Today's Hockey skates...

What the heck has happened to Ice hockey skates over the last few years?! I hadn’t been paying much attention, but after a quick visit to the pro shop in a local rink… WOW! They’ve all gone to flashy Ugliness! This is only my opinion of course, but where did all the subtlety go?

CCM is leading the race to produce the ugliest skate of all time:

hard to tell from the image, but their blade holder is AWFUL in person!

and it seems Nike has purchased Bauer,such a shame. Although MUCH more controlled than CCM… too much IMO

and the TUUK holder (aside from the strange purpley0blue color I saw on the skates at the shop) are too offensive.



:frowning: even GRAF jioned the party (although I noticed this a while back)

luckily they still produce their nice classic skates with only minor updates…





Skate designers, PLEASE Stop! tone it down a little…

ok, I got that off my chest. :wink:

As a former CCM designer, I feel the burn!

The skate designers are just following two things: sales and sporting goods trends. Nike Bauer was the first of the skate companies to launch a skate with this extreme look in the Vapor line. I can say that CCM was shocked at their success. Everyone else in the industry hopped on the trend within two years.

I actually like it. I think they look more sporty. Also, there is some good engineering in the higher end skates. I’d like to hear more of your opinions though!

Im a big fan of the skates today…Ive played hockey since I was 2 and although I like the flash of the new nikes and CCMs I would have to say the best pair of skates I’ve owned was Grafs. I remember not wanting to get them because they were to “boring” looking…but they certainly got the job done…I did find the Nikes just as comfortable etc. but there was something about the Grafs that I’ve always liked

say it ain’t so, I miss my super Tacks, but to quote
a professor, “nostalgia is a liar” so they probably weren’t as
great as I remember them anyways.

I remember about the time I stopped playing/skating there
were some Bauer 6000 or something that had the craziest
blade holders I had seen up to that point.
I wonder if I would have a different opinion of some of
these in person?

The yellow laces are killing it. I skate on a pair- and they’re friggin great. The detailed foxing on the backstay, underwire mesh on the quarters- to be honest when I pulled them out of the box I just wanted to put them down and look at them. Although I wasn’t expecting so much bling from the chrome. Was the awe of the rink until the game. :laughing:

Those old super tacks were pretty sweet, but you can’t produce the same looking thing for 15 years.

Although I do prefer the look of the classic blade holders. I do love the T-Blade system as it allows me to change blades on the fly and they are considerably lighter than most blade systems.

as far the boot goes. I love the fact that companies are being more bold regarding their designs. for a while we were stuck with all black skates and it seemed as though only the CCM Tacks 152s had a distinguishable look to them.

Looks wise. Here is one skate that I purchased soley because I loved the overall look. I might put a T-Blade system on it, but right now playing in req leagues doesnt really warrant it.

I’ve been in my Bauer Supreme 8000’s for a few years now and love them. Classic design, with some nice techy materials. I’d like more forward flex though. I skate with the top two holes undone.

Reebok has some pretty offensive (visually) skates out too.

Yeah I dont know why Reebok keeps doing it, but I cant stand the way they use their logo on the entire upper. The one skate they have that I do like though and is the 9k pump with the black/white upper. Yes the HUGE logo is there, but the white portion of the upper takes all the focus away from it.

All of Reeboks hockey equipment was designed for CCM. Reebok took a new CCM helmet and stuck their logo on. I think the skates are from CCM’s Vector line, but with the Reebok logo integrated into the upper.

I hope that Reebok doesn’t faze out CCM. I’m still waiting to see some next generation product marketed as CCM instead of Reebok, but so far I’ve only seen face-lifted Vector skates. It’s sad, as CCM is one of the few big Canadian brands.

Of course they are the same company- and the same people.

Isn’t RBk rebranding some of the Jofa pad stuff too? Strange days indeed.

There’s no CCM phase-out happening and they have plenty new products coming out. There’s even a brand relaunch with there new logo.

http://en.ccmsports.com/

There new skates, CCM U+ Skate - YouTube

You know, I’ve seen the new logo, but I didn’t think about it. Nice new skate, seems like an aesthetic evolution of the Vector. I think they have a new helmet too. That’s good see Reebok taking care of CCM. I have to say though, I prefer the old logo. It had more character.

Those vector gloves are pretty sick! I might just have to think about getting those instead of the new Jordans I was saving for lol

Is the design process for Hockey Skates the same as for sneakers?

The reason im asking is that. I have recently began to notice that skates within a brand i.e. NikeBauer all fit differently. For instance the NikeBauer ONE90s are nowhere near the fit of the NikeBauer Vapor XXX. To my knowledge someones foot will fit in one or the other, but hardly ever both and at times neither. At times even skates within a series all fit differently. For me my feet fit nicely in the ONE90s, but they cant in the ONE75s.

Is there an explanation to this?

sigh…

I miss playing.

I like my old ass Micron Mega Air 90’s.

Does CCM still do all their design work in Canada?

I feel bad that I never added anything to this thread after starting it. In the months after I wrote the original post, I spent some more time skating and saw a few Panther’s games. I’ve come to this:

-In general I still feel like most of the skates are too flamboyant, it’s like they are designed with only 13yr old boys in mind.

-The Bauers are looking a little better to me now, sort of grew on me when I saw the pro’s wearing them. (this only worked for the Bauers though)

-My biggest complaint is having the logo on both sides of the skate. It seems really awkward to me (anyone else feel that way?). Luckily my Bauer 5000s from when I was a kid (which I converted for Roller Hockey and still use today) were of a time just before the “logo on both sides” switch.

-The Tuuk Chassis re-design is GREAT! I wrote a typo about those originally. Now if only they’d offer it in the same limited edition Blue that they did back in the 90’s! The frosted purplish blue is still NASTY though.

Skates aside, most of the other equipment is looking really good! Most of the helmets are really nice!

Go on www.modsquadhockey.com, it’s the best resource for hockey equipment and will answer your needs concerning roller hockey skates.

I used to play hockey when I was younger, the skates were cool and simple back then. I do like those Supra one’s though.
:stuck_out_tongue: