EGC Skates

April was a difficult month for me.  A major project at work, cool temperatures, technical difficulties with my pc, a busy boot casting schedule, coaching and the passing of my father.

[Photo] My work for the next two months!

Explorations and Discoveries:
EGC is about exploration.  It’s also a journey into athletics, engineering, arts and craftsmanship.  Craftsmanship takes time, meticulous attention to detail and the desire to get things right.  My desire to get things right means that each of you that requested a pair of EGC’s will receive a boot that surpasses the norm.  This will take time.  About two months, give or take a few weeks.

There are not a lot of “custom” boot makers in the world.  I have almost all of them listed in my links. One of the things that is starting to bother me about the word “custom” is that it no longer means what it’s supposed to.  Miriam-Webster defines “custom” as “made or performed according to personal order.” Is a custom boot truly a “custom” boot these days?

If something is custom it is made to personal requirements.  How many of you know what the requirements are for an inline skating boot?  How about a short track skating boot?  How about the difference between a track specific boot and road specific boot?  Is there even a difference?

“Custom” suggests that the client has a personal requirement, not just requiring personalization.  There’s a difference.  If a skater has been skating for a number of years and understands some of the variables in a skating boot, they will be able to articulate how they want the boot made. The boot maker, with an intimate knowledge of the art, can provide guidance and provide designs based on skating experience and the client requirement.

“Custom” therefore, is a balance between the engineering knowledge of the boot maker AND the experience and skills of the skater.  This implies that the skater and boot maker must work together to achieve the fit and performance of the boot.

Now that we have an understanding of the jargon, when was the last time you spoke to the person that is making your boot?  The big skating companies are moving further and further away from their skaters.  When that happens, the fit and performance of the skate is compromised.  Now it’s all about who can produce the most, and make the most money.

I recently experienced a custom boot from a big name in speed boots.  From what I could see, and from the feedback I got from the skaters, the boot design was clearly flawed.  It looked like a cheap imitation of a design made by other true custom boot makers.  When the skater laced up the boots, they were unable to bend the ankles and get the knees forward.  If you’re even a beginner speed skater, you know that it’s critical, to have the knees forward and the ankles bent.  When a boot severly limits your ability to do this (and even causes pain in the tendons on the top of the instep) there’s something wrong with the boot.

This is one example where the customers can not truly get a custom boot.  Sure they get molds of their feet done by “experts” and they even get to pick the boot and lace colour, but ask for anything else like reducing the stiffness, lowering the height and adjusting the angle of the topline and you’ll get nothing.  Sure they listen to you - even take your order, but once it’s at the factory, it’s up to the person making your boot to apply these requests.  If that person doesn’t even speak english, then you’re SOL.  Sorry.  I’ve seen it in action.

“Custom” in this case means the only difference between a stock boot and a custom-built model, is the last that is used.  Nothing else appears to change.   How very unfortunate.

On Boot Making:
As I said elsewhere, I’m not a professional boot maker nor do I want to be.  These words are merely my observations on what I see with my eyes and examine with my hands.  I’ve used all kinds of boots from many different boot makers over the past 16 years of skating.

You get to talk to the boot maker. He assembles each pair, meticulously by hand, ensuring every detail is attended to. You tell him what you want, and he’ll build it precisely.

Occasionally, I hear about craftsmen that build skates in their garages. Like Bruce Kohen and Vytas Jasinskas.  Skaters and coaches that are unhappy with boots made by the big names in our sport.  They take matters into their own hands and produce a boot so comfortable, so precise, so well engineered and so very custom, that they can only make a small quantity of them each year.

If any of you have ever comissioned a boot from Vytas - you’ll know what I’m talking about.  You get to talk to the boot maker.  He assembles each pair, meticulously by hand, ensuring every detail is attended to.  You tell him what you want, and he’ll build it precisely.  Unfortunately, he has retired from boot making.

Project Updates:
My goals have alway been the same.  To make a boot FOR REAL SKATERS. Who are they?  People that are passionate about their sport.  Those who spend countless hours perfecting their technique.  They are the enthusiasts and they know exactly what they want in a high performance skate.

The boot should fit extremely well, look great and made to personal order. It should allow the skater to perform without pain and worry that his/her boot will hurt them.  This is no easy task for a new boot maker, but if I don’t set that goal, I’ll never be able to make the ultimate skating machine.

This past week has been horrible.  At one point the temperature dropped to zero celcius!  It’s very difficult to work in a garage if the temperature is not at least 8 or 9 degrees outside.  Since about the second or third week in April I’ve been casting skaters at our local club.  I still have a few more to do but, I’ve got ten on the table and ready to have the lasts poured.

