Warrior Alpha Pro Skates

[iceman8310 111]

Can we open a discussion?  the skates come out on Friday.

 

Edited Friday at 06:31 PM by iceman8310

[Westside 270]

I’ve been in a pro stock pair for a month or two at this point. Very comfortable and feel a lot like the True skates I’m used to. Since I have a lot of CCM Step steel I already swapped holders which was easy since the hole pattern is the same. Time will tell how they hold up although certain elements of the pro stock version (that may be tweaked for the retail version) felt a little cheap. As in, not a $1200 skate, but maybe an $800 skate

[iceman8310 111]

14 hours ago, Westside said:

I’ve been in a pro stock pair for a month or two at this point. Very comfortable and feel a lot like the True skates I’m used to. Since I have a lot of CCM Step steel I already swapped holders which was easy since the hole pattern is the same. Time will tell how they hold up although certain elements of the pro stock version (that may be tweaked for the retail version) felt a little cheap. As in, not a $1200 skate, but maybe an $800 skate

I can’t wait to try these on 

[shoe2010 0]

Thanks for the overview. Any opinion on how they skate? Specifically, do you feel like these enforce the modern skating stride / penalize the lazy old man stride? Or are they what you make of them? That used to be a stiffness question, but manufacturers seem to be figuring out ways to have stiff + "flexible" feeling in one boot. 

[Westside 270]

Well I’m no longer young and am far from a pro, so I’d say they work for the lazy old man stride. lol! I’ve been spoiled with how True skates fit/feel and these are similar. When I tried FT6 Pros after they were released they never felt ‘right’ even after months of skating on them. With the Warriors I just needed to tweak the lacing a bit and I was good to go. 
 

The boot is definitely stiff and I can barely flex the ankle opening but they do allow me to move easily when wearing them. Not exactly sure how they’re doing it, but CCM is claiming something similar with flex zones on the Vizion skate so like you said, manufacturers seem to be figuring this out. Height of the boot is also on the shorter side. Measuring the inside of the boot to the ankle cuff without an insole my True 9x4 are ~6.5” whereas the Warrior Alpha Pro are 6”. One less eyelet as well 

[Sniper9 567]

4 hours ago, Westside said:

Well I’m no longer young and am far from a pro, so I’d say they work for the lazy old man stride. lol! I’ve been spoiled with how True skates fit/feel and these are similar. When I tried FT6 Pros after they were released they never felt ‘right’ even after months of skating on them. With the Warriors I just needed to tweak the lacing a bit and I was good to go. 
 

The boot is definitely stiff and I can barely flex the ankle opening but they do allow me to move easily when wearing them. Not exactly sure how they’re doing it, but CCM is claiming something similar with flex zones on the Vizion skate so like you said, manufacturers seem to be figuring this out. Height of the boot is also on the shorter side. Measuring the inside of the boot to the ankle cuff without an insole my True 9x4 are ~6.5” whereas the Warrior Alpha Pro are 6”. One less eyelet as well 

I'm guessing that's how they're incorporating more ankle flexion.  Making it shorter and one less eyelet. For trues, I always had to drop the to eyelet to not feel like I was in casts. 

[Westside 270]

10 minutes ago, Sniper9 said:

I'm guessing that's how they're incorporating more ankle flexion.  Making it shorter and one less eyelet. For trues, I always had to drop the to eyelet to not feel like I was in casts. 

I used to drop the top eyelet but for the last year and a half or so I’ve been skipping the second eyelet. Prefer how that feels on the Trues

[shoe2010 0]

13 hours ago, Westside said:

Well I’m no longer young and am far from a pro, so I’d say they work for the lazy old man stride. lol! I’ve been spoiled with how True skates fit/feel and these are similar. When I tried FT6 Pros after they were released they never felt ‘right’ even after months of skating on them. With the Warriors I just needed to tweak the lacing a bit and I was good to go. 
 

The boot is definitely stiff and I can barely flex the ankle opening but they do allow me to move easily when wearing them. Not exactly sure how they’re doing it, but CCM is claiming something similar with flex zones on the Vizion skate so like you said, manufacturers seem to be figuring this out. Height of the boot is also on the shorter side. Measuring the inside of the boot to the ankle cuff without an insole my True 9x4 are ~6.5” whereas the Warrior Alpha Pro are 6”. One less eyelet as well 

Appreciate the reply. Looking forward to trying these out. 

[Cosmic 179]

I picked up a pair and went for a public skate in them. The ice was bumpy as hell (I usually play pickup at this rink) and I did not feel confident at all without all my gear on. Also, there is a lot of negative space in the toe cap, and I had been wearing the Powerfeet inserts with my previous skates since around 2015 or so. I totally forgot about this until after I got off the ice and am looking for a place to buy the inserts again. I hope that it is the lack of inserts that has me feeling so unconfident (and not the skates, and not that I am a trash skater). I do remember that when I first started wearing the inserts, I instantly felt more confident and felt like the skates moved with me instead of feeling like they were always lagging. 

The ankle height is definitely lower on the Warriors skates than other brands, but did nt feel that different than Makos. I tried on a pair of CCM Vizions right after the Warriors and the Warriors felt more comfortable and natural. I did not like the to box in the Vizions how it was all one piece in a straight line. The Warrior toe box seems about identical to the Mako which I loved- anatomical and they seemed like a distinct piece from the rest of the boot. And the Visions also made my feet feel like they were in casts, but I am not used to traditional boots after having been in Makos since around 2014 (minus all the time I took off for CoronaPacylpse and the aftermath).

Edited 34 minutes ago by Cosmic