a vapor. But vapors flex differently than supremes. So if you have a fat foot, and you wanted vapors, could only go custom. Bauer Fit system tries to make that less of a problem.

lol custom. The only real custom skate is true. And these guys know, and probably use them the most off camera.