Anyone who has ever bought a pair of hockey skates knows that it takes a few tries to find the skate that comes closest to fitting the player’s foot. Different manufacturers use different molds to design their skates, so it takes some trial and error to find the one that matches the feel and performance the player is  looking for. Often times this means sacrificing one for the other, resulting in sore feet and ankles.

Kor Hockey, Ltd., out of Calgary, Alberta, is looking to take the guesswork out of finding a player’s perfect fit with the Shift 2, the company’s follow-up to the revolutionary Shift 1 hockey skate.  

The most unique feature of Kor Shift hockey skates is the molded base called the Unibase, a thermo-reactive, three-dimensional one-piece base and heel counter platform that is anatomically molded to the skater’s foot, as well as contoured efficiently to receive a skate blade.  According to Perry Berezan, one of Kor Hockey’s directors and a former NHL player with the Calgary Flames, the Minnesota North Stars and the San Jose Sharks, it is the company’s attention to comfort, as well as performance, that makes its skates stand out from the competition’s.

“Good fit means great performance,” Berezan says. He has seen, and experienced first-hand, what players will go through with traditional hockey skates to achieve this performance.

“That’s why a lot of guys,” Berezan continues, “try and jam their foot into a smaller skate, because they want instantaneous performance. But of course, over time, there’s going to be all kinds of foot problems. It’s not going to be comfortable; your feet are going to ache when you play. So that’s not an enjoyable experience for the masses. It’s not even an enjoyable experience for a pro to go through. With these skates, you don’t have an issue.”
The perfect fit of Kor Hockey’s Shift 2 skates comes from the Unibase design and the “baking” process used to shape the inside of the skate to the contours of each individual skater’s foot, rather than mass producing a skate from a mold of an “average” foot. 
“These are fit,” Berezan says, “right out of the box, for you specifically. They shouldn’t hurt you one bit when you wear them, day one. There’s no break-in period. With the Kor skates, you don’t have to worry about that because, being composite, once your foot gets in that hot skate, 10 minutes later it’s molded to the shape of your foot and it will never break down, you have no movement. Your foot has no movement when it’s in the skate because it’s a perfect fit.”            

Most pro shops already have skate ovens to warm up the foam packaging inside conventional skates, so customers won’t have to search for a place to get their Shift 2s fitted.  But one problem with the conventional method of using foam packaging as the main means of support for your foot is that eventually it breaks down. Kor hockey has addressed this problem with its skate design.   

“In these skates,” says Berezan, “it’s the shell that’s outside the foam package that protects the foam package from your foot moving around. When your foot moves around in a traditional skate it wears out the inside. If your foot never moves around while you’re skating, the inside of your boot won’t ever wear.”

If a customer experiences movement after the initial fitting, Shift 2 skates can be “baked” multiple times to get the exact feel desired. There’s no break-in period because the composite materials will not break down. 

Along with Kor’s Unibase technology, the Shift 2 also has a single-layer protective cover, reinforced with strategic silicon impact zones, which reduce the overall bulk and weight found in other skates. The Toe Glove is designed for the dual purpose of protecting the foot from direct, frontal impact while providing a custom fit feel during intense performance. And the diamond back tongue is a three-dimensional design, shaped like the curvature of a baseball, providing strategic flex zones with thermo-reactive EVA.

If you are interested in checking out a pair of Kor Shift 2 skates for yourself, ask about them at your local pro shop, check out the Kor Shift Web site at korhockey.com or call the company directly at 1-403-286-1700.