OK, so you’re learning to skate. You better get some ice skates but how much should you spend on ice skates?
Why do I need my own skates?
First of all, hire skates are not good to learn in and will massively slow down how long it will take you to learn to skate. Sadly, due to the fact that the rink will need to have lots of them, they will be cheap and perhaps the biggest problem of all they will be BLUNT and we mean BLUNT!
Learning to ice skate on blunt skates will be extremely difficult at best. Hire skates are ideal for getting a feel for the ice and your first experiences of skating but if you want to skate to any reasonable level you will need your own skates.
In our mind you have three options:
- Buy the cheapest pair of Ice Hockey skates you can find (budget option).
- Buy a more expensive pair of ice skates but not a premium pair (middle option).
- Go all in! Even if you have an unlimited budget we would not recommend this at this stage but hey, some people might want to!
Budget spend on ice skates
These will be infinitely better to learn to skate in than hire skates and will start your journey. Cheap Ice hockey skates could ‘see you through’ for your first few years and possibly more of learning to skate and playing Ice Hockey. As you will soon find out, Ice Hockey can be expensive to get started and this will get you started (it might also be that your funds dictate that this is the route you have to go down. How much should you spend on ice skates though in the budget category? Currently (as 2021) in the UK a cheap pair of ice skates will cost about £50-£80.
Check out Puck Stop and Skate Station for some great examples.
Middle budget options
Now for an adult in the UK (in 2020), we would put this in the range of £150-£200. A pair of skates in this price range, should stay with you for a lot longer than the lower price bracket and will be OK until you start playing ice hockey at a reasonable level.
Next you will need to get those skates sharpened and get on the ice!
Check out Puck Stop and Skate Station for some great examples. It’s also better to go into the shop to try on the skates wherever you can. The staff at these shops have loads of knowledge of what to buy and what will suit you best. Just tell them your budget and they will help you out.
Future posts will cover skate sharpening in Manchester, check out our current articles below.