daphray

Love the Mako's but not a fan of the orange graphics... I had originally painted over the orange strips with Krylon Fusion paint. It worked fairly well for about a year of 3 times / week of hockey. When I recently picked up a second pair, I realized that you can just sand it off! It worked out much better than I had expected. I had also painted the tendon guards with Krylon Fusion, As you can see in the picture, it started to chip near the flex point - this is about a year 3 times/week. It is time for a refresh.

I thought I throw in my experience to help anyone who is considering these skates. They are by far the best performing skates I have ever owned. The Fit I have very flat feet and 80% of skates out there are a no go right from the start -- including the Mako's. I really took a chance on the Mako as my LHS convinced me that they are extremely moldable. After the first skate, my arches (flat feet) were killing from the pressure from the boot. I was kind of worried at this point. However, over the next half dozen skates, I simply "spot" molded the skates a bit a a time with a heat gun and the butt of a baseball bat (nice and rounded). You can easily see and feel where you are pushing out on the boot -- and it just stayed there. The boot is like butter when warm but harden nicely and keep the shape. Just be careful you don't go too hard -- it is that moldable. Easy enough to push back if you did go too far. There is a nice video on YouTube about heating and just pushing with your fingers - but I found I needed a bit more leverage and the bat worked well. It is the first pair of skates where I don't feel I have to yank on the laces at all because the wrap around my foot is already that good. I was on a Graf G5 Ultra 9R and I now have the Mako 8.5EE. Width wise, the Easton EE is probably a smidge narrower than the Graf Regular. Length wise, I would say they are pretty close, I have had 8.5 Graf's in the past. My running shoe size is 11 and 10/10.5 for street shoes. The only con I can think of is that the insole is paper thin and useless. I replaced those with my custom insoles. At the risk of sounding like a Mako commercial, they are the first pair of skates I have upgraded to that actually improved my skating. The lower cut boot (side and back) really gives you extra foot mobility. That helped with my tight turns and "first 3 steps" significantly quicker. I was a bit concerned about the extreme forward pitch and how it might affect backward skating -- it didn't. After a dozen times on the ice, I am very happy with these skates.