What brand of figure skate blade do you use?

[tstop4me]

(a) When I first started skating, Wilson and MK were the only games in town.  There are new kids on the block now, but how popular are they, compared to the tried-and-true old timers?

(b) If you have different pairs of skates with different brands of figure skate blades, click all applicable options.

(c) Note:  John Watts is now kaput; but I see new old stock still being sold online, so I've listed them.

(d) Choose "Other" only if the manufacturer makes at least one separate blade model not pre-mounted as part of a boot and blade kit.  That is, do not include brands such as "Lake Placid" (pre-mounted kits only).

[Loops]

I"m not married to any brand or profile.  I grew up on CorAce and MK Pros (along with Silver tests for Patch....MK I believe).  I've tried MK Vision Synchros, am now on Ultimas, and since my local sharpener can't sharpen them correctly, I'm planning to switch to CorDance (unless my Ultima loving skate tech talks me out of them).

I think these are all probably good brands.  It's just the profile is different on all of them (even most of the "clones" I suspect).  My guess is that people here would say that they prefer a profile over a brand.  E.g. if Eclipse came out with a 100% guaranteed to match Gold Seal clone at 1/2 the cost of the original, I suspect people'd be willing to give them a go.

[tstop4me]

I think these are all probably good brands.  It's just the profile is different on all of them (even most of the "clones" I suspect).  My guess is that people here would say that they prefer a profile over a brand.  E.g. if Eclipse came out with a 100% guaranteed to match Gold Seal clone at 1/2 the cost of the original, I suspect people'd be willing to give them a go.

<<Emphasis added>>  Under the conditions of your hypo, sure, a no brainer ... especially since Eclipse offers a 60-day money back satisfaction guarantee [and the added advantage of high-grade stainless-steel runners on some models].   However, the Eclipse Pinnacle (which is "comparable" to the Gold Seal) is not guaranteed to be a 100% clone of the Gold Seal; nor, in fact, is it.  In particular, they have substantially different spin rockers ... and the spin rocker is a key signature design feature of the Gold Seal.  Paramount makes a big deal of making true copies of the MK and Wilson "profiles", by which they mean the spin rocker and main rocker and heel lift.  But even the Paramount version of the Gold Seal is not a true clone of the Gold Seal.  So, if you want all the design details of the Gold Seal, you need to stick with Wilson.  In which case, preference for a particular blade design in its entirety effectively becomes preference for a particular brand. 

More experienced (-->older) coaches grew up with Wilson and MK and naturally make recommendations based on their own personal experiences.  Then their students need to decide whether there are personally compelling reasons to try out other brands; personally compelling reasons include, e.g., lower prices, better steel, lighter weight, pretty colors, what's the trendy fad with the other kids ....  Several skate techs I trust push other brands because they've found better manufacturing consistency.  Jackson and Riedell pre-mount their own brand blades on their lower-level kits, hoping you'll stick with their brand blades as you move on up.

[FigureSpins]

JW Gold Seals (freestyle) and MK Silver Test (patch)

My skate tech said something similar about coaches preferring what they skated on, but I've seen my students who went to the Ultima clones struggle and have problems.

[tstop4me]

Bumping to get better stats.  34 members so far have voted on the poll for boots, but only 24 so far on the poll for blades.  That strikes me as odd (especially since the poll for blades came out earlier by a couple of days).  I would have thought the interest in boots and the interest in blades would be roughly equal (but thread on boots have far more views than thread on blades as well).

[Ageing Gracefully]

Anybody old enough to remember Taylor's Special (JW)?  I still have a pair and still love them!

[Bill_S]

Not me, but then again, I wasn't a serious skater when I was a youth. There were no rinks around, and we skated outdoors. In my teenage years, I bought whatever the hardware store carried and it was usually something made in Canada with a plaid flannel interior.

The first name-brand skates I bought was a pair of cheap Riedells back in the late 70s.

[tstop4me]

Thanks for all the responses.  I'll let the poll run, but here's a snapshot of the results as of May 30, 2018.

ETA:  This is a limited sample, of course.  The results so far are surprising to me.  I was expecting Wilson and MK to be close at the top, with Ultima and Eclipse trailing about equally.  But Ultima is right up there with MK, duking it out for second behind Wilson; and Eclipse lags well behind.

[sampaguita]

Ultima is cheaper. I guess that accounts for it?

[FigureSpins]

It's like an SAT question: Most skaters on this board wear Jacksons because of the wider fit.  Most Jacksons come with Ultima blades.  Ergo, most skaters on this board wear Ultima blades.

Eclipse will be low because it's still new and that brand is tied to Riedell stock skates.   

You really cannot do an accurate poll on this message board - we do not represent a fair sampling of the adult figure skating population.

[skategeek]

Yep.  I have a low level Jackson boot with a stock Ultima blade.  So for lower level skaters there's going to be a link between boot and blade brands.