gosinger

Wrt gloves, most pro-teams just get a more or less retail variant with custom embroidery (Team name, thumb badge), but you'll be hard pressed to find players with actual custom gloves (unless they still use old ones from overseas). Most local teams won't have official sales (my local team did, but just because they needed cash badly), but the EQMs will sell you plenty of used stuff for cheap. Plus players tend to sell quite a bit of gear after the season is over. And some major vendors (like HPS in Germany) started selling pro-returns of used gloves and goalie equipment as-well as over-stock "player-model" "pro-return" sticks.

So lots of beer-league players here have used pro-stock (especially sticks and skates!), but there isn't too much custom / interesting stuff out there. And I don't know if there would be sufficient demand for a private sellers market of custom items, since most players over here use whatever they can make work because its cheaper than retail.

If there is I haven't seen any. There is a few sports collectors sites for memorabilia, but no established community for hockey to the best of my knowledge.

I'm frequently searching here for "Europe" etc to find the few items that wind up for sale on here

Once in the over, are they as easy to fit to your foot?

I assume "oven" - yes, going with the 6 minutes bake per skate, those are very soft and easy to get into, so much so that you have to do the rolling of the edges for the eyelets to make sure you can actually get your laces in once you've gotten into the fully molded and cooled down skate (as described on this true hockey video). .

I've got 2 sessions à 2h in mine, after switching to the classic VH/True tongue and adding Superfeet yellow, I can't really distinguish the fit&feel from my custom True/VH that I bought 2nd-hand and rocked with the same tongue/insole.

Not fully convinced on the holder/blades yet, but enough to have this skate relegate my True/VH to the spare-skates pile for now.

I wrote a bunch on MSH, but the short version is that these feel very similar to the customs, lengthen up somewhat upon baking, and come in at a great price-point (some promo available in the US/CAN right now). I'm very happy so far and will keep them.

Here is what I wrote as a PM to a fellow member a while back, maybe it helps.

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I frequently use some Rbk 9k shins I've sawn down, and didn't run into any issues. No special tools required, just stuff that should be around the house anyway. I'd recommend a small saw (e.g. from a leatherman) and a sewing awl / speedy stitcher (optional).

I'd do it again if I ever needed to. With Rbk/Jofa style pads you have a lengthy flat section at the end, very easy to cut down in that area. I personally didn't have to cut into the bulge/ridges that form above them, and I wear my shins over my skate tongues - if you remove too much flat section you might have troubles getting the shins to fit under the tongues.

The process was quite simple, I'd say do it as follows:

* Secure your stitches of the liner to the shell on the outside with superglue or similar, just apply a coat. Optionally you can cut the very last stitch, get the thread out of the way, and re-stitch once you're done.

* Note how the liner sits in relation to the shell and adjust length accordingly when cutting the shell.

* Don't just hack off X inch, but also compare the long shins with some shins that fit well length-wise and cut to whatever length is longer. You can always remove more material afterwards, but you can't add it back.

* Once you've done your first cut removing a bit of length, use some stick tape or similar to form a temporary skate guard. Keep shortening until you've reached your perfect length.

* Once you've reached your desired length, make sure to round off the edges well. You can also add a layer of fabric around the bottom of the liner (which you've also shortened), however I found this to be more for aesthetics than anything.

* Remove the original skate-guard / wrap at the bottom of the cut section of the shins and re-apply (no need to stitch, glue works fine) once you're satisfied with the length.