True 2025 26 SVH Custom hockey skate initial review issues with 3 D printed tongue

Hi, I'm Matt from hockeyreviews.ca and this is really quick and by quick for me video on the true SVH skates. So, bought these. Obviously, they're custom with just hockey. So, went through them and actually scanned myself at home which is interesting cuz all my other ones were done in store. This one was scanned at home, sent the scan in, got the skates, molded them, put them on, and I'm going to be doing longer term test on these to see how these are. bought these because my CCM customs have been disintegrating on the inside as well as the tongue is so broken down. get massive lace bite and can't wear them in backtoback days. So, went back to the true route. I've had multiple True skates in the past. My original pair were these. And then also had actual pair of goalie skates before these as well. And then newer pair of goalie skates, but also had these Catalyst Pros, which are not the full custom. They're still custom, still super comfortable. True sent me these to do review on few years ago and went from these to the CCM skates cuz CCM sent me those skates. So now I'm back to buying pair of TRS. This video will just be few details on the tongue because this is obviously that very interesting 3D tongue. This isn't going to be full review. This is just going to be some details on here that found on these skates which I'm happy about and also not happy about so far. You can see 3D tongue is one of those pieces. I'm going to go into bunch of detail on this with me wearing them and how that has been kind of an annoying point and growing pain in terms of getting these things to be dialed in and work right. And I'll go over just some of like the attention to detail stuff or like the slight changes on new things like the tongue is new and the interior parts just to compare them to see where true has come and if they gotten better. We'll take full look at that. But I'm going to do full like long-term review of these. It's going to be while because have to get used to them obviously and see if they break down and have like the heel cracking which don't think this one had. but my other one did and like the side cracking like this which these ones had. So, we'll see eventually if these last and have gotten better for that. So, before we begin all that, this would not have happened without the help of Just Hockey. So, if you want to support this channel as well, check out Just Hockey. Obviously with Canada, US stuff, it's harder now, but for Canadians easily, check them out. Click the link in the description. If you click that link and make purchase, gives me kickback as well as lets Just Hockey know helping me make content is helpful and you want to see more of it. And if you want to support the channel without making any hockey specific purchases, you can check out the links in the description to Patreon and buy me coffee. Everything through any of those links will always come back into the channel so keep making more content and doing more reviews. So, right away cuz can't test this whatsoever right now. And by that, mean can really only skate on them and get used to it. But one of the big changes on here is the actual steel. And on these ones, swapped out the holders, which were not this style of holder. It was like the original style, I'm pretty sure. swapped those out. put these toques on and had Blade Tech in there. But for this one and going forward, TRS Shift DLC has been pretty solid and I've been pretty big fan of it. And you can see Hockey Reviews CA on there. And now forgot the CA and just put Hockey Reviews, but the font has slightly changed on it. But will say the new Shift HP DLC is more reflective. So it definitely feels like it's more of that mirror finish that Steppp has been known for and all the companies have now kind of mimic with that excellent finish. So, definitely do think that this new DLC finish is higher quality and you should hopefully be able to see that in kind of the mirror and how the lights coming off on that. It definitely feels like it to the touch and it just feels smoother. had no issues with this shift DLC to the point where wouldn't swap it for something else. It was good enough. It is nice that they do have kind of the profile markings on here. If can get this to actually work. There you go. haven't tried the new mechanism on here to see how it comes out or anything. It should work the same way. But you can also see that that holder is very different. And I'll do like side by side on it. Cruise holders evidently were too aggressive and this one should be more neutral. So can't really see that one is more aggressive than the other. They honestly look very close in terms of like you can see how the back is higher than the front. And that is kind of the same here. When you kind of pull back, they look pretty similar to each other from my point of view. In fact, the new SVH looks like it's almost even higher heel. Now, both of these are quad one profile, so they're pretty much the same. So, the steel should not be really affecting this at all, but evidently these new holders are more neutral. haven't really noticed difference in terms of actually skating with them. haven't felt them worse or anything. So, I'll check back on that. The problem is can't wear these side by side because the steel on the Cat Pros right here is one size larger than the steel that is on my SVH. So, can't really put