Koho 260 Goal Skates – A good first pair of Goalers?
Written: Apr 05 '05
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
| Comfort: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Inexpensive, good enough for beginning goalies
Cons: Poor cowling design lowers protection and allows blade to bend more easily
The Bottom Line: This is a definite novice skate. Beginners looking to save some money will be fine in it for a couple seasons
|
|
|
| puckmugger's Full Review: Koho 260 Senior Goalie Skates |
A good starting spot?
My first pair of goal skates were the cheapest pair I could find. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and even now in retrospect it wasn’t the worst buy that I made in my first set of goalie gear. I bought my skates over the phone. Uncertain what size I would need I foolishly called the company selling them and asked them what size I would take based upon my street shoe size. I suspect now that the guy I was speaking to covered the phone and yelled to the back of the stockroom, “What size Koho 260s do we have too many of?” Then returning to me once he’d obtained the answer, stated, “I think a size nine and a half will work for you.”
I found out shortly thereafter that this was the sort of shady individual who served himself first and his customers last (if ever). The company is now defunct so I won’t even bother to mention their name. When my order came, which I placed on the internet after speaking to him, it only vaguely resembled what I had actually wanted. Much of it was completely different than what I had requested. Call me crazy, but you’d think that an internet order would be verbatim, not a recommendation.
Anyway, I was fortunate with the skates. They were a tad on the big side, in fact I probably should have be in a 9 and could have possibly worn an 8.5. Nonetheless, they were comfortable and worked well enough for a fledgling goalie. The only other misfortune I had with the buying experience was in finding out that they were not sharpened . . . when I stepped on the ice for the first time.
The Decision
I picked Koho because as a kid playing pond hockey I had always liked the Koho sticks. It was one of the brands I remembered as standing out for some reason. It probably didn’t hurt that Patrick Roy was wearing Koho pads and leading the Avalanche to the playoffs perennially either.
The 260 Goal skates looked pretty decent. I wasn’t entirely convinced that white was a great hockey color, but they did have a nice splash of black and grey that kept them from looking like full on ladies figure skates. The big kicker for me was the fact that the Koho 260 was available for well under $200 a pair from my shady contact in the internet hockey equipment sales industry. For a mere $160 I could get a new pair of skates. That was the big kicker since this goalie thing certainly wasn’t cheap.
The Fit
The skates came and despite what I had heard they were comfortable. I now know that comfortable means too big. Live and learn. The fit of the Koho 260, like all Koho goal skates, was quite wide in the toe. The instep height was more than adequate as well. The heels did lock in nice and tight despite the wide forefoot and toes.
One thing that I’ve certainly noticed about Koho skates is that they tend to fit better if you have a high arch. For me this wasn’t a problem. However, many of the players and goalies that I fit in Koho skates since have complained about the height of the arch. Fortunately this is a very easy fix. Simply cutting the arch section out of the insoles with a pair of scissors will alleviate pain in the arch for most players. Some will have to have the arch area of the skate punched out as well. But for about 90% of those suffering from too much arch support, a little trim will resolve the issue.
The Boot
The boot of the Koho 260 is your standard ballistic nylon shell. This is what was found in most boots up until the last few years. Most of the stiffness in the Koho 260 is derived from the hard plastic cowling that protects the goalie’s feet rather than the boot. Graf’s goalie skates are among the only skates on the market that do not rely heavily on the cowling to provide boot stiffness.
The interior of the Koho 260 is lined with nash. This is actually a pretty impressive material for a low-end skate. Nash is a suede-like material that is very durable, highly absorbent, comfortable and dries quickly. Nash also remains supple when dry unlike actual suede which gets hard when it dries.
The tongue is a standard felt tongue. Since goalie skates don’t come up as high as player skates, lace bite isn’t quite the issue that it is for forwards and defensemen. The felt is thick enough that lace bite would be unlikely even for the most tender of feet.
The Cowling
The cowling on a goalie skate serves two purposes. First it conceals the identity of batman . . . er wait, first it protects the goalie’s feet, second it connects the blade to the boot. Some brands of cowlings are certainly better than others at either or both of these functions.
The Koho 260 cowling is different from the one that Koho utilizes on their more expensive skates. In the higher end Koho skates the protection is much more extensive. The 260 is passable for lower level recreational games, but player will feel shots from better players.
