HighSchoolHockeyForums.com

So. Just thought I'd lob this one out to the forums today as the topic came up in the home front.

With the technology advancements that have been made in skates in the last few years - specifically in the area of baking them to minimize the break-in period, is there a good skate that can be used by one sibling, then passed down to the next sibling for their subsequent use?

I'm told by the skate salesman that you can only really bake a skate a couple times - and that really only applies to the first few months (or less) that the skates are worn. After that the gel used to gain the minimized break-in period looses it's pliability. So that said, there really isn't a good "bake-able" skate that can be passed down to siblings - again, of course, this is what the salesman tells me.

Any ideas out there of good skates that you don't bake? Or... what do other people do for hand-me-downs? -maybe people don't even do that anymore...

Thanks in advance for the thoughts....

When the kids were younger my younger boy got the hand me downs from his big brother. It works fine up until squirts maybe first year PeeWee.

As the boys get older they break down and "stink out" the equipment in a season. Your PeeWee or Bantam will not want whats left of his big brothers skates or gear Not going to happen! Unfortunately your going to have to open that wallet and provide your kids the proper fitting gear.

Salesman is feeding you a line of BS.... of course the skates do not bake "as well" after the first time but the reality is in the YOUNG skaters (Second year squirts and younger), skates can be baked again to provide a certain degree of additional comfort and fit. We ONLY buy used skates through squirt age and we just make sure the skates are a decent fit and comfortable to begin with THEN the skate shop bakes and forms them for us (no additional cost) and it does make a difference, my older boy will tell you for a fact it makes a difference, even if small that can be the difference. Now that the older boy is a pee wee we did finally allow him to get a "new" pair of skates. All the other equipment has been hand me downs except for gloves, the older boy destroys gloves to the point of not being able to fix them or repalm them. So the youngster does get new gloves usually

JSR wrote:Salesman is feeding you a line of BS.... of course the skates do not bake "as well" after the first time but the reality is in the YOUNG skaters (Second year squirts and younger), skates can be baked again to provide a certain degree of additional comfort and fit. We ONLY buy used skates through squirt age and we just make sure the skates are a decent fit and comfortable to begin with THEN the skate shop bakes and forms them for us (no additional cost) and it does make a difference, my older boy will tell you for a fact it makes a difference, even if small that can be the difference.

That's good to know. Thanks for the feedback on that.

So are there any skates out there today that are, good, that you don't have to bake? Or are all skates this way today?