Bauer Vapor XXX, Did Bauer fix the Vapor XX skates?
Written: Jan 19 '05 (Updated Feb 15 '06)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Light, high-performance skate for competitive players
Cons: Some durability issues make this skate less useful for recreational players
The Bottom Line: A good skate for growing players in competitive hockey but they don't have the durability that recreational adults will expect of their skates
|
|
|
| puckmugger's Full Review: Bauer Vapor XXX Skates |
The next best thing?
Bauer would have us think that the Vapor XXX is the next best thing to the second coming. Of course they want us to think that! Every 13-year-old hockey player on the planet was pretty sure that was the case with the Vapor XX. The taste of bitter disappointment still fresh on their young, but slightly wiser lips, even those 13 year olds must wonder if the Vapor XXX is really all that.
First I suppose I should back up for those of you who missed the hype. When Bauer’s Vapor XX skates hit the streets a couple years back there was a long line already waiting to buy a pair. The NHL pros had been skating on these silvery, gray skates for months. Hey, if they’re good enough for Joe Sakic, why not little Billy, right. The Vapor XX set new standards for appearance and weight, dethroning former lightweight titleholder Easton in a big way.
Unfortunately Bauer sacrificed a great deal of durability in the construction of the Vapor XX setting another new record – Most Expensive Skate to last less than a year. The XX also had substantial quality issues stemming from poorly mounted blades that were more often bent than not. The new Lightspeed TUUK was also a disappointment with ineffective hardware.
All this leads to the question: Did they get it right with the Vapor XXX?
Did Bauer get this one right?
If you’re waiting for a one-word answer here, sorry. I never let you, the reader, off the hook quite that easily. Besides, how fun would it be if I just answered that yes or no?
Still, I’m perturbed enough with Bauer to tell you up front, that this isn’t likely to be a better skate. It’s another piece of junk with a huge price tag. Bauer did little more than slap some new graphics on the boot, change some colors slightly, and take off the cool looking clear coat on the outsole. Yes, the new skate is actually the “Pro Stock” version of the Vapor XX, which you couldn’t buy previously. But that really isn’t as great as it sounds.
Rumors abound that several local pros were going through a pair of pro stock Vapors every six weeks. Granted they skate harder and more often than most of us, but SIX WEEKS? No wonder the competing CCM skate quickly became the most popular one in the NHL. (Of course, the pros are all wearing them for shopping and around the house since they aren’t playing now).
My experience with the pro stock Vapor XX was less than acceptable as well. One customer waited for three months to get his defective Vapor XX skates replaced. After about a dozen phone calls to the guy at Bauer who had a full time job of getting warranty replacement Vapor XX skates to customers, I was informed that there were no Vapor XXs available for the public. But they had a pair of pro stock skates they could send in his size. Great! I figured this would make my customer happy and his skates might just last more than 3 months. They lasted him five - big improvement for a skate that sells for more than $400. (That was sarcasm if you missed it).
The “so-called” improvements
Weight
Bauer claims that these skates are now the lightest pair on the market. Weight really wasn’t an issue with the XX skates. Durability was the issue. I’m not going to take too much exception to the fact that that the CCM Vector ZG series with t’blades are actually lighter than the XXX. Weight is calculated in such a subjective manner for hockey skates that it’s hard to compare sometimes. Bauer might have just compared the two skates in various sizes until they found one that the Vapor was a tad lighter. Honestly, they are pretty close and weight has become such a marketing hype issue lately, who knows? I will say that both skates are very light and no one will complain about either being too heavy.
I will however take exception to the fact that there is no discernable difference in weight between the Vapor XX and Vapor XXX. This apparently is just a nice bit of not so clever marketing. The only real possible place that some weight was saved is in the elimination of a thing piece of clear plastic from the outsole. 5 grams maybe?
Holder and Steel
The new Lightspeed II is an improvement over the original Lightspeed, just not a noticeable one to the end comsumer. Bauer seems to have stiffened up the holder ever so slightly. However, the perforated steel is still very prone to bending. The heavier holder is most likely an attempt to minimize the many misaligned skates that Bauer sent out of their factory with bent steel.
The instances of holders being mounted incorrectly have gone down, but this problem seemed to have been addressed in the later Vapor XX skates. Bauer did make sharpeners happy by taking off the annoying ridges that caught stones during deburring. Other than that, the only real change to the Lightspeed II seems to be cosmetic.
Boots
The Pro Stock skates are a little bit stiffer than the Vapor XX boots were. The initial feel of the Vapor line is outstanding, I will give Bauer credit there. Lateral support is probably better than in any other skate that offers the amount of forward flex that the Vapor still maintains. This makes break-in of the Vapor XXX and XX a pretty simple process. This is a good thing, since if they weren’t so comfortable right out of the box, the skates would go right from uncomfortable to broken down.
The Vapor XXX is a very hard boot on the outside, which might lead potential buyers to think they are uncomfortable. Nonetheless, they are pretty silky on the inside. Bauer suggests that the Vapor XXX gets only 3 minutes in the oven for heat fitting. I suspect that this is to make dealers happy by either providing an extra service to skate buyers or selling them a service they don’t actually need.
