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swede

Flite hockey skates??

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What the heck is Flite Hockey?

Yeah, I know they make hockey gear, but ive never heard of the brand until recently when their skates suddenly appered in Sweden! 

They look kinda cheap in pictures but a few shops actually sell the top end model ”Chaos 150” which retails on Flite’s online store for 300$+ with Tuuk lightspeed 2 holders and steel for like 112$ (990sek),  which is less than what a set of lightspeed2 holders with steel retails for.. 

The price makes it a bit tempting to buy a pair just to get a spare set of holders and steel for my makos.. 

But how is the quality of Flite skates? And how do the fit? Depth? Narrow, Wide? 

I mean, they cant be that crappy since they come with tuuk holders and steel?

 

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Their rec skates look like the ones we have at our local rink. I've seen the Flite goalie sticks online before and just assumed another small time brand. 

I don't think I'd touch them, to be honest. 

11 hours ago, swede said:

I mean, they cant be that crappy since they come with tuuk holders and steel?

Why do you say that? You can stick tuuk holders and steel on Tron skates too and that doesn't mean they're not garbage. It likely just means they didn't invest the money into designing and manufacturing their own holders. 

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19 minutes ago, IPv6Freely said:

Their rec skates look like the ones we have at our local rink. I've seen the Flite goalie sticks online before and just assumed another small time brand. 

I don't think I'd touch them, to be honest. 

Why do you say that? You can stick tuuk holders and steel on Tron skates too and that doesn't mean they're not garbage. It likely just means they didn't invest the money into designing and manufacturing their own holders. 

No but i dont think Bauer would let  anyone produce skates with Bauer holders and runners if the rest of the skate is pure crap. It would lead to bad publicity. So i must assume they are atleast decent..

is it just me or does the ”higher end” flite skates remind a little of older Vapors, like XX?..

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37 minutes ago, swede said:

No but i dont think Bauer would let  anyone produce skates with Bauer holders and runners if the rest of the skate is pure crap. It would lead to bad publicity. So i must assume they are atleast decent..

I don't know anything about these skates, but IMHO, thinking like that could lead you down the wrong path. From Bauer's past shady business practices, there's reasonable doubt in my mind, that it's possible that they didn't necessarily always concern themselves with who licenses their parts as long as they have the money. 

https://www.tsn.ca/owner-of-bauer-hockey-accused-of-fraud-and-trying-to-deceive-the-market-1.549259

 

For me, I'm always cautious about things like this. I'm always thinking about the too good to be true situations. To me, if the whole skate is about the same cost as the holders and runners on their own, it kind of says something about the overall quality of the rest of the skate.

Any way, it's your money, and your choice. 

 

 

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3 hours ago, swede said:

No but i dont think Bauer would let  anyone produce skates with Bauer holders and runners if the rest of the skate is pure crap. It would lead to bad publicity. So i must assume they are atleast decent..

is it just me or does the ”higher end” flite skates remind a little of older Vapors, like XX?..

I think your thinking is flawed. What does Bauer have to do with it? Anyone can buy Bauer holders and put them on their skates. It’s not like they need permission from Bauer.

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7 hours ago, marka said:

Howdy,

When I look at the skates here, I don't see any that are using the Lightspeed 2 holder?

http://www.flitehockey.com/shop/index.php/cPath/21_1_24

Mark

Thats right..

Theese skates im talking about, doesnt look like the ”Chaos c-150” pictured on flite’s site. They look like the C-150 junior skate but with lightspeed2 holders and ls2 steel. 

 Flite seem to have Swedish branch, or atleast they Had.. The Swedish site is down, but the skates are sold in sports stores around the country... 

So, my thinking is flawed... I guess my Swedish way of thinking is different than yours... If Bauer were swedish, there’s no way in hell they would let anyone use their runners and holders when making skates without premission and a huge amount of money, AND there is no way in hell they would let anyone use their expensive ”high end” stuff on low end gear.. It would be bad publicity....

But Bauer aint Swedish so...... 

The skates might be crap, but the holders and steel are sure not, so its hard to pass on a deal like this (112$/990sek), I could always need a spare set of holders/runners.

 

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I know that back in the old days, the holders were made by companies independently of the skate manufacturers, and it is still that way in the world of figure skates, as in many cases the boot and blade are sold seperately (especially at the top end).  If I ever get off me bum and get my Step dealership, my wife will have Step Blacksteel blades on her upcoming new figure skates... I remember back as a teenager at one dealership opening boxes of skates looking for blue Perfekta holders (Gretzky’s holders) on a pair of Bauer Supreme 100 and found them! I was over the moon. You could see ICM, Tuuk, and Perfekta on the same model of skate; admittedly you saw more Perfektas on Daoust and Tuuk on Bauer and CCM and ICM on everything else. It was only in the last 20 years when holders became more proprietary.  

That did not look like a Bauer holder, but maybe in your country @swede, that Flite skate is spec’d with the Tuuk trigger release. It would not be out of the realm of possibility. After all- the holder and runner is merely a component. Bauer sells their holders and runners seperately as a spare part as it seems that a good portion of CCM and Graf wearers end up with the Bauer holder in the NHL. 

Edited by bunnyman666

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I’m not sure there was a need to get salty. All I’m saying is that them having Bauer holders has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the boot. “Bauer wouldn’t let them” doesn’t even make sense because it’s not up to them. 

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24 minutes ago, IPv6Freely said:

I’m not sure there was a need to get salty. All I’m saying is that them having Bauer holders has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the boot. “Bauer wouldn’t let them” doesn’t even make sense because it’s not up to them. 

