- Joined
- Jan 20, 2017
Actual weight of Edea vs Jackson! My new skates vs my old skates!
ok, so I skated 12 years ago when I was 14 years old and I wore Jackson Freestyle (womens size 9B) with the Mark IV (10 1/3) blade pre-attached. I only skated for a year, got up to loop jump, then quit.
I started skating again in January 2017 at 26 years old and I still had my Jackson Freestyle skates, so I've been skating on them almost every day since January. I've worked my way up and got all of my singles, except axel, still working on underrotated axel. I really wore out the boots skating every day so decided to do a massive upgrade by purchasing the Edea Ice Fly (270) + Matrix Legacy blades (10" lilac).
Here's the following weight comparison: (using a cheap kitchen scale)
Edea boots without blades attached:
1lb 9.7oz right boot
1lb 9.9oz left boot
8.3oz right matrix legacy blade
8.2oz left blade
blades have now been mounted to the edea boot:
2lb 2.3oz right boot (edea+blade)
2lb 2.5oz left boot (edea+blade)
2lb 11.3oz for right boot (jackson freestyle + MarkIV blade) (remember this is a boot from 12 years ago, so jackson may have changed their design by now)
2lb 11.1oz for left boot
43.3oz (freestyle one boot+blade)
34.5oz (edea one boot+blade)
so 20% lighter?
Personally, when I hold them in my hands, the Edea boot+blade feels like 50% lighter, but according to my cheap kitchen scale, it's only 20% lighter.
There's also the fact that I'm comparing a high-level Edea boot and blade to a lower level freestyle skate and blade. Perhaps an equivalent level boot and blade would see a greater difference in weight.
They were just freshly mounted tonight. I will write a full review after I've gotten used to Edea. I know Edea seems to get "OMG I LOVE THEM!" vs "OMG THESE SUC!" reviews.
I can already say they feel comfortable because they were heat-molded to my feet, except I have high-ish arches. So if I don't adjust, I may need to get some arch support that I didn't need in Jackson. I also have to wear super-thin socks with Edea while I wore ordinary socks with Jackson. And the jackson boots are slightly taller (aka higher on my ankle) than the Edea, so its a little disconcerting, but I think I'll adjust to it quickly.
After being with itty bitty toe picks for so long, the monster toe picks on the Legacy will be interesting.
-----
Update#1:
took the new skates out for a spin for the first time today. I was able to get a really good sit spin going and definitely noticed the weight difference between my new vs old skates. still feels like 50% weight reduction, even tho the kitchen scale says its only 20% reduction. Still working on the sweet spot for the camel spin, couldn't get more than a couple barely controlled revolutions out of it at the moment. The jumps were the worse. I was able to do really crappy, no-lift, loop and flip jumps, but I hope my ankle gets stronger or I figure out how to tie it better. I like the ultra-flexibility of the tongue on the landing, but it was making taking off for jumps with any kind of strength impossible. During jumps, I could feel what some people complain about: the ankle wobbling from side-to-side in the boot. I don't feel that during footwork nor spinning, just jumping so far. I have to really think "strong ankles! Hold your ankles!" on the jump landing since the boot isn't doing it for me.
I'll probably be back to normal in a week hopefully. The only pain I'm experiencing at the moment is arch pain, which a lot of Edea people seem to say is part of the break-in process. Your ankles get stronger because the boots are looser and your arches get stronger because Edea has such a flat foot bed compared to other brands of skates I guess. Really, really loving the way they look, the larger toe pick, and the lighter weight.
Update#2:
just found these at the local drugstore this morning: https://www.amazon.com/Dr-Scholls-Stylish-Hidden-Support/dp/B01M7VGJNY/ omg the difference is night and day! Edea really needs to work on making their footbed more comfortable. I never had to modify my old Jackson skates in any way. I don't understand how Edea has a flatter footbed when they have a higher heel either. I just know my arches feel fine in the old Jackson and always did. Whereas Edea only feels comfortable with the gel-arch-inserts. Now that my poor arches aren't exhausted from trying to hold themselves up without any support, Edea is perfectly comfortable.
I will say the arch pain, while deeply uncomfortable, did not last when resting. As soon as I sat down for 10-15min, my feet recovered even while wearing the Edea skates. It was just full body weight on my arches that would cause them to ache while skating. I am BMI 22.0 (150lbs at 5'9) so I'm not overweight, but my arches didn't like it.
Update#3:
Well I skated today with the gel arch inserts and they felt comfortable at first. But eventually they felt like rocks and hurt worse than not having them there. So I took them out. This time I laced the skate as loosely as possible to see if that would help my arches feel better without the arch support. This is totally counter-intuitive. I was already trying to keep the laces on the looser side, but this time I made them as loose as possible while still having some support left to keep the skates on my feet.