one on one foot, one on the other because that steel just plays big like factor in terms of how they skate and it feels like have no toe on the SVH. have had bunch of the different generations of skates now and even this one was kind of the second generation and it had believe bigger carbon weave than was on the original one. So, that was slightly different as well. These have slowly been changing over time. We're not going to really look at the goalie one, but you can see they have really changed this footed and all these connection pieces on the side to really wrap it more and come further down, which is nice thing. Having that wrap is much better just for durability. Having that plastic is closer to what the older style of ones were, how this was fully wrapped around toe cap. So, I'm happy that that has been thing. Again, one thing that have noticed immediately, and it has bothered me right away, and can't believe how bad this is, is the new tongue is kind of interesting cuz you can do colors. So, did blue here and blue here. As you can see, the weird thing is how you can push this in and you can see it kind of like flexing out and you can see on the insides of it. Hopefully that's on camera. That's just odd to me how that's not like just stuck in here and it's kind of middle piece. Now, it's not big deal or anything and it's totally fine. You can see it flexing on the inside. But the thing that really bothers me and can't believe they did this how poorly is this back tening guard. Now, it is stiff back this way like the old ones were. Doesn't really flex lot that way, which was very similar to what this one was. doesn't really flex either way, but obviously it is very different shape and they've really been trying to adjust the tenon guards cuz people have been complaining about them constantly. While I'm going to be complaining about these ones, they're still in little rivet here, which haven't personally had an issue with. don't take my skates off with tenon guard. know people do. People have had this rust out and fall out. haven't had that issue, but look how terrible this seal is on the back. And this is just plastic piece that sticks off. And got that caught on piece of clothing so far. So, that was fun. really love when they just have like hard plastic corners like this just stuck out. That's just bad. And don't know if that's going to kind of dig into the heel at all, but that's just bad that it's there. And the connection on there is really bad. This should just come lower to cover it, which they did previously where you can see it came lower and it kind of all connected everywhere. And look how much better that piece is there on the original. Look how much better that is, too. So, all of that is better than what this is. So, don't really know how they managed to get like This feels so much cheaper, too, and more awful. So, really disappointing there. And it's weird how every time get true skates, always come out with videos just going on how many bad things there are and yet keep buying true skates cuz they're very comfortable and because haven't had custom skate that's ever worked for me quite as good as this. Maybe Bower is there, but haven't gone down that route yet. Onto the rest of it. So, it's honestly feels very similar. know they keep saying they make changes and changes and with the fiber shield on the catalyst, it kind of felt like they did because it felt like it had more of coating on it. You can see the kind of see the smoky kind of finish to this which felt like that thicker outer shell. That extra finishing is gone on these ones. You can already see the carbon pieces in there. So like the 3D texture to it. You can see all the just epoxy is not super or whatever this extra coating is on the outside isn't really thick at all. And it's pretty thin. So you can see the details in the carbon. don't have huge issue with this. People have had issues with cracking skates before. My other one of this is cracked, which should have grabbed, but didn't. But it is cracked on the back and people have that issue. So, don't understand why true just doesn't do thick thick coating on the outside. Maybe it gets too heavy, but you can see just how thin that is. Again, no issues performance-wise on this. We'll see if durability stands up for it, but it's still there. Now, there is lot better finish in terms of the glue sitting everywhere. So, even like right there isn't the glue. There's little bit down here, but it's totally fine. Everything up here is pretty good. This could have been glued down so it wouldn't be as bad. Here is just an interesting carbon detail. So, no issues with the glue on that versus this other one which you could see on the side just like the glue chipping and it was just an abundance and the sides coming off. did see people talk about their skates recently where the bottoms of these do pop off. had it on my old skates. It never really did anything. It's an aesthetics thing, but it didn't happen on these ones. So, that's good. Now, going on to the liner. think just picked whatever was default cuz the other one was an upcharge. now for couple hundred bucks and didn't want to pay that. But one thing that is really annoying is they have these wear guards right here as you can see and the one on my left skate is already coming off. So you can see how that is peeling off. My old skates didn't have it and it didn't really cause an issue to be totally honest. Specifically with