Warrior Alpha Pro Skates Overview
So I'm sure like a lot of us gear nerds I've been seeing a lot of content surrounding the upcoming Warrior skates. Downside is it’s come exclusively from influencers who claim every new product they test is the best ever so it's hard to really know if a product is actually any good.
The new retail skates are supposed to launch in a couple of months, but I was able to get a pair and figured why not give them a go. Since I don't think I've come across any actual overviews of the skates from a non-influencer, I figured I'd share my thoughts.
While I don't have oddly shaped feet, True skates have spoiled me since I moved over to them about 5-6 years ago. I absolutely love the ankle wrap and how well they connect me to the ice. Before True I was in Bauers for quite a long time. I tried CCM FT6 Pros when they came out and couldn't get used to them. I was hoping the Warrior skates would have the feel of Trues without some of the quality issues.
Initial thoughts on feet is that they have a similar feel as True skates with very little negative space for my feet. The upper ankle portion is *extremely* stiff. On my Trues, I can flex that area pretty good, but on the Warriors it doesn't move much at all. I wrapped the ankle area pretty tight when baking in hopes to curve in the ankle opening for a True like feel. I don't think it really budged. That said, the opening is much smaller than CCM/Bauer and when laced up it actually feels a lot like the True boot.
The tendon guard is solid plastic which I've never used on a skate before. I know some Bauer Supreme models have featured this, but I'm used to some kind of padding/material there. Didn't notice the piece one way or another while skating so I suppose it doesn't matter. Decent flex to it, similar to the 9x4 tendon guard. No where near as flexible as the FT6 pro version which I loved. The ankle cuff edge padding is substantial and super comfortable.
When I heard the tongue connected with velcro, I figured it would be just like True which I love because of the adjustability. It's not. There's a very thin piece of velcro that slides under the tongue, through a hole, and then folds back to connect. On one hand, this appears to hold the tongue in place way better than True. On the flip side, you don't really get the adjustability up or down like you can with True. In addition, it is a PITA to route the velcro piece through the opening and connect to the tongue. I'm also concerned about how thin the Velcro strip is. If it breaks, I don't see how you'd be able to repair it. Everyone is hyping up the tongue and the recoil it has. It's fine. It's very thin and the inside is memory foam-like similar to recent True and CCM tongues so it's comfortable when wearing it. The front features a plastic guard for lace bit and some protection. Honestly, I'd like to try modifying one of my True tongues to work with the skates.
Liner is soft microfiber and padding feel-wise it is very similar to True. Not overstuffed pillows like CCM boots. While I really like the Clarino liner of True skates, the microfiber is comfortable and will hopefully be durable. I don’t mind that it’s all black since it’s a pro skate, but it doesn’t feel super premium either. More mid-tier. The lower portion of the boot lining toward the toe cap is lightly padded on the inside, but the outside honestly feels like there's the microfiber material and zero additional padding. While I didn't notice any discomfort from skating, I have to imagine that getting hit with a puck will be pretty painful. Zero padding/lining in the toe box which is expected. The shape of the toe box is comfortable for my feet and there's not a noticeable hump or connection point like some people felt with CCM toe boxes. The material of the toe box (and shell for that matter) sounds like cheap thin/tinny plastic when you tap it with your fingernails. Tapping my True skates the material sounds more substantial. While the Warrior boot feels solid and well put together overall, the cheap sound makes me wonder how durable it will be long-term.
Moving down to the holder of the boot, it feels nice and stiff. The trigger mechanism holds the steel in well, but holy cow, it takes both hands to fully depress the trigger and remove the steel. Not at all as easy as Bauer. Could be because these are new skates and the mechanism needs to be broken in or due to it being an early model. Not sure, but when I first tried to take out the steel I thought something was stuck/broken. That said, the holes do line up with both Bauer and CCM holders for those of us that have a lot of steel and spare holders for other brands. Nice to not have to worry about drilling new holes like you do with True holders.
So I think that just about covers the actual boot itself. Unfortunately my travel schedule with work has been a bit hectic so I rolled the dice and tested these out for the first time in a game. Thankfully they felt extremely comfortable from my first stride. No heel slip, foot was locked in, ankle mobility felt extremely similar to my Trues which is what I was after. I do have XS holders mounted to my True skates for a neutral pitch and the Warrior XCL holders felt similarly neutral. I did have to adjust the lacing a few times as it was too tight in the mid-foot and then a bit too tight around the ankle. For the last year I've been skipping the 2nd eyelet and going from the 3rd eyelet directly to the top. With the Warrior skates I laced all the way to the top. It'll take a couple of skates to figure out if I prefer dropping the top eyelet entirely or going from 3rd to top. Either way, by the end of the game I didn't feel any discomfort and didn't really think about the skates at all so that's what mattered most.
Biggest unknown is durability really. The skates themselves are extremely comfortable and gave me a similar feeling to True which is what I was looking for. For their first attempt at a skate I think Warrior did a pretty decent job. Although, if they do retail for $1,200, I don’t think it feels like that kind of skate. The cheap sound/feel of the shell material makes it seem more like a mid-tier boot around the $700-800 range with top of the line stiffness. I don’t know what they’re changing other than the graphics for the retail skate so maybe some of the points I made will have been tweaked. It'll be interesting to see how many players switch to them next year. I did find it odd no NHLers wore them at all last year. Figure that's probably due to licensing as I understand companies pay for each piece of equipment, but still, you'd think Warrior would want their star athletes wearing the boot before the retail launch to get people excited. Going the pure influencer route was an interesting decision.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading. Happy to answer any questions I may not have covered.