Nike Flexlite 12 replacement

[mnpucker 33]

So I bought the skates new 3-4 years ago. The first time I put them on I realized I never had a skate that truly fit my foot. Same story as anyone else that loves this skate, high instep wide forefoot, narrower heel. I wear an 8EE in this model.....yes fred flinstone feet.

I recently noticed Giant had them on their site for either $99 or $199 but thye only had 8.5ee, today thye only have 10.5 d.

Yesterday i noticed the outside toe box seem on my left skate has let go. Ineed new skates.

I am opposed to Graf but open to any other brand that would actually fit my foot.

Suggestions would be appreciated, I/my players have really benefitted from some of the things I have read on this site. Thanks to you I recently helped a young player fix a pronation problem.

[JR Boucicaut 3805]

You can still get FL12s through the Nike/Bauer custom department.

[Law Goalie 147]

We have basically the same feet: I'm an 8D in Flexlites. More Golden Gate Bridge than Flinstone, however, in my case - mile high arch.

The Flexlite 20 is the same as the 12 (with a newer holder) only available at retail in Europe/Asia, but can be custom ordered in North America. The Flexlite 18 is the replacement for the old 10 (same fit as the 12, different tongue and liner), and is fairly widely available. The 16 is the new 9, a significantly downgraded skate; don't even touch the Flexlite 14.

As for other skates, the Graf 709 is similar in overall volume but a totally different fit; the G70 is closer to the Flexlite, but again, a somewhat different foot/last shape. The One95 in EE might be an option - 8090-ish depth and width, with significant heat-molding. The Kor Shift 1 might be your darkhorse, given its incredible molding abilities, and at $199 from G, maybe worth a shot.

My advice would be to grab a couple pairs of Flexlite 18s while you still can. I don't imagine non-Bauer Nike skates have long to live...

[mnpucker 33]

Custom sounds expensive but how woudl I pursue that. Thanks a lot for the info. I did try on the KOR 1 when they were first intruducing them in St Paul at the Hockey expo during our State High School hockey tourney, they fit fine. I would so much rather deal with my local shop but if Giant is the only one that has them I guess that is out of the question.

Do you know how I woudl convert the size to 8 ee flexlite?

[JR Boucicaut 3805]

The FL12 is the same spec as the old one but with NBH logos. It shouldn't cost that much more money, depends on what store you go through.

If you have any more questions, PM me.

[althoma1 575]

mnpucker Posted Today, 03:23 PM

Custom sounds expensive but how woudl I pursue that. Thanks a lot for the info. I did try on the KOR 1 when they were first intruducing them in St Paul at the Hockey expo during our State High School hockey tourney, they fit fine. I would so much rather deal with my local shop but if Giant is the only one that has them I guess that is out of the question.

Do you know how I woudl convert the size to 8 ee flexlite?

If you mean how would KOR Shift 1's be size wise compared to an 8EE flexlite then I'd say you'd take about a 9 Shift 1. I currently use 8.5D Shift 1's that fit perfectly and used to use 8D VForce skates (SMU version of the V12) and they were about a half a size too long...so based on that I would say that you'd need to go 1 size up from a flexlite to a KOR.

[mnpucker 33]

Thanks for all the help. I went to several LHS last night...Interestingly I was completely disappointed by the help I received at all. Hockey Giant was just an outright joke. The guy was more interested in straightening his price tags than finding me a skate that would fit. He actually sat down and stared at the wall while I laced the F*ing things up. $650 skate and I am lacing it up!? I worked in retail I no what is right and wrong. No wonder their other store closed.

So I visited 3 others, true LHS's. All nice people but unfortuantely you have to ask for the right guy at each store or you are going to get a bunch of stories like, "my friend has this skate but I am not sure if he likes it, I never asked him."

There was one store that killed me. After giving the guy all my info; I blew out my 12's, I am on my way to the rink to coach, I am debating on whether to buy the skate right then or wait until today so I can stop in and take more time to bake them, blah blah blah blah - he sees me holding a used TORSPO. I know nothing about the skate so I am just looking at it. He comes up to me and says, "Oh nice skate but you should wait until next year to buy a torspo they have some really great stuff coming out."

I am in sales and I just started laughing inside......Nothing like closing the sale! I need it now and he tells me to wiat until next year?....Guys at some point you have to stash your industry knowledge away, be happy you have it and shut up. I am about to drop $600 + on skates and you tell me something better is coming out next year?

Ok I am off my sales 101 soap box. Here is a run down of fit for any one that likes the Flex lite 12. Bottom line is the one95 8EE is the best feeling replacement over RBK, XXXX, KOR, one75, Graf, HANDS DOWN. The only issue is I cannot get them to wrap my ankles much at all the laces clsoe up to an acceptable level across the top of my foot but they stay relatively wide at the top 2-3 eyelets. The forefoot and heel feel great without baking I can only imagine what they would feel like after.

