I really wasn’t keen on spending a lot of money on new ice skates, so I decided to start with a pair of vintage ones. I had searched my mom’s whole basement for my old skating boots, but didn’t find them. So I was a bit frustrated, but also in kind of a nostalgic mood, which is probably why I ended up going to the rink in those crusty old skates.
Just as a disclaimer at this point: Yes, there were zero practical reasons for this to begin with. Still, I want to address some of the worries people voice when it comes to wobbly or old skates in general. As in “Oh, they are so horrible, you can’t possibly skate in that!!!” – Uhm, actually you can, and every generation before and for sure at least one after me did just fine.
Because, while I agree that nobody who wants to figure skate should use them today, I would have to repeat the question: What do you think we all ice-skated in for decades?
For recreational skaters, for myself who weekend-skated in those oh-so-awful boots for 20 years, it wasn’t even worth thinking about, as in ever, cause it was a non-issue. In contrast however: Absolutely nobody who skates like once a year wants to spend 200 bucks on “real skates” just to have them, and rentals are definitely not one bit better than my 1980s break-a-leg-os.
Just saying… We’re 80s kids. We’re built different. I lived in a world without mobile phones. I can skate in wobbly skates, dude. They don’t scare me. Hockey skaters scare me.
That being said, I’ll be honest and tell you how it was, because I actually don’t think you should get vintage skates just because you’re sentimental like me. It’s not really worth it.
My 1980s Vintage Ice Skates
Cold feet and leather creases, that’s my memory of the late ’80s and early ’90s. I would skate every winter and had always used my own skates, not rentals. It was just an average thing to do in the winter time.
I remember putting my skates on as a kid, sitting on some bench on outside behind the rink wall. And even when I had warm hands was not cold at all, packed in a thick parka, the skates back then were so thin, my feet would always start to feel cold immediately, and after a while, they’d feel like burning, tingling from the cold, and eventually just go numb. That was just normal. It was the best feeling to get your feet out of those boots, and the worst when they’d start thawing and the feeling would come back.
I’m originally from Erfurt, the capitcal of Thuringia, which is a German federal state. We had a 400m speed skatig oval there. On that oval, everyone was racing around in circles like crazy. As a child, I found it particularly amusing to imagine myself as a speed skater, so I would race around that track like a maniac until I eventually realized I had lost my mom and stop. Then I panicked for a bit, did a few more laps, until I found her, and she said, “Well, you passed by three times and didn’t hear me calling out for you each time.”
That’s how it was back then. Oh, and people brought pucks to the rink! I kid you not… There was always some object flying around the ice. Today, that would be total anarchy and kinda unthinkable. You get scolded over the loudspeaker for throwing an innocent snowball at a friend. I kinda don’t want to be hit by one, but I’m also a bit nostalgic about the time I grew up in, because it had less rules overall and people were just more laid back in general.
Vintage ice skates would hurt so much
The skates back then were definitely pretty brutal though. A crease always formed somewhere, cutting into your foot, and they all were super narrow at the toe box. (What toe box?) In general, the shoes all had this sausage-like shape. Long and thin. The leather was quite thick because it was the only thing providing stability. There was no plastic core. But still, leather gives in degrades fast as well. So eventually, these shoes only fit the owner and form around their feet, so that if someone else would put them on, it would hurt in all the wrong places. I know, I put my mom’s skates on some time in the 90s. I would not do that again. Yet for some reason (no, there was no reason) I bought old skates online… I was so dumb.
I bought my ancient ice skates from Vinted…
I do think that old skates look cool. I remember that I was a little bit shocked how stiff and unelegant modern skates looked, since I had never seen one close-up. And the weirdest thing is that a lot of older millenials I talked to had the same thought in their head.
However, the old skates, they were truly awful. I very much understand that now. They are very uncomfortable but also strangely firm in all the wrong places, while far too soft in even wronger places. They give in at the ankle, but at the shaft and toes, they’re stiff and uncomfortable and give you blisters.
Not that ice skates have to be comfortable. A bit of torture is part of the deal. But it’s just no comparison to today.
Anyway, I really wanted to try old skates from the ’80s, and I kinda thought it was badass and vintage, lol. As I said, I was naive and nostalgic about skating. And at this point, I also had absolutely no interest in spending more than 20 bucks on “ice skating”, let alone go to a pro shop and deal with the topic for more than three minutes…
So I treated myself to a used pair from Vinted. I just guessed the size (yes, that happened). Better a bit too big, I thought (oh boi…). Some of you might scream right now, but the point is, dear folks, a lot of weekend skater amateurs prefer warm feet over well-fitting shoes and stability. I never knew any better. And it didn’t matter.