For the larger casts, I’ll need more than two boxes of plaster, for the rest, two boxes is enough for one pair.  I will be making them in batches of five.  Today, the plan is to brush on a release agent inside the casts of the first five, then pour the lasts if I have time.  For tomorrow and Wednesday, I will continue pouring lasts and start the shaping process.  Then it’s off to the oven for drying and final shaping.

I’ll be working in batches of five or six at a time.  This means that the first batch of boots will be completed about 1 to 2 weeks sooner than the next.

Anyway - that’s the update for today, thanks for reading.

Thanks to the skaters that showed up last week to get cast.  I did five participants of the prototype program.  Your casts are drying in the garage.  I apologize for having to cancel the Sunday appointments and I may have to cancel those coming up this weekend as well.

As of today - all casting appointments have been postponed until further notice.  I will be attempting to cast later this week and possibly on the weekend, but the venue has to change.  If I booked you for a casting, please send me an email at joyridernet AT yahoo DOT com or come see me at outdoor practice.  I will discuss the casting options that I currently have available in my schedule.

I apologize for the inconvenience, but I have a really good reason for all this confusion and disorganization.  I can’t reveal that here, but if you’re interested, come talk to me at practice or send me an email.

Thanks for everyone’s understanding.

I delivered the modified Vaypors last week.  The tongue was left intentionally long at the top so that it could be either rolled or cut off to the skaters tastes.  The skater decided to heat them up with a heatgun and roll them over.  I saw the results of that mod at practice last week and took some photos.  They not only look cool, I’ll bet they’re much more comfortable than stock now.

[Photo1] - Boots on the track at our outdoor practice
[Photo2] - Close-up of the rolled tongue

The material I used is called EVALITE. It is a foam rubber that fully heat molds at relatively low temperatures. About 150 f for a few minutes will do the trick. To roll the top of the tongue is not easy without a few tools and tricks. Fellow skater Mike Lin actually has the best technique. You heat the top of the tongue with a heat gun for several minutes, then roll it over and clamp it while it cools.

In other news, I’ve started cycling to work again. In order to maximize the value from all the new gear I bought, I have to ride enough times this year to offset the cost of the train fare.

April 10th - 40km, April 9th - 70km, April 7th - 70km, April 4th - 70km, April 3rd - 40km, April 1st - 40km. So that’s an April total of 6 days riding to work and 330km in distance.

[Before I go into the boot repair article this is just a brief announcement: to all the skaters who signed up for my prototype boot program, please take a look at the project status page for more information. I'm presently booking all your casting appointments. I'll try to do as many as I can during the weekend of April 12/13 - please keep in mind that it does take about 1.5 hours to cast. If I haven't contacted you by the end of this week, please email me.]

A couple of friends from my skating club approached me recently to perform some repairs to their boots. Unlike their plastic recreational counterparts, properly broken in speed skating boot can be quite comfortable. Sometimes it’s better to buy a new pair, but more often it’s worth the time, effort and cost to repair them.

[Photo] three pairs of boots to repair.

In my opinion, leather is still the best material for making skates and shoes, many of the newer boots are being made with an artificial fiber. Microfiber is said to be both lighter and more durable than leather. In practice though, it’s actually easier to rip and traps moisture vapor. For most shorter duration and indoor or ice skating, breathe-ability isn’t a noticeable problem. For inline, outdoor long distance skating, it can quickly become a concern. Microfiber may not “breathe” that well, but in usage, the material stands up to the rigors of inline racing quite well.

[Photo1] [Photo2] repairs needed on a Bont Vaypor.

In this article, we perform repairs on a Bont Vaypor, then replace the EVA tongue of the boot. I’ll discuss further about the boot’s shape as I proceed with the repair.

“The one place where I had some difficulty was in attaching the new tongues. My sewing machine wouldn’t fit in that tight space, so I had to sew the tongue’s on by hand. This was quite an ordeal, taking nearly an hour to complete the stitching. “

Let’s first take a look at the damage:

As you can see - the microfiber has been damaged. The first step will be to glue everything back in to place, then re-stitch the top opening. The tongue of the boot is somewhat problematic for this skater.

[Photo1] showing the boot cuff being re-stitched.
[Photo2] the microfiber is glued back into place.

I was fortunate to have feet that are a similar size, so I tried inserting my foot and assuming the speed skating position. I was unpleasantly surprised by how restrictive the cuff felt. It severely limited my ability to bend the ankles and get my knees forward. When the top eyelets were loosened, the tongue would pull forward and out of the boot and I was not even in a very low position! It’s no wonder, the skater wanted the boot tongue replaced with something wider.