this liner, there was no issue in there. And then it did exist and it wrapped around on the Cat Pros which think was bit of better design and didn't really have an issue with these either. But interesting that that's already coming off. So that's wonderful. So True advertises that they have new material in the eyelets that basically comes down here to help so the eyelids don't split apart. One of the big problems with that to be honest is when people bake these, they then tighten them upwards instead of out and upwards would pull the eyelets kind of this way and leads to this material like ripping apart cuz people don't really follow the instructions on them because you bake these for so long and it causes damage to skate. think that's one of the things that they're trying to fix here. The other thing they said was to help with getting the skate on and off because, as you could see on my previous ones, which have this crazy like bend in them right here, and these have been kind of pulled out as well, when you really wrap these with the Saran Wrap method, as well as just with baking these, it really forms into your ankles and really closes this way, which causes them to one be really hard to get on and off, which people complain about all the time and use shoe horns. And the other is really kind of screwing with forward flex. Because this folds in so much and the tongues when they get in there, you can't really flex it forward whatsoever cuz the tongue just gets stuck because the skate actually goes in like that versus being out allowing that tongue to flex forward. But when you actually take look at these ones and this is the old version, you can see the eyelids don't really move all that much to begin with. So very very stiff in here. And this part right down here basically is rock solid and doesn't move at all and feels like it is attached to the skate. It really feels like this quarter panel just wraps all the way and this is drilled out of it because you can see there's barely any flex in there. You can move it bit that way but it feels like the whole thing is moving all the way down here. Feels like the whole piece is moving. That is very different from what other skates are. CCM now has it down here where this part is really just drilled out of this part. Bowerer has that separate piece and previously companies really did have separate pieces that weren't really built into this that were sewn in there that held the eyelets. Tru's new ones feel like they're going more in that direction. So, when you look at the skates like this one, didn't do that whole really tight saran wrap bake. just did normal bake down here and pulled out like I'm supposed to, but didn't want to really wrap these that tight. didn't want have to re-ake them and really loosen these off. But the difference between this is pretty nuts. So, you can see how I'm flexing this here. And when I'm flexing these eyelet parts, it's just the eyelet section moving. So can also come down here and flex this part as well. So can kind of flex that part in. And maybe it works better on the inside, too. And can flex that part in. And it doesn't feel like the whole boot's flexing. It just feels like the part here is flexing. And same with up here. So when kind of flex this part in, this whole part feels like it's flexing. It doesn't really feel like here is flexing. And you can kind of see that right there. So, can really bend this part without this part moving at all. And down here, when kind of pull out like this, can feel this part moving. And if put lot of pressure in on here, it really does feel like it's just the spot around here. So, it does feel very different. And this is kind of good example, too, where can push out on this in here. And it just feels like this section is moving and nothing down here and nothing in the side of the boot itself is actually moving. So, you can kind of see, think, ridge right here where that difference is. And can't really feel it on the inside all that much, but it definitely feels like there's different parts to this. And that is going to help lot with those eyelets, especially like making sure this part doesn't totally fold in if that is their goal. And if you bake it like this, again, didn't bake it the exact same way. So, it's kind of bad test for that. It's very noticeable when I'm feeling this right here. It might not show off, but me feeling that compared to what this is, just feels completely different. and much softer than what was on the old one. It's not soft to the point where it totally folds in on itself and it flexes on itself and it doesn't really give you forward flex like the Bower ones do where it has like holes and supposed to flex forward. It doesn't do that. It just allows the tongue and you to move without it because it doesn't get stuck in the tongue. Now, we have seen companies redo bunch of true skates and add plastic or Lexan, think it's Lexan, which is the same thing, but Lexan pieces on the inside in here. So, when they do the rivets, it holds better and doesn't rip out because TRS are known for rusting and falling out. And you can see the rust on these skates, and take care of my skates lot. Now, in this skate, can't feel the polymer that's under here. It just feels the exact same what was on there. And when you actually look into the skate itself in here, and I'm trying to get this on camera bit better. You really can't feel or see any difference of anything that is in here, it