Thought this was an interesting skate and blade...
http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/lekalus/
Baffling...
Wow I wonder if that's even skate-able or if that's just art. That is one scary rocker there. And no toe picks!
They actually put "perfect, Olympic grade performance" in the description! :o
I do like the colored leather and the wrap over the laces. It's a pretty skate!
What is that? a 5 or 6 foot rocker? And there's only one rocker rather than two (the skating rocker and the spin rocker)
Anyway, there is a heel. It's built in the skate, just not in the boot.
I think the wrap over the laces is a nice touch.
But I call photoshop on the pictures on ice.
Skateable? Maybe. Useful? No.
Just a design, not a product that has been produced: http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/lekalus/process/
They faked me out - I saw ice tracings on the finished skater photos so I thought the blades were actually on the ice.
Fakers.
The heel curve is the part that made my jaw drop - that looks dangerous!
I looked very carefully at that last step of photo-shooting on the process page, and was confused. It's the same girl and same clothes, but she's wearing regular skates there. So they haven't even made a prototype of these fancy skates? This is all just computer graphics? Technology is crazy.
I saw that they were fake, but I'm still baffled by the idea. Design "concepts" are usually rooted in some sort of improvement or reason. This doesn't appear to be that at all.
An example- this ridiculous pointe shoe. http://www.behance.net/gallery/NIKE-ARC-ANGELS-%28Pointe-shoe-training%29/3346353 (it isn't really a nike product, but a design concept.) The 'sport shoe' technology MIGHT be helpful to dance, so that seems to be the idea behind it. But the prototype they've come up with: it doesn't have a shank. It would be impossible to dance on.
So what is the idea here that skating can even take from? Pretty boots? Because it sure isn't blade design. yet the mock up seems to be proporting that if it were possible the blade design is a good idea...
I think "pretty boots" are a good idea.
When I had my son, strollers came in various shades of blue/tan/dark green - it was only special ordered for me to get a white one with black dots and red trim. It stood out everywhere.
When my daughter was born, "girlie" strollers came into vogue - all of a sudden they came in pink, florals, etc. You could suddenly get them in bright yellow and other fun colors. And then expensive car seats pushed it with designer covers.
I do think skates will become less traditional on skaters - Sasha Cohen is coming out with a line of crazy combos that won't break a budget. The silver heel on the ice fly gets attention, colored blades.
There is an overwhelming desire to stand out - whether it's trying to find a unique name for a child (Apple?) or being different (rainbow skates in a sea of white).
Hipsters...
*grumbles*
Anyway, I thought you were gonna bring these up...
http://www.roller.riedellskates.com/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductName=Model%20495
Lots of Riedell's roller skate boots have no heels but look sorta kinda like figure skates.
For some reason, some of Riedell's quad skates are the weirdest combo of ice skates ever...
http://www.roller.riedellskates.com/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductName=Model%2066
Like that, hockey skate with a little heel on it? What?