It does take longer now for arch pain to build up, but I still have to sit down periodically to let my arches recover.
Despite the footbed not being 100% comfortable, the camel spin and most things were a lot better today as I figured out all of the balance points on the new blades.
Only the jumps are still crap.
Even with the skates tied loose, when I do spins, the support feels great and flex of the tongue is great. No problems there.
But the jumps desperately need more support. I can literally feel the boot slide slightly on my heel when I try to take off for a jump because I’ve tied the skates so loosely. It doesn’t scare me, because the boot isn’t really going to fall off my foot, but it does mean my jump has zero height since the boot isn’t helping at all.
I’m hoping my arches will strengthen over time, which will allow me to tie the skate a bit tighter and hopefully finally allow me to get back to jumping normally.
In conclusion, if I can get my arches strong enough and my ankles stronger (or skates tighter without pain) for jump support, I think the looser ankles and flex in these skates is a great thing for stuff like pointing your toes and sit spins etc.
Update#4:
My coach suggested I try putting the gel inserts underneath the typical Edea foot insert.
I played around with positioning off-ice until I could not feel the inserts.
If you can feel the inserts, they might not be in the right place.
Then I tested that on-ice to see if it was any better:
Looks like the gel inserts are going to work out after all!! I can feel them but they’re not hurting me now that I've placed them underneath the Edea foot insert. yay!!!
Conclusion: if you’re having problems with Edea’s footbed because of arch pain, try some arch inserts underneath the Edea footpad. And move them around until you can't feel them or barely feel them so it doesn’t hurt after you’ve been skating for awhile.
Once you find the right spot for your feet, it’s like magic.
I probably have slightly pronated feet or Edea's heel is too high for my natural footbed or something. My old Jackson skates had a much lower heel or more room to pronate a bit inside the boot.
If you’re having trouble with the fit of Edea’s toe box or sides, then you have the wrong-size boot or you didn’t get it heatmolded in the correct spots.
I find when I can’t control my edges, I need to tie the boot a bit tighter. So you want to tie the boot as loosely as you can to avoid any arch or instep pain etc, but still tight enough to have enough support for your edge control.
Same with jumps. I had to really tighten up the boot from the bend point and higher to be able to do jumps.
So if you can’t do jumps with any height, tighten up the laces some more.
If it really starts to hurt somewhere, loosen that area a bit.
That’s how you find the sweet spot with these boots and their laces.
It only took me three ice sessions to fix my arch problems and get used to these skates. So that’s not bad at all. Now I only have occasional balance checks because of the larger toe pick.
I hope this post provides useful information for anyone else considering buying Edea skates or working thru their own Edea problems. I will update this post if anything else happens or changes in the future, but I am very happy with my skates now. I don't think they are "miracle" skates or anything (especially since it sounds like Jackson and others have updated their skate lines to more closely resemble Edea's features), but I do think the lightweight feature and the shorter boot height etc allow skaters to flex their ankle more for sit spins, jump landings, and point their toe a lot easier.
------
Update#5:
Side note: I'm really loving how fast these synthetic-material boots dry out after hours of skating in them! They dry out in like 1-2 hours or less! My old leather boots were usually still slightly damp, even after 8 hours of drying out. It usually took over 12 hours for them to be completely dry. I used to point the leather boots at my house fan so they would dry out in just a couple hours because of the direct air movement. So nice not to have to keep the fan out all the time as a "boot dryer" anymore.
The 2nd week of skating in these new boots has been so much better than the first. They're really starting to break-in and form to my feet finally. I'm finally able to get the tongue part completely squashed against my ankle, which lets me get the laces tighter, which gives me the support I need to control my MIF edges and jumps. Overall, I can tie the entire skate tighter now since it's now forming to my foot, but getting that ankle area tighter is the most important for fine edge and jump control.
I'm also finally starting to enjoy the lightness of the boots and the larger toe pick of my new blade. Now that I've adjusted to it and it no longer feels so weird, I can finally feel how useful it is to have a larger toe pick to vault off of for my currently underrotated single axel jump. I just hated it the first week because I was like "This thing is too big! Give me back my tiny toe pick now!" But now it's feeling so much better and superior to what I had before for jumping. My camel spins are back to normal now that the lightness of the boot has become normal and I'm able to rotate about twice as much as I used to since it's not as heavy.
I will say the lightness of the boots hasn't made it any easier to get my leg stretched further out in front of me on the sit spin, but it does make it easier to hold the sit spin longer. So the solution to that is quite simply leg strength and do more off-ice squats.
I prefer making my standard sit spins not-quite thigh parallel because I can hold it longer and the free leg is really curved. If I make my sit spin thigh parallel and try to straighten the leg more, I can't hold it very long at all, even tho that's the correct position. My pancake spin is excellent since I don't have to hold my leg out in front of me for that. I can hold a pancake spin, thigh parallel, practically forever now with little effort because the boots are so supportive and light.
ok, so I skated 12 years ago when I was 14 years old and I wore Jackson Freestyle (womens size 9B) with the Mark IV (10 1/3) blade pre-attached. I only skated for a year, got up to loop jump, then quit.