In my hand, the boot felt very solid and well built. In my opinion though, it actually felt a little over-built. The ankle area was extremely stiff perhaps too stiff to achieve any kind of edge control. While supportive, I think a few less layers of carbon or thermoplastic would have been preferred here. That being said, I would emphasize that this is an inline boot, NOT a short track boot. You would actually want a short track boot to be super-stiff. This boot was too stiff and a touch too high cut for inline. It would make a great short track boot, except I couldn’t mount my favorite blade on a 3-point.

[Photo1] showing the tongues being built.
[Photo2] a close-up view of the attaching point.

The tongue of the boot is Microfiber glued/fused onto an EVA foam liner. In between the liner, I could feel a stiffer material, perhaps a thin thermoplastic that can be heat molded. It was attached to the boot at two points. The microfiber top cover and a small piece of Dacron webbing type material. In order to replace the tongue, I had to remove the stitching and dissolve some of the cement holding it on. Fortunately, there wasn’t a lot of it and the tongue came right off with little effort.

I used my usual technique of leather/EVA/Dacron webbing to make the tongue. This time I used the original tongue as a guide, then drew out a wider and slightly longer pattern. The tongue is assembled using contact cement. The Dacron webbing and the Velcro are glued and stitched using my new Techsew shoe patcher.

The one place where I had some difficulty was in attaching the new tongues. My sewing machine wouldn’t fit in that tight space, so I had to sew the tongue’s on by hand. This was quite an ordeal, taking nearly an hour to complete the stitching. Here, we’re using a hand-lock-stitch, which is superior in strength to a machine lock-stitch.

[Photo1] hand lock stitch
[Photo2] the completed tongue

Also on hand were a pair of Canariam and Powerslide boots. Another skater was using them for short track ice. As I mentioned above, short track ice has different demands on a boot. You’ll want something that fits tighter, is stiffer and has much more support (so more straps and buckles.) Keeping this in mind, an inline boot that is lower cut, more flexible and has fewer securing mechanisms will be prone to having their eyelets torn out from tightening. Here are a few photos showing the carnage.

[Photo1] [Photo2]

The fix for this is a fiber reinforced eyelet sheeting. These are sold at shoe repair shops and are extremely rip and tear resistant. They can be layered in between the liner and outer to increase the strength of the eyelet area. In this case though, the top-line is badly damaged and will have to be removed.

[Photo]

In this photo, I show the plan of action. Short Track technique is different from inline technique. It’s very important that the boot is stiff laterally, but allows the skater to flex forward. Any boot that doesn’t allow for this will weaken at the ankle’s flex point. One very popular solution is to cut a small “v” section out of the quarters. This allows the boot to be cinched tight, yet allow for some flex to occur.

These boots had virtually no top opening. It was as if the leather was sliced right down the middle with no lacing margin. While the skater may be lucky and not require this margin for inline, when used for short track, the boots will not be tight enough.

One possible solution is to remove the damaged eyelets, and widen the top opening. I have actually seen this done on several short track boot designs. It makes a lot of sense to allow the skater, the ability to tighten the ankle area, but leave the forefoot a little looser.

In this article, we talked a little bit about boot repair and showed an example of a boot that desperately needed fixing. We also talked a bit about skating technique, the bending of the ankles and how a boot has to allow the skater that level of mobility. We increased the size of the boot tongue to allow the skater to bend forward. While this is a band-aid solution for the problem, a better fix would have been to completely rebuild the cuff of this boot. That’s major surgery and the effort and cost of doing that would be nearly 50% of a new boot (or perhaps even covered warrantee.)

Next time, we’ll take a stab at those Canariams and Powerslide’s, cut off the damaged materials and convert them into something that will work better for Short Track ice.

Thanks for reading.

p.s.: before you attempt to modify your skates, consult with your boot manufacturer. Chances are they will take the boots back and perform the needed repairs for free or a very small fee. This article is for information purposes only. I don’t suggest nor advise you modify your boots or skates unless you are willing to assume all risk of damages resulting from your actions.

[Updated] I’m about to participate in the http://www.earthhour.org/ and turn off my lights and computers. Before I go, I have significantly changed certain parts of my website and the EGCSkates concept. Please ensure you take a look at the Info, Current Status and Terms pages. The Prototype Program as been changed slightly and the requirements have been updated. Please see the [Project Status] page and the [Info] page for more details.

To all those skaters that I’ve already spoken to, not much has changed so please make every effort to attend the Toronto Inline Skating Club - Open House on April 6th.

Certain other articles and postings have been updated to reflect the current status of EGCSkates.com and Eric Gee Custom.