just feels like the standard True midsole. It doesn't really have midsole that True has had for while. It doesn't feel any different. True says they added polymer. What that is, don't exactly know. They said they added something in there for better gripping of the rivets in there. So whether that works out, we'll have to see. tend to really not make my skates all that rusty. Like take care of my skates really well. dry them out really well. I'm not going to sacrifice these and not dry them out. So that will have to be tested by other people more or less. But we'll see what happens with these and see if can notice any of that whatsoever cuz these ones did have rivets pop, but that was on after holder change. So it's bit harder for me to test that. We'll see. It's good idea and hope it's as good as like that skatework stuff, but can't tell difference on here. Actually, one really tiny thing that isn't really that important, but it's kind of funny. So, True has new laces, and they have new thing right here. Well, the with the little end cap right there, whatever this is. These were the first laces that didn't feel like they were three sizes too long on these skates, which is hilarious. You usually have to like double, triple knot them because they're so massive. These felt totally fine and good length. So, interesting that they finally did that. Finally, I'm going to get to this tongue. And I'm going to talk about the tongue when it's on my skate, on my foot, and the issues had. This is obviously 3D printed tongue. This is made by Carbon. It's nest just like the CCM helmets. love the idea of this. It is really weird how soft parts of it are. So like out here and then how really dense it is here. guess that's great part of 3D printing is that you can do that. This middle piece is very thick and very hard. So when do squeeze on here, it's very dense. So that would be better for that lace bite type thing. And when you really squeeze, that's where all that pressure is going to go. So it shouldn't break through this part and really break this part down. Now, with that said, you can see that this is already folding in on itself bit based on how this sits in my skate. It ends up sitting there and it gets crunched in there bit. So, if do want to switch these, can do that in the future. One of the things have noticed lot with these, I've probably skated in these five times so far, which isn't lot. It happened the end of my summer season to the break. So, the few things noticed right away is had to adjust the tongues. So, did one, as you can see, hopefully it kind of shows up, lot more up on the skate. So, normally like to have the tongue lower so it's not as tall as this. So, you can see hopefully on here like the height differences on here, but the difference on here is and this is great on the true glue coming off here, which isn't the greatest thing. heard there was issues with that, so we'll see what happens. But this is pretty high up on the Velcro piece. So, the tongue doesn't really go far into the actual toe. It stays up pretty high and up here. Now, changed them. can't remember which way went. This one is lot lower. So, you can see how this is all overlap and the tongue is deeper in there and can feel the tongue basically right here. actually liked lower tongues previously on some of my true skates just because they kind of felt like they add some volume into the toe box at the top. People get that power foot. felt like the tongues kind of worked with that. If you pushed them in, they would sit on the top of your toes and it would be pretty comfortable and fine. for this. It doesn't really work because the bottom of this tongue. So, this piece right here, as you can kind of see it on there, when put this in, and it might not work with my skate in here, but this just jams into my toes lot. So, this right here is like not getting flat. have to kind of really sit it sit it down, but when I'm wearing this like this, and when it flexes up, can feel that end part kind of jamming into the top of my toes. And don't like the feel of it. For some reason, it really feels like can't get this to be totally flat. So, when we pull this out like this, you can see how yes, there's like there's my sock and that's how that sits. But when try to push this down more and more, don't know if this piece is just too thick in there, but whenever push this in, can just feel it on the top of my toes and it doesn't feel all that great. Now, after wearing this for like minute on the ice, kind of lose the feeling of that being pushed down onto my toes. So, it's not really an issue, but it is odd and it feels awful right now. And when tie them up, it feels awful. And when walk, it feels awful. And it's digging into the top of my toes. So, I'm not sure if this is just like depth thing with these 3D tongues versus just how my foot is and it just doesn't work all that well for me or what. cuz really would like them kind of down there lot more. So this tongue isn't as high and it just feels like it would work better for the depth. did find when this was higher, the depth on here was bit much. Like look at the how much of that is out. And my foot is barely pass here anyways. It would pass the pencil test for like everywhere but here, which is fine. But when go in here, this is so thick that it really does feel like I'm going to get lace bite eventually and it's really going to destroy these. So wanted to kind of try to make these top