I started skating again in January 2017 at 26 years old and I still had my Jackson Freestyle skates, so I've been skating on them almost every day since January. I've worked my way up and got all of my singles, except axel, still working on underrotated axel. I really wore out the boots skating every day so decided to do a massive upgrade by purchasing the Edea Ice Fly (270) + Matrix Legacy blades (10" lilac).
Here's the following weight comparison: (using a cheap kitchen scale)
Edea boots without blades attached:
1lb 9.7oz right boot
1lb 9.9oz left boot
8.3oz right matrix legacy blade
8.2oz left blade
blades have now been mounted to the edea boot:
2lb 2.3oz right boot (edea+blade)
2lb 2.5oz left boot (edea+blade)
2lb 11.3oz for right boot (jackson freestyle + MarkIV blade) (remember this is a boot from 12 years ago, so jackson may have changed their design by now)
2lb 11.1oz for left boot
43.3oz (freestyle one boot+blade)
34.5oz (edea one boot+blade)
so 20% lighter?
Personally, when I hold them in my hands, the Edea boot+blade feels like 50% lighter, but according to my cheap kitchen scale, it's only 20% lighter.
There's also the fact that I'm comparing a high-level Edea boot and blade to a lower level freestyle skate and blade. Perhaps an equivalent level boot and blade would see a greater difference in weight.
They were just freshly mounted tonight. I will write a full review after I've gotten used to Edea. I know Edea seems to get "OMG I LOVE THEM!" vs "OMG THESE SUC!" reviews.
I can already say they feel comfortable because they were heat-molded to my feet, except I have high-ish arches. So if I don't adjust, I may need to get some arch support that I didn't need in Jackson. I also have to wear super-thin socks with Edea while I wore ordinary socks with Jackson. And the jackson boots are slightly taller (aka higher on my ankle) than the Edea, so its a little disconcerting, but I think I'll adjust to it quickly.
After being with itty bitty toe picks for so long, the monster toe picks on the Legacy will be interesting.
-----
Update#1:
took the new skates out for a spin for the first time today. I was able to get a really good sit spin going and definitely noticed the weight difference between my new vs old skates. still feels like 50% weight reduction, even tho the kitchen scale says its only 20% reduction. Still working on the sweet spot for the camel spin, couldn't get more than a couple barely controlled revolutions out of it at the moment. The jumps were the worse. I was able to do really crappy, no-lift, loop and flip jumps, but I hope my ankle gets stronger or I figure out how to tie it better. I like the ultra-flexibility of the tongue on the landing, but it was making taking off for jumps with any kind of strength impossible. During jumps, I could feel what some people complain about: the ankle wobbling from side-to-side in the boot. I don't feel that during footwork nor spinning, just jumping so far. I have to really think "strong ankles! Hold your ankles!" on the jump landing since the boot isn't doing it for me.
I'll probably be back to normal in a week hopefully. The only pain I'm experiencing at the moment is arch pain, which a lot of Edea people seem to say is part of the break-in process. Your ankles get stronger because the boots are looser and your arches get stronger because Edea has such a flat foot bed compared to other brands of skates I guess. Really, really loving the way they look, the larger toe pick, and the lighter weight.
Update#2:
just found these at the local drugstore this morning: https://www.amazon.com/Dr-Scholls-Stylish-Hidden-Support/dp/B01M7VGJNY/ omg the difference is night and day! Edea really needs to work on making their footbed more comfortable. I never had to modify my old Jackson skates in any way. I don't understand how Edea has a flatter footbed when they have a higher heel either. I just know my arches feel fine in the old Jackson and always did. Whereas Edea only feels comfortable with the gel-arch-inserts. Now that my poor arches aren't exhausted from trying to hold themselves up without any support, Edea is perfectly comfortable.
I will say the arch pain, while deeply uncomfortable, did not last when resting. As soon as I sat down for 10-15min, my feet recovered even while wearing the Edea skates. It was just full body weight on my arches that would cause them to ache while skating. I am BMI 22.0 (150lbs at 5'9) so I'm not overweight, but my arches didn't like it.
Update#3:
Well I skated today with the gel arch inserts and they felt comfortable at first. But eventually they felt like rocks and hurt worse than not having them there. So I took them out. This time I laced the skate as loosely as possible to see if that would help my arches feel better without the arch support. This is totally counter-intuitive. I was already trying to keep the laces on the looser side, but this time I made them as loose as possible while still having some support left to keep the skates on my feet.
It does take longer now for arch pain to build up, but I still have to sit down periodically to let my arches recover.
