KOR Shift2

[JR Boucicaut 3759]

Open

[Hobbes_86 0]

Specs: Female 5’8 150 lbs

A slightly wider than normal forefoot for a woman. Slight pronation with a normal arch. Narrow heel. Very skinny ankles and therefore prominent ankle bones.

Last skate worn Mission Pure Fly

First of all I want to say thanks to the guys at Kor and JR for letting me try out the skates. And also a give my sincerest apologies for being behind in this review.

I’m sure most people on the board are familiar with the technology in the Kor Skates so I will just skip that and go straight to the review.

Shift 1 Fit:

After the initial fitting these skates felt really good. No heel slippage, my arch was well supported with the thermofit footbed, even the large bone on top of my left foot from an old injury did not bother me one bit due to the moldable tongue. The only thing I didn’t like, and it was a minor issue was the Toe Glove. You know that feeling when you pull your socks on too tight? It was kind of like that, a bit claustrophobic. Anyways after the first skate I was a believer in Kor the fit was the best ever the skates were perfectly fitted to my foot. That was my initial thoughts. Soon after I started to develop a few issues due to my bad ankles. First I was getting lace bite, not a big issue I just loosened up the top eyelets a bit and it was gone. Second I noticed I was starting to get a dull pain on my outer ankle bones. So we rebaked them. The issue seems to go away at first but after a few skates is would always come back. The reason I believe I was having problems was that my bone was right on the inner ‘seam’ of the skate. (Fig1) It seemed like there was a lot of padding in the rear of the boot that forced my foot to slide forward and thereby causing my ankle not to be seated properly. There are a few suggestions to fix these issues and I will detail them further in a few days.

Shift 2 Fit:

So after a few skates in the Shift 1 I was on to the Shift 2’s. After the first fitting the skates felt even better than the Shift 1’s. The redesigned toe box and Toe Glove it was a nice improvement. They changed up how they stitched the Toe Glove so now it lines the skate. With the additional height to the skate the eyelets were spread more apart that the original skate. In this run they went with Superfeet instead of the thermofit footbeds. I haven’t noticed a big difference but what I do like is the ability to get to the chassis in the new skate.

I don’t know how much was changed in the ankle area but it feels like my ankle and heel sit further back in the skate. Maybe since the boot has less forward lean that helped. (see fig 2)

The tongue has also been redesigned and is stiffer.

Skating on the Shift 2

Right off the bat I had a few minor issues with the Shift 2. The fit still felt good but I felt like I was tipping backwards, all my power was transferring to my heels. I was using the same steel that I used in my old Missions and the Shift 1’s so I knew the profile was not the issue. JR put a 2mm lift in the heel and it works like a charm.

This skate is a very high cut skate but I like the additional support and quickly grew accustomed to it.

Recently I have started to develop bruises on my outer ankle bones that actually caused me to shelve the skates for a few weeks due to the pain. I did try rebaking them but it didn’t help. After running into prenny207 at the Detroit OneGoal Hockey Show he gave me some tips on how to fix my problem. I will get to that this weekend.

One thing I have noticed with the higher cut boot, when I wipe out on the ice I cannot get my ankle to flex enough to dig my steel into the ice to pop back up. The heel of the boot just slides along the ice.

More thoughts

• Protection so far is good. I have taken a few shots off the skates without any issues.

• Weight. Very light compared to what I am used to. The pair weigh 3.6lbs Size 6 skate

• Durability. I am not hard on skates so these skates still look really good. Other than a few crease marks and scratches they look brand new.

• Performance. Very responsive. My foot or heel has not had any slippage whatsoever. Turns, stops, and starts were noticeably quicker than with my old Missions.