parts as thin as possible. And that is kind of getting that down there and having this stiffer piece right here versus the softer piece which is right here to be right on there. But alas, it doesn't really work with this sitting into my actual skate itself like digging it in there cuz it really does feel like it just jams my toes. So interesting. But maybe when go all the way down like this, which it is currently, can still feel it on actually the part right next to my nail. So it would be basically right here. can feel it on there. But it's not that bad. Maybe I'll go this route. We will see. might test this one out once and just see how this works. And if it's comfortable, do it to both time up so they're the same because look at the difference on the tongue heights. And that's more what want on this skate versus the tongue basically coming out totally. And one thing I'm disappointed about with this 3D printed tongue. love the idea of it. You can see how it's already like crinkled here and it's like folded over. Obviously, these aren't made to your foot. If you have depth like do, this doesn't really seem like it works all that well for my skates. It's not more comfortable than normal tongue for me so far with this. And really don't see huge huge benefit to this so far. don't really get the airflow on here cuz wear shop blockers. So, it covers up most of that. So, maybe that is benefit to some people. For me, it's not making huge difference. And it leaves these marks like this on my feet all the time, which is kind of hilarious cuz look like lizard person with all of these like imprints on my actual feet. So, it's interesting in that sense. But you can see just how thick these tongues are. We'll see what's going on with it. But initial feedback on this is would not order this tongue again, but got to use it more and see if can really get this fit dialed in lot. Normally, would go with really thin tongues for TRS, like these ones, which were very thin all over the place. These ones on here, which were much thinner. Now, the great thing about TRS, they're velcroable, so you can pull them out. Finally, one last part on this is the insole. thought they were going to use these genetics, which didn't really like all that much, especially with this weird arch support thing that always felt in my foot. And these felt like kind of cheap super feet. And cheap as in they're trying to do super feet without being super feet. And this was so thick, which was kind of counterintuitive to me on custom skate. You want something thinner than massive piece of foam on it. So, this is their new one on here. But this was the new one. And it is an interesting almost boost looking foam which you see on Adidas shoes. And it has some grip points on here as well as on the heel area right here. And as comparison, my old True Customs were just thin piece of foam like this. And when you put them on top of each other, they're pretty close overall. You kind of hope so since they're scanned on my feet. Now, have been testing one in, one out. My left foot is believe this one and my right foot ends up being this one right here to see the differences to see if this thickness does make difference. And while they do feel thicker these ones, don't really notice it all that much. can notice that it has more like padding to it. So when you squeeze this, you can bottom out easier than what's on here. But wearing them both side by side in the skate, haven't noticed big enough difference yet. have to keep wearing them and see how that is. These do feel like they're higher quality than what these ones were. So nice upgrade there. So, that's it for this video. It was long, but it's short for my videos, especially for skate review thing. Just going over some of the changes, some of the things don't like on here, but some of the differences. I'm still fiddling with these tongues, so hopefully can dial those in so they're comfortable. Full review of this will come down the line. And again, huge thanks to Just Hockey for making this possible. Make sure you support them in the description and in the top comment. Click the link, make purchase for them. Supports this channel as well as lets them know working with me is useful on their end, and we should keep doing some more stuff. Also remember if you if any of these videos are helpful to you in making your decisions, whether it be specs or buying product, please let the company like True know on social media that really helped in the past where they sent me these skates to do reviews on. Let them know reviews like this and content make is helpful and people making purchases, especially skates. They're very expensive now. So you obviously want all the information you can get and I'm not going to sugarcoat anything. I'll be really honest and things like these skates and how parts are falling off already. So let the company know on social media that you saw my content and it helped you make purchase. would be greatly appreciated on my end. This would not have happened without the help of Just Hockey. So, if you want to support this channel as well, check out Just Hockey. Obviously, with Canada, US stuff, it's harder now, but for Canadians easily, check them out. Click the link in the description. If you click that link and make purchase gives me kickback as well as lets Just Hockey know, helping me make content is helpful and you want to see more of it. 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