I'm looking for a pair of Bauer inline hockey skates. Every pair of (ice) hockey skates I've ever owned have been Bauer, and I love the boot. I couldn't find any around here a few years ago when I was looking for my first pair of inline hockey skates, so I went with Mission instead. The boot wasn't incredibly comfortable, but it did the job for a couple years. Then the liner started getting funky and I ripped out a couple eyelets -- time for some new skates.
I went to Bauer's site and there wasn't a single mention of inline. Searched the web and found a couple places selling Bauer Vapor 6s. One of those places was Sportmart, a local franchise, so I went to two of them, but no dice; they had only the cheaper Bauers. I'm not one to buy online stuff that must feel perfect, but I figured that was better than going with the Missions or, God forbid[1], the Nikes.
If you aren't seeing the pattern due to the magic of proportional fonts, they all have the same sizes and same price.
OK, I realize that's not a monopoly, but when did this consolidation happen? Are all of these companies owned by an evil Big Corporation, or are they simply putting their name on a third-party site? My guess is the latter, since the Bauers sold in my local Sportmart aren't in their online catalog and the one in the online catalog isn't in the store.
Regardless, I'm now stuck at square one again and will have to find a new favorite brand.
[1] I've never been a big fan of Nike, and once they started buying hockey equipment companies I swore them off for good.
Previous Topic