Despite the footbed not being 100% comfortable, the camel spin and most things were a lot better today as I figured out all of the balance points on the new blades.
Only the jumps are still crap.
Even with the skates tied loose, when I do spins, the support feels great and flex of the tongue is great. No problems there.
But the jumps desperately need more support. I can literally feel the boot slide slightly on my heel when I try to take off for a jump because I’ve tied the skates so loosely. It doesn’t scare me, because the boot isn’t really going to fall off my foot, but it does mean my jump has zero height since the boot isn’t helping at all.
I’m hoping my arches will strengthen over time, which will allow me to tie the skate a bit tighter and hopefully finally allow me to get back to jumping normally.
In conclusion, if I can get my arches strong enough and my ankles stronger (or skates tighter without pain) for jump support, I think the looser ankles and flex in these skates is a great thing for stuff like pointing your toes and sit spins etc.
Update#4:
My coach suggested I try putting the gel inserts underneath the typical Edea foot insert.
I played around with positioning off-ice until I could not feel the inserts.
If you can feel the inserts, they might not be in the right place.
Then I tested that on-ice to see if it was any better:
Looks like the gel inserts are going to work out after all!! I can feel them but they’re not hurting me now that I've placed them underneath the Edea foot insert. yay!!!
Conclusion: if you’re having problems with Edea’s footbed because of arch pain, try some arch inserts underneath the Edea footpad. And move them around until you can't feel them or barely feel them so it doesn’t hurt after you’ve been skating for awhile.
Once you find the right spot for your feet, it’s like magic.
I probably have slightly pronated feet or Edea's heel is too high for my natural footbed or something. My old Jackson skates had a much lower heel or more room to pronate a bit inside the boot.
If you’re having trouble with the fit of Edea’s toe box or sides, then you have the wrong-size boot or you didn’t get it heatmolded in the correct spots.
I find when I can’t control my edges, I need to tie the boot a bit tighter. So you want to tie the boot as loosely as you can to avoid any arch or instep pain etc, but still tight enough to have enough support for your edge control.
Same with jumps. I had to really tighten up the boot from the bend point and higher to be able to do jumps.
So if you can’t do jumps with any height, tighten up the laces some more.
If it really starts to hurt somewhere, loosen that area a bit.
That’s how you find the sweet spot with these boots and their laces.
It only took me three ice sessions to fix my arch problems and get used to these skates. So that’s not bad at all. Now I only have occasional balance checks because of the larger toe pick.
I hope this post provides useful information for anyone else considering buying Edea skates or working thru their own Edea problems. I will update this post if anything else happens or changes in the future, but I am very happy with my skates now. I don't think they are "miracle" skates or anything (especially since it sounds like Jackson and others have updated their skate lines to more closely resemble Edea's features), but I do think the lightweight feature and the shorter boot height etc allow skaters to flex their ankle more for sit spins, jump landings, and point their toe a lot easier.
------
Update#5:
Side note: I'm really loving how fast these synthetic-material boots dry out after hours of skating in them! They dry out in like 1-2 hours or less! My old leather boots were usually still slightly damp, even after 8 hours of drying out. It usually took over 12 hours for them to be completely dry. I used to point the leather boots at my house fan so they would dry out in just a couple hours because of the direct air movement. So nice not to have to keep the fan out all the time as a "boot dryer" anymore.
The 2nd week of skating in these new boots has been so much better than the first. They're really starting to break-in and form to my feet finally. I'm finally able to get the tongue part completely squashed against my ankle, which lets me get the laces tighter, which gives me the support I need to control my MIF edges and jumps. Overall, I can tie the entire skate tighter now since it's now forming to my foot, but getting that ankle area tighter is the most important for fine edge and jump control.
I'm also finally starting to enjoy the lightness of the boots and the larger toe pick of my new blade. Now that I've adjusted to it and it no longer feels so weird, I can finally feel how useful it is to have a larger toe pick to vault off of for my currently underrotated single axel jump. I just hated it the first week because I was like "This thing is too big! Give me back my tiny toe pick now!" But now it's feeling so much better and superior to what I had before for jumping. My camel spins are back to normal now that the lightness of the boot has become normal and I'm able to rotate about twice as much as I used to since it's not as heavy.
I will say the lightness of the boots hasn't made it any easier to get my leg stretched further out in front of me on the sit spin, but it does make it easier to hold the sit spin longer. So the solution to that is quite simply leg strength and do more off-ice squats.
I prefer making my standard sit spins not-quite thigh parallel because I can hold it longer and the free leg is really curved. If I make my sit spin thigh parallel and try to straighten the leg more, I can't hold it very long at all, even tho that's the correct position. My pancake spin is excellent since I don't have to hold my leg out in front of me for that. I can hold a pancake spin, thigh parallel, practically forever now with little effort because the boots are so supportive and light.