The Flexlite 18 has a crappy toungue and I am considering removing my old toungues and buying the 18's but I am not sure I want to do that. The toungues in the 18's are crap and they look like tey are almost a light shade of green......

Again thanks for all your help.

[althoma1 575]

Bottom line is the one95 8EE is the best feeling replacement over RBK, XXXX, KOR, one75, Graf, HANDS DOWN. The only issue is I cannot get them to wrap my ankles much at all the laces clsoe up to an acceptable level across the top of my foot but they stay relatively wide at the top 2-3 eyelets. The forefoot and heel feel great without baking I can only imagine what they would feel like after.

With the One95's you really can't tell what the fit will be like until they're baked on your foot. The same goes for the KORs and Torspo's - I have 8.5D KOR Shift 1's for ice and 8.5D Torspo 221's for roller and they both felt tight in the forefoot area before baking, but after properly baking them they fit perfectly with no hotspots, pain or slop. The point is that while you can judge the fit of most Grafs, RBKs, and the Flexlites pretty well without baking them you won't really know what a CCM U+, Bauer One75, One95, or One90, Torspo, or KOR skate will fit like until you bake them - I know the KORs and Torpos can definitley mold well and expand in width after an 8-10 minute bake and I've heard (well, read here) that the U+ and One series of Bauer skates are very responsive to heat too (with lower bake times).

[mnpucker 33]

So I have a question for you guys. I have worked retail when in college basically ran a store for the owner. It was in the hunting and fishing world but I consider Hockey pretty similar. Technology sells gear. I worked my way throught the industry to territory rep and National Sales Manager positions.

I know retail business pretty thoroughly.

So the topic of fit and feel after baking is one that I cannot get my arms around. Here I am a guy looking to buy a pair of very expensive skates. I play at a relatively high level for a 40 year old and also coach most nights of the week 365 days a year. What I am hearing is that I will not really know how the skate will feel untill I have purchased them and then baked them?

Considering I have only had one pair of skates in my life that have actually fit me (FL12's) I have become very aware of the importance of proper fit.

Have any of you or have the manufacturers considered supplying LHS with several pairs fo skates for fit baking? I know it would cost money but if I would come across a lhs that had that capability I would be impressed. I think it is only fair that this be considered based on the cost of the boot.

Also if you were buying 95's and you liked the Lightspeed tuuk and runner would you switch to them?

[Chadd 916]

You can't really judge the fit of Kors without baking them. I wasn't all that impressed with the first pair I tried on, until they were baked. If you're very seriously considering the skates some shops will bake them for you before purchase.

[mnpucker 33]

The problem I had with Kor was I would have had to buy them from Hockey Giant and the only thing that was Giant there was how bad their customer service was. That and Kor 1 was one ugly skate.....No offense on the skate but definitely a shot on the "dump bin" hockey shop Hockey Giant.

Even though they are much less expensive than 95's I like the fact that Nike Bauer or wahtever they are called will be around for a while.

But seriously, thanks for the info. I will check to see if I can try a pair on at Dave's.

[epstud74 24]

What is the difference between the Flexlite 18 and the Flexlite12? I have a pair of the 18s I've never worn..

[JR Boucicaut 3805]

Downspec'd - it's more like a FL10

[kicksave 1]

What is the difference between the Flexlite 18 and the Flexlite12? I have a pair of the 18s I've never worn..

what size? Areyou willing to sell them?

[mnpucker 33]

Ok so night 2. Dropped them off and had them reground with the proper custom radius. I did not find out what they used for a radius because the guy that shaped them was not there. Because the pitch seems greater I asked that they move the rocker forward and tighten up the radius, my goal was to get me on my forward edges. They did just that. I rebaked them at the store 5 minutes and they seemed much better, still nowhere near as good as my flexlite 12's but a huge improvement from night 1. I have read on here that some have baked these for as long as 10 minutes? First night they baked at 4 minutes second I requested 5 minutes. I waited about 2 hours prior to skating... I even put them in the frig for about 30 minutes to cool them off.

Skates do have incredible power and as stated previously it feels as though you are on rails, that is the only way to describe it. Incredible edge power.

However, when finished skating I noticed the bottom carbon fibre material was releasing form the boot. there is a gap that is about 1/8th of and inch but I can see in there about an inch or so.

Now what?

[althoma1 575]

mnpucker Posted Today, 10:55 PM

Ok so night 2. Dropped them off and had them reground with the proper custom radius. I did not find out what they used for a radius because the guy that shaped them was not there. Because the pitch seems greater I asked that they move the rocker forward and tighten up the radius, my goal was to get me on my forward edges. They did just that. I rebaked them at the store 5 minutes and they seemed much better, still nowhere near as good as my flexlite 12's but a huge improvement from night 1. I have read on here that some have baked these for as long as 10 minutes? First night they baked at 4 minutes second I requested 5 minutes. I waited about 2 hours prior to skating... I even put them in the frig for about 30 minutes to cool them off.

