What was Easton thinking with their ridiculous 2000 Air Hockey Skate?
Written: May 18 '04 (Updated May 18 '04)
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Pros: Stainless blade, Carbon fiber sole
Cons: Boot is too thick, Holder is pure trash
The Bottom Line: In the long run this skate will cost more than it might save you. Avoid it.
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| puckmugger's Full Review: Easton Air Ice Hockey Skate Graphite |
Easton makes one of the better hockey skates on the market these days. Back in 2000 they were a little too excited about the use of carbon fiber. This led to substance abuse and experimentation in the designs of their skates. The Air paved the way to better things in 2001 and beyond. But to put it simply the Air in 2000 was a horrible skate.
▪ The Boot
Despite the overall heinous appearance of a cheap billboard, the overall boot is one of the more passable parts of this mistake. The materials of the boot are quite good. The uppers are ballistic nylon and synthetic leather – standard fare in most top of the line skate models.
The outsole is carbon fiber. This is a reasonable place to use carbon fiber, making the sole stiff while keeping it light. The Air in 2000 was creative as one of the first outsole with rounded outsoles. This keeps the boot off the ice in tight turns. Easton gets kudos for that. However the way that Easton rolled their outsole so far up the side of the boots looks ridiculous.
The fit of the boot doesn’t appear to be for normal human feet. Like the newer Easton skates, this boot is very wide in the heel and mid foot. Unlike the newer Easton skates, this boot was lasted for the Yeti. This boot is vacuous, huge, embonpoint . . . you need some serious fat dogs – wide feet with huge insteps and softball size heels. Good luck keeping these from slipping.
▪ The Blade
In 2000 the parabolic runner made its first appearance on Easton skates. This blade offers the player something of a spring action giving extra propulsion with each stride. It is also the first lightweight runner on the market.
The parabolic runner is stainless steel. It holds an edge longer than cheaper carbon steel on some skates. Easton’s stainless is pretty good – better than CCM and Bauer but not quite on par with Graf or Mission.
There is a slight increase in breakage with parabolic steel over Easton’s regular steel, but this is most common when the blade is near the end of its life from many sharpenings anyway. It is also far superior to any of Bauer’s perforated steel.
▪ The Holder (the real problem)
A carbon fiber holder seems like a really great idea at first. It is stiff, light and strong. I remember the first time I saw a pair of these in the shop. I was carrying them back to sharpen them and thinking, Man, these will never break . . . About that time I noticed one of them was broken.
Carbon fiber is indeed light and stiff. However, it is also more brittle than ABS plastic. Carbon fiber breaks without much warning if it is subjected to repeated blows. Gee, that couldn’t happen in hockey, could it?
Not only do these holder look like something Dick Tracy rejected, they break without warning. What’s worse is the fact that you won’t be likely to find any replacement holders for these skates. When (not if) your holder breaks on these skates, you will be looking at $100 to fix your skates.
Further the holder is so thick that it does not fit in standard skate holders for sharpening. Many shops will charge extra since the blades need to be removed from the skates, sharpened and then replaced.
▪ Final Thoughts
The 2000 model paved the way to the quality that Easton makes now. Today’s Easton Air is a very good skate that I would highly recommend. However, the 2000 model year of the Air missed the mark completely.
Shoppers looking for a bargain might find the price of the 2000 Air appealing since you can get a dozen of them for a bag of dirt these days. There is a reason that these skates are cheap. They are horrible. What you might save in the purchase price, you will pay many times over in aggravation, repairs and increased sharpening costs. Skip this model.
A few of my other reviews that you might find helpful:
Hockey Skate buying demystified
Easton Air Skates
Nike Quest 3 Skates
Recommended:
No
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