Development of hockey skates

Hockey skates, one of the most important gears for a player, has been developing rapidly in the latest decade or two. The evolution of the skates has been a symbol of the most cutting-edge technology and of the highest precision. Today I will be going over the evolution of hockey skates and the science behind it. 

Development of hockey skates

The earliest form of hockey skate can be traced back to more than a century ago, when it was made very roughly by fixing a piece of metal under a leather boot. After learning it the hard way that hurts when a puck hits your feet, hockey players started to innovatively hardening the leather or to adding thicker patches of leather on spots such as the toe, the tongue, and the heel - parts of the foot that are the most prone to getting hit. 

After the discovery of the possibility of implementing composite and synthetic materials to skates, the performance of the hockey players significantly improved as the new materials achieved unparalleled strength-to-weight ratio. 

In the most recent decade or so, the development of hockey skates reached its peak so far as the skate manufacturer CCM developed the “one piece boot” technology - using carbon fiber and other composite materials to avoid the use of glue or bolts or nuts for less weight and greater strength. 

Other than focusing on improving structural strength and reducing the weight, 3D print technology is also implemented in the most recent years for custom-made skates. After scanning the feet of the player, a custom-fit pair of skates is able to be tailored based on the foot shapes and biomechanics.   

Hockey skates? How do they work?

There are three key parts which make up a hockey skate: boot, blade, and holder. As aforementioned, the development of the boot is almost a snip-it of the development of the study of material science in the past century. Engineers have focused on the durability and structural strength while trying to reduce the weight. The material used right now - carbon fibre - is the most optimal material accessible to the market at the moment, which is at a sweet spot in terms of the strength and weight. 

Other than the boot, the skate holder - the chassis - is the connection between the boot and the blade. For a piece that serves only one purpose of connection, its development is focused essentially on maximizing the efficiency of energy transfer in the process. While most recently holders can achieve a lighter weight with low energy loss in the strides, the older models are very noticeably heavier and less efficient, mainly shown through a “draggier” feeling. 

Last but not least, blades - the most crucial part that make up a hockey skate, has also experienced lots of changes in its lifetime. The material used by the blade are usually of the highest grade of stainless steel, as a thin edge is often supporting the weight of the player while having to endure the impact on ice and extremely high pressure. Another feature that is improving significantly since its birth is the weight of the blades, while retaining the same if not better characteristics, the most modern blades are often very noticeably lighter, reducing the weight of the skate as a whole.