Skates do have incredible power and as stated previously it feels as though you are on rails, that is the only way to describe it. Incredible edge power.

However, when finished skating I noticed the bottom carbon fibre material was releasing form the boot. there is a gap that is about 1/8th of and inch but I can see in there about an inch or so.

Now what?

Which skates did you end up getting? Maybe I missed it, but I don't see the post where you state that. It's tough to know if 5 minutes is the proper time if we don't know the skates. If they're the KOR Shift 1's then no, 5 minutes is not enough - you'd want to bake them between 8-10 minutes which is more than any other skate (other than the Torspo's which use the Shift 1 molds). Also unlike other skates you stand in them for part of the cooling process and even flex a little - there are complete instructions here in one of the other threads. If you went with the One95s then from what I've read 5 minutes is too long as the bake time for those is only 3 minutes.

[mnpucker 33]

My bad I bought one95's.

[althoma1 575]

mnpucker Posted Today, 12:12 AM

My bad I bought one95's.

There is some great information on baking the One95s in a few threads here. From memory if the oven is preheated you should throw them in for about 3 minutes. If it's cold and not preheated then 5-6 minutes should work. You want to stand, but not flex for a couple minutes and then sit the rest of the time. That's from memory - to be safe I'd do a search on this site (or an advanced google search limiting the search to this domain) as I've never worn or baked One95s so don't take my word for it. As far as the seperation issue goes you should take them back to the LHS and see what they say - if they can't help and you're sure something is wrong then contact Bauer customer service.

[epstud74 24]

What is the difference between the Flexlite 18 and the Flexlite12? I have a pair of the 18s I've never worn..

what size? Areyou willing to sell them?

Size 9

[chilaxin12 2]

Ok so night 2. Dropped them off and had them reground with the proper custom radius. I did not find out what they used for a radius because the guy that shaped them was not there. Because the pitch seems greater I asked that they move the rocker forward and tighten up the radius, my goal was to get me on my forward edges. They did just that. I rebaked them at the store 5 minutes and they seemed much better, still nowhere near as good as my flexlite 12's but a huge improvement from night 1. I have read on here that some have baked these for as long as 10 minutes? First night they baked at 4 minutes second I requested 5 minutes. I waited about 2 hours prior to skating... I even put them in the frig for about 30 minutes to cool them off.

Skates do have incredible power and as stated previously it feels as though you are on rails, that is the only way to describe it. Incredible edge power.

However, when finished skating I noticed the bottom carbon fibre material was releasing form the boot. there is a gap that is about 1/8th of and inch but I can see in there about an inch or so.

Now what?

I don't know how it is with the One95's but your supposed to wait 24 hours before skating after heat molding are you not, so the glues etc can harden and then you wont have the bottom separate from the boot.

[JR Boucicaut 3805]

Wait. You mean they baked at 4 minutes in the oven, then you requested them to bake for 5 min?

You do realize that you overbaked them - ONE95s have to be baked for 2.5 min.

You did not see anything on this site of people baking ONE95s for 10 minutes.

Probably explains any separation issue you may have. Do you have a picture?

[mnpucker 33]

On Night one they baked them for about 4 minutes. I sat in them the entire time only walking over to their compression machine when they asked me to at about the 10 minute mark. They sat for 4 hours some of which in a refiregertator the rest sitting on the floor next to the boards on ice. When I put them on they were ice cold. They were painful and not radiused so I took them off after no more than 4-5 minutes of just gliding around the ice. I left the ice a slipped the 12's back on.

On night two they baked them for 5 minutes and I did stand in them but did not flex. Same cooling period etc...

I think th eguys in the store were great. I was pleased with everything but the initial sharpening but the only reason that happened was because the guy that radius's was not there.

I did check all the info here about baking and so forth and confused a Kor post with one 95's. Without going back through every post I trust you know what you are talking about.

The only thing that did not occur by the book was 5 minutes and no 24 hour period.

[JR Boucicaut 3805]

4 minutes was high the first time (as 2 1/2 minutes is what is needed) and the "walking" on them also could've contributed to the outsole separation.

I think th eguys in the store were great.

We'll see how great they are when something happens to your skates and they blame you on it by baking it for 5 minutes.

[mnpucker 33]

I should have clarified, at least they took the time to talk to me and try to figure out what I needed. Was the info I got from this site far more valuable.......ABSOLUTELY. But I think you are a proponent of working with your LHS, as am I, I support LHS to no end. Have never purchased one thing on line.

So to say they were great was an over statement but it is all I had.

I weigh about 235 so I could not ask them to carry me to the boot vac.

[JR Boucicaut 3805]

I understand what you are saying.

If the outsole gap bothers you, fill it in with epoxy.