New Skates
 

I'm gonna receive my new skates soon (CCM Externos 60), probably this week, and I was wondering if anyone had tips as to how to break them fast, and "form" them to your feet. Because I'm playing in a league but we don't have practices, only games. (Military league.. beer league kindof)

Any tips?
Thanks!

Bake'em. Epuck has an at-home guide, but an LHS is the safer bet.

I don't really like the baking anymore. I had two pairs of skates baked and within a year-year and a half the boot deteriorated pretty badly. I believe the bake loosens and weakens all the materials that hold the boot together(like along the eyelets and such).

I just broke in a pair three months ago and I wore 'em around the house for a while. Then before I went to bed I put them on, used the blow dryer on them for a couple minutes and then slept in them. I only did this one night but I guess two wouldn't hurt. Took 2 maybe 3 skates to get them broken in.

:biglaugh: Jeez dude.

wet your socks when you wear your skates. the water acts like sweat and it is the sweat that allows you to break into your skates

There is the chance they were poorly treated by the employee who baked them, but more and more skates are being built for weight rather than durability, which could also be why they deteriorated quicker. Baking shouldn't do anything other than help the break-in time on most skates.

Unless they're not s'posed to be baked.

Most skates are NOT built to be baked. Only the top two or three skates of most lines actually have enough stitching to reinforce the crucial seams. No stitching or limited stitching - do not bake your skates. And don't get faked out by the appearance, a ton of entry to intermediate level skates HAVE stiching along the seams but (this is ridiculous) it's just there for the look of quality. The stiching doesn't actually go all the way through both pieces of material! That seam is actually just held together with glue.

In addition to that, even the skates you can bake - you're need to be very careful not to overheat (too high of temp OR too long on correct temp). You can still break down the composition of the skate. Along with this don't do it too often. My last pair came with a advisement from the factory to not bake them more than twice.

Face it - CCM and Bauer made tanks for skates for years. Good thing for the skater, they would last forever. Bad thing for player, they were pretty heavy (but, we didn't really know the difference). Good thing for the companies, they earned great reputations. Bad thing for the companies, they didn't sell skates as often as they do now (to the same player). With the demand for performance, they can make lighter (weaker) skates and not loose reputability, on the contrary - they're thriving just as well as ever.

What'd your wife have to say about that?

i wear my around the house for a couple hours each day when i am like watching tv or on the computer