The exterior almost has the feel of ballistic nylon that has been dipped in glue. New Vapors have a tendency to make a cracking sound, not unlike wood breaking, when they are put on and laced tight. When punching out the boots one has to wonder if they didn’t break something by the sounds they make.
The lining and foot bed are hydrophobic (from Latin roughly translating to – they fear water). Literally this simply means that they do not absorb water, and therefore will smell a little better than skates that do. The foot bed is slightly improved, but still now something to get excited about and spend gobs of money for.
The tongue is pretty thin. However, lace bite has not been a common issue that I know of. I haven’t heard of any issues with the tongues in these skates failing before other parts of the skate. Good for the tongue, bad for the other parts.
The outsole is the biggest notable difference in the boot appearance. The XX boasted a composite outsole with cool looking graphics under a clear plastic. (These were actually printed on paper which was glued to the outsole and then covered with the plastic, but they did look good). The XXX has no such cool design, instead opting for a plain grey carbon fiber outsole. Perhaps they shed a few grams of weight here, or perhaps not.
Will they Fit me?
How should I know? I’ve never seen your feet before.
Bauer’s skates are best suited for people with narrow feet and an average instep height. Medium to low arches will be supported better than high arches. Essentially, if you have wide, or just plain fat feet, the Vapor is not a skate that will make them happy.
Besides, if you’re going to read this entire review and buy these anyway, you obviously don’t give a rip about my advice.
What Else should I know?
You should be aware that Bauer once was one of the top names in hockey gear for a reason. Yes, they still are a top name, but at the rate they are going Nike might just run them into the ground completely. You see Nike purchased Bauer hockey before introducing their Nike skate line. While the Nike skates slowly keep getting better, Bauer’s products are much worse. Both companies have settled into a state of mediocrity in hockey gear in the last few years.
Unlike CCM who saw problems and fixed them, Bauer seems to be content to sweep their mess under the rug. Placing a new badge on the Vapors and calling them the best skate in the world is hardly the type of response that I would have expected from a big company like this.
There was a time that CCM and Bauer had huge faithful masses that would refuse to even try on a skate from another maker. Bauer seems to be doing their best to put an end to this. I know several players who have sworn that their Vapor XX is the last pair of Bauer skates they will buy. Bauer’s failure to fix these skates certainly won’t earn back the lost portion of their flock.
Final thoughts
Frankly it makes me angry that Bauer would issue the XXX and hope for the best. Their attitude seems to be, “Let’s sell the pro stock and put a little marketing behind it as a new skate.” The people at Bauer know they had a problem with the Vapor XX. Certainly it will take some time to develop a new skate. But to simply toss a new coat of varnish on an old pile of dung is insulting to the public.
The Vapor XX and XXX have their uses. If you have more money than you know what to do with, then the XX and XXX are both decent skates. The population at large will not be willing to spend more than $400 for a pair of skates that will only last them six months. One of the biggest concerns that players express to me is an unwillingness to have to buy skates for a few years. This is understandable given the price of skates and the glorious, excitement of breaking in a new pair (yet more sarcasm).
I’ve known people who swear by the Vapor XX and those few will likely be willing to buy a new pair of XXX skates every few months. But the guys I’m talking about have intentions on being pro hockey players. They play junior or college hockey and consider $1200 a year on skates to be a rite of passage. I suppose if you are that serious the Vapor XXX might be the skate for you.
For recreational players the XXX is both too much and not enough. For the rest of the world, I would recommend that you stay away from the entire Vapor line. Bauer diehards can still find an excellent skate in the Supreme line of Bauer products.
One year update
I hate to eat my words and I don’t think I fully need to here. However, I apparently overstated just how bad the Vapor XXX skates actually are. My anger over Bauer’s dishonesty in marketing these skates led me to give these skates a lower than deserved rating which needs to an adjustment.
After a year on the market, the Vapor XXX has proven to be more durable than the Vapor XX was. The mounting errors on the blade that plagued the Vapor XX are pretty much unheard of, but breakage and bending during usage is still very high. This is normal for all perforated steel, but Bauer seems to have higher than normal instances still.
I still don’t recommend the Vapor XXX for the average skater. While they do last longer than their predecessor, the Vapor XX, they still have a realistic useful life of perhaps a year. This does create a useful market for competitive boy’s hockey where kids still have growing feet. If you can get through a season as a growing boy, that’s about the best you can hope for.
Players who want a very high performance skate and don’t mind replacing them yearly are the target market of this product. I suspect that big players who skate very hard and often will run through these in six to nine months, but average players and those of smaller stature will normally be able to get a full season from the XXX.
I’ve raised the rating of the Vapor XXX to three stars. They are still not a great choice for the average recreational player in my opinion, but there is definitely a market for them.
© 2005 Scott Noble – All rights reserved. Unauthorized use prohibited.
Some of my other reviews that you might find helpful:
Hockey Skate buying demystified
Bauer Vapor XX Skates
CCM Vector ZG 130 Skates with T-Blades
Bauer Supreme 8000 Skates
Jeff's Angry Letter
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
puckmugger
|
 - Top 50 |
|
Location: wandering the fringes of the goal crease
Reviews written: 488
Trusted by: 247 members
About Me:
My book is now available in major bookstores or by order from my profile page.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.