Easton EQ5

[Haggerty 144]

Product: Easton EQ5

Ht: 5'10"

Wt: 200 lbs

Foot Size: Size 11 nike sneakers, 10.5 dress shoe, size 8 skate

Foot Type: narrow heal, mid-high Arch, E width forefoot (bauer)

Level and Use: A league Men's league, 3-4 pick ups per week

Previous Skates:Graf 705's, Easton s17's, Bauer x60, multiple Tacks skates

Fit: fit of the skate has been the fit since my 705's. only problem area was my navicular bone on my right foot due to calcium build up from a chipped bone. After baking them twice and with JR's advice of putting a wad of tape over my navicular bone to puch the area out a little more during the secong bake they fit great now. The Heel lock on this skate is great my heel does not move, toe box fit close to perfect a little pressure on my right pinky toe but nothing major no redness after skating. 9/10

Blade/Holder: I was skepticle of RBII as they seemed a lot more flexible than the Custom+, LS2 and Cobra holders I have previously used. After a couple skates I got used to the holder and hasn't been a problem for me, only thing i question is the soft scalloped steel on the stock blade, Step or nanoglide would fix that problem. 9/10

Weight/Protection: These are probably the weightest skates I have ever used, seem lighter than the s17's I had with LS2's on them and definitely lighter than my x60's not even going to mention the tanks called 705's. Protection on these is the same as s17's overall good, but feel a lot in these then I did the x60's but still very good in the protection area. 9/10

Durability: Easton skates and durability, the question everyone always asks. Overall for what I paid for these skates the Durability is much better than what I experienced in the s17's, after 8 months of skating in these I still have all my eyelets and no fabric is glued on with these skates it all stitched. They have some nice scratches and dings over them but thats what you get when you play. They held up already 2 months longer than my s17's and I couldn't be happier with them. The problem durability wise with these skates are the cheap rivets I lost 4 rivets last week in one pickup and i do hang my skates upside down and air them out, never had any concern rivets on any other skate. Edited: 5/3/2012: 3 more rivets ripped out last night during a pickup. Skate is still good, but not a fan of the rivets. 8/10

Skate Build: This is a structurally sound boot, fixed a lot of the problems from the durability standpoint listed above but still has some flaws. The tongue on these skates are great no lace bite at all and I tuck my shin guards. boot is Stiff but has nice forward flex and it is pretty aggressively cut as it is a low cut boot. 9/10

Conclusion: Overall this a very solid boot, for the price you won't find a better skate I will say that.

OVERALL: 9/10

Edited May 4, 2012 by Haggerty