As long as a supplier is paid, they generally don’t care what a component goes on. I remember when rental skates had CCM tube blades. I am certain Jeremiah CCM (just kidding about the name) did not say “these rental skates are of the highest quality, therefore DESERVE my tube blades”; no, he most likely said “Woohoo!!!! I can add a third shift at the plant!!!!”

 

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4 minutes ago, bunnyman666 said:

As long as a supplier is paid, they generally don’t care what a component goes on. I remember when rental skates had CCM tube blades. I am certain Jeremiah CCM (just kidding about the name) did not say “these rental skates are of the highest quality, therefore DESERVE my tube blades”; no, he most likely said “Woohoo!!!! I can add a third shift at the plant!!!!”

 

Heh yep. 

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I think we dont really understan each other.. 

But i will try to explain what i meen with an example. 

Audi make great cars and engines aswell. 

LADA make shit cars with shitty engines.

Anyone can buy a Lada and then buy a Audi Rs4 engine from Audi.. But Audi would never sell RS4 engines to Lada or let Lada use RS4 engines because Lada is shitty cheap cars, the direct oposite of Audi... 

I thought it worked the same in NA.

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1 minute ago, swede said:

I think we dont really understan each other.. 

But i will try to explain what i meen with an example. 

Audi make great cars and engines aswell. 

LADA make shit cars with shitty engines.

Anyone can buy a Lada and then buy a Audi Rs4 engine from Audi.. But Audi would never sell RS4 engines to Lada or let Lada use RS4 engines because Lada is shitty cheap cars, the direct oposite of Audi... 

I thought it worked the same in NA.

It all depends on the agreements; it is down to Dollars, Pounds or Euros. There have been dubious agreements between a beauty and a beast car makers for special models. BMW supplies engines to a fair few smaller car makers. But it would not make sense to supply to a company with QC problems, but there have been MANY agreements where the higher-quality marque’s name (as a design partner) was featured on a car line from a lesser marque for marketing purposes. But in the case of a blade holder, most likely a sales decision. 

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Yeah, bad example, but it’s how it works in Europe.. If you have something good, you dont want to be associated with something bad or something with bad quality.. 

If Flite skates would have been good they would probably get more attension, so the probably suck pretty bad.. But since ive never heard of the brand before, and they’ve been sold with tuuks (which are  great, especially Ls2) here, i just assumed they would be decent..

well, cheap holders and steel anyway 🙂

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Flite Hockey is owned by Gerry McSorley. Brother to Marty. He is based out of Mississauga Ontario and those skates have been around in one form or another since 1993. They actually back in the day were amazing boots for roller hockey. We used to buy loads of them as they were cheaper and we would just put frames on them. Sold tons.  Fast forward to now Gerry only builds larger skates. like 12 3 14 15 because most manufacturers do not build less expensive very large skates only mid price point. 

 

If you have models there that have a range of sizes then they are from an older batch from a few years back. Gerry just sources out holders and runners from the best and cheapest possible place to send them to his factory and slaps them on. He is a pretty decent guy and the boot is not actually that bad for a lower end boot. 

 

Dealth with them for years if you have any other questions or actually Gerry loves to chat if you just call the office! mean that in a nice way!

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13 hours ago, oldtrainerguy28 said:

Flite Hockey is owned by Gerry McSorley. Brother to Marty. He is based out of Mississauga Ontario and those skates have been around in one form or another since 1993. They actually back in the day were amazing boots for roller hockey. We used to buy loads of them as they were cheaper and we would just put frames on them. Sold tons.  Fast forward to now Gerry only builds larger skates. like 12 3 14 15 because most manufacturers do not build less expensive very large skates only mid price point. 

 

If you have models there that have a range of sizes then they are from an older batch from a few years back. Gerry just sources out holders and runners from the best and cheapest possible place to send them to his factory and slaps them on. He is a pretty decent guy and the boot is not actually that bad for a lower end boot. 

 

Dealth with them for years if you have any other questions or actually Gerry loves to chat if you just call the office! mean that in a nice way!

Cool story about the owner of Flite. Apparently, their gear bags are highly regarded. Have not tried their stuff, myself.

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On 6/2/2018 at 11:40 PM, swede said:

[snip]

The skates might be crap, but the holders and steel are sure not, so its hard to pass on a deal like this (112$/990sek), I could always need a spare set of holders/runners.

 

FYI - Bauer stock steel is generally regarded as 'crap'....

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I would not consider Ls2 steel as crap, but there is better stuff out there also.. Personally i prefer Massive blade’s ”gold/titanium” coated runners in Ls2 holders, but bauers steel works fine as replacement steel..

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1 hour ago, swede said:

I would not consider Ls2 steel as crap, but there is better stuff out there also.. Personally i prefer Massive blade’s ”gold/titanium” coated runners in Ls2 holders, but bauers steel works fine as replacement steel..

For me- the LS2 is a great holder with ANYBODY ELSE’S steel! 

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5 hours ago, swede said:

I would not consider Ls2 steel as crap, but there is better stuff out there [snip], but bauers steel works fine as replacement steel..

Just so you know, the vast majority of people that sharpen skates for a living would disagree with you, there....

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51 minutes ago, Santos L Halper said:

Just so you know, the vast majority of people that sharpen skates for a living would disagree with you, there....

Maybe it's different in Europe. 

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13 hours ago, bunnyman666 said:

Cool story about the owner of Flite. Apparently, their gear bags are highly regarded. Have not tried their stuff, myself.

I 've used a couple of their bags, and they were/are great. 

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