It seems like more goalie injuries occur during warm-ups than any other part of the game. I’ve spoken to other goalies who assure me that this is the case. In fact one of them quit his team because they were such a threat to his continued good health. When I was using my Koho 260s I got a pretty good ding twice. Both times the puck hit me in an odd place during warm-ups. I had one puck strike my ankle just above the hard plastic protection of the cowling. It was moderately painful, but I was able to play the game.
The other injury lasted quite a while and never should have happened. After the whistle sounded to put all the pucks away and prepare to play, an idiot on my team ripped a hard slapper. I had just turned and didn’t know it was coming. When it hit the inside of my right foot I had a pretty good idea that it was on its way though. Not only should the player have checked to see if the goalie was paying attention (it should have been obvious that I wasn’t as I was getting a drink of water when he hit me), but the skate should have protected me from any sort of injury. The puck struck me cleanly on the cowling, but I still ended up on the ice for a while in a great deal of pain. By the time the second whistle sounded signaling that the players should take the ice, enough of the pain subsided that I could stand in the net, but I played with a great deal of pain that night.
The skates that I have used since have all offered substantially better protection from pucks. I am not opposed these days to making a kick save on the inside of my skate against anyone’s shot. Once in a while they sting slightly, but never have I dropped to my knees or feared my ability to finish a game as the result since changing skates.
The blade on the 260 is a little less stable than that of the more expensive Koho skates as well. Where the higher end skates have a little more plastic supporting the steel blade, the Koho 260’s runner is exposed at both the front and rear. One issue that this creates is a substantially shortened life for toe straps and laces.
Resting directly against the steel, laces and straps tend to deteriorate more quickly than they do when wrapped around a plastic blade holder. This can be pretty easily resolved by wrapping the blade with some hockey tape at the toe area where the laces or straps attach. However second issue is not so easily resolved.
In most cases replacing steel with plastic might sound like a bad idea. However in goalie cowlings, it makes the platform much more stable. While steel doesn’t seem like it would break as easily as ABS plastic, it does bend quite a bit more. Unlike ABS which tends to have some give and then returns to its original shape, steel doesn’t have the same shape memory capabilities. The steel in the Koho 260 skates spans a greater distance than it dies in the more expensive skates. As the result it is more prone to bending.
Now don’t get me wrong. Goalie skates get bent all the time. There really isn’t a skate made with steel that won’t bend a little when a puck traveling 80 MPH hits it. Even my top of the line Graf skates with their excellent steel and substantial cowlings need straightening almost every time that I sharpen them. The real issue is how easily and badly a pair of blades bend. The steel on the 260s bend pretty easily and can bend substantially.
Durability
Even when I was a novice goalie I was playing at least twice a week. More often I was playing 3 or 4 times weekly. At one point I was traveling to three different rinks so that I could find enough ice time to sate my appetite. Fortunately I have since found a rink that has quite a bit more flexible schedule and a plentitude of drop-in slots.
My Koho’s lasted me about two years of hard playing. I would estimate that they got me about 150 hours of on ice time. It is also important to realize that they had a couple of factors working against them in their longevity. First, even while learning my position, I was a pretty active skater. It wasn’t uncommon for me to skate out to challenge players for the puck at the blue line (it still isn’t, however I win more of those now than I did then). Also because my skates were too big, there was a great deal more stress on them then there should have been.
After two years, the top of the right boot failed at the back. A long tear developed and all support in the skates was gone. I bought a new pair of skates the night that happened after having a horrible game and trying to figure out why I couldn’t skate well or move to my left. I subsequently had the skates repaired by an excellent shoe repairman and sold them to a fellow goalie for $75. He skated on them for at least another year without problems. In fact, I haven’t seen him for a while, but he might still be using them.
Bottom Line
The Koho 260 is by no means a competitive skate. It is more of a bargain basement, first pair of skates. If you are certain that you want to make the commitment to goal-tending, this probably isn’t the best pair of skates for you. While they are comfortable and would have been even if they had fit me right, the cowling simply aren’t up to par for any level of competitive play. You will get stung in these and the blades will bend more than a typical pair.
Koho’s 460 and 560 models are far better skates, but you will pay for them. My recommendation is that these skates be used by those who are just beginning as goalies and simply don’t have the money to spend on a higher priced skate. For most D and E leagues, the 260 will suffice. They will also retain a fair amount of resale value when you are ready to trade up to a better pair.
Some other reviews that you might find helpful:
Fitting Goalie Gear
Koho 560 Titanium Goal Skates
Koho 460 Goal Skates
Graf 750 Goaler Pro Skates
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.