Weekend skaters really don’t care about jumps or really any skating skills at all. You would only skate forwards anyway in them (anything else doesn’t really work on a 400m track) and those few times a year, it was important to not freeze more than inevitable.
How it feels to stand on 40-year-old blades
When the boots arrived, I tried them on right away, and we ventured out for our first skate in Germering. It was quite peculiar. On the one hand, I felt romantically transported back to that time as a child when I had no fear of falling. On the other hand, it was clear to me after about three seconds that I wouldn’t get far in these skates, and that I most definitely could not skate like I used to…
I was immediately taken back to the good old times, but in the way that I physically remembered what wearing skates felt like. How sore and deep-frozen I always was after each skating session. How there was always this one spot on my foot that just hurt for no reason. Yeah…
It also felt incredibly slippery. And when you’re just learning to skate, you might not notice it as much, but the reason for this was of course, that the blades were completely dull. When blades are dull, you can’t stop well anymore, and you’re more prone to skidding sideways. So, you’ll end up falling super fast, preferably on body parts that like to break on impact, like your wrists, or that just hurt a lot, like your knees or tail bone.
Anyway, we (me with my vintage skates, my kid with her not so bad Jacksons, and my husband in rental hockey skates) moved slowly but clumsily over the ice, trying to figure out what to even do. – It was definitely an experience.
Eventually I gave up…
I kept this game up for a few weekends. But eventually I gave up. I just knew in my heart that there was something better out there, and that these skates were making it all less fun. But I don’t completely condemn vintage skates, as mentioned before…
This was definitely a cool experiment. And I absolutely don’t feel the need to preach to anybody about how you should get modern skates. There are some experiences you can’t make in your head, you have to see (and feel) for yourself. This was one.
I’m writing this now, over two years later, and well after I tried proper and sturdy modern skating boots (two pairs: Risport Artiste and Risport RF3 Pro).
If you skate in vintage skates, you won’t turn into a deer!
If you come across figure skating TikTok videos at some point, you’ll find that there is actually a lot of content on proper skating boots. So, if you post some prehistoric relics like my old kicks there, you’ll probably get at least comment lecturing you that you can’t live your life like that and have to get “proper ones”.
For me though, I don’t regret having tested this. It was cool and now I can appreciate my good skates even more. I know that I indeed need the stability. But moreover, I now have such great respect for all the professional skaters of the 1980s and before. They jumped doubles in this! Amazing.
What’s better for beginners, vintage or new skates?
I am reluctant to make a recommendation, but let me put it this way: You can injure yourself in any shoe if you’re stupid or unlucky enough. For me, I was used to this madness, so I didn’t mind. I was just fine skating in old boots. I also think that most cheap skates really do not offer better support anyway. So, for environmental reasons, it might actually not be the worst idea to buy some vintage skates if you just want to skate a few times a year. You won’t drop dead from doing so.
Disadvantages of vintage ice skates
However, there are some important things to note:
- They usually don’t fit well and hurt quite a bit
- The soles can come lose due to use or ageing and you might not be able to glue them back in place (or you should not, because you’re probably not doing it right, even if it’s doable)
- If the blades can still be sharpened, it might put extra tension on the old boot. Thus, if the boot has some damage, it can come apart and cause you to fall.
You can test this though by wiggling the soles. They should be stiff and sit very well and sturdy on the boot. They should not give in or wiggle at all!
I actually had my old skates sharpened and it made a huge difference. I could skate quite okay in them and didn’t mind the lack of support, since it was all I had ever known.
Advantages of modern ice skates
When I made the switch to new skates though I noticed pretty fast that they were just so much more comfortable. The major advantages were:
- Your feet stay warm way longer (instead of 15-30 min of slow-ass skating I could skate for 2 hours without getting cold feet).
- If used, modern skates can fit the new owner just as well as they previous one. If they don’t fit well, you can get a thermo-molding, which basically molds the boot to your anatomy.
- The risk of injury is drastically reduced because of the high stiffness level. Mostly breaking out to the side is just almost impossible in modern skates. It took me some time getting used to it!
- You can skate longer in those without developing pain, once you are used to the boots.
Some disadvantages in my opinion are that you simply feel less of the ice, but at the same time that is an advantage, because the boot itself catches and distributes a lot of the shock of e.g. hitting the ground in landing a jump.
So of course, overall, I can only recommend modern skates. And sure, nobody in their right mind would skate in vintage skates other than in a fun experiment for social media maybe. But apart from funny videos, there is literally no purpose in going vintage when it comes to figure skating. As soon as you know you want to skate regularly, get some proper boots please.
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