CCM RibCor 80K Hockey Skates vs. CCM RibCor 70K Hockey Skates

With the release of the brand new RibCor 80K Hockey Skates from CCM Hockey, it’s likely that the first question to pop into your head is, “what makes the 80K’s better than last year’s iteration, the 70K’s?”

Appearance wise, the color scheme between the two remains the same: predominantly black, silver, and green. While the RibCor 70K’s feature more silver accents, the RibCor 80K’s opted to go with a stealthier look, adding more black to the quarter package of the boot, as well as near the toe box and ankles. Towards the heel of the skate, the RibCor 70K’s feature the “RibCor” logo, while the 80K’s got rid of that entirely; however, a little further down, they did add a subtle “FlexFrame” logo.

Moving to the build of each skate, the RibCor 70K’s use much more of the leather-type material on the outer portion of the quarter package, specifically around the eyelets. The RibCor 80K skates have eliminated nearly all of that material, meaning less stitching and in turn, better energy transfer and improved durability. Additionally, the RibCor 80K skates feature an improved build at the front of the skates where the boot attaches to the toe box. Rather than two pieces of material stitched together as seen on the RibCor 70K’s, the RibCor 80K’s use one bigger piece of rubber material, helping add durability to that high-wear area.

On the interior, the RibCor 80K skates feature improved ankle foams compared to their predecessor. The new symmetrical ADPT Memory Foam pads inside the RibCor 80K skates wrap securely around the player’s foot. While the RibCor 70K’s had interior ankle padding as well, the ADPT padding in the RibCor 80K skates better adapts to any foot shape, helping to further eliminate any negative space within the boot and providing maximum comfort and energy transfer!

Perhaps the biggest upgrade between the RibCor 70K skates and the RibCor 80K skates can be found on the lower half of the skates. The RibCor 70K’s feature CCM’s SpeedBlade holders, with two rivets on the front and back of the holder. To remove steel, one would have to use a tool to unscrew the runners, replace the runners, then screw them back into place. While this process worked, it wasn’t the most efficient. CCM looked to improve upon this process with the introduction of the new SpeedBlade XS holders! Thanks to the positive-lock dial on the XS1 holders, tools are no longer required to switch out your CCM runners, vastly reducing the amount of time it takes players to get back out on the ice!

Not only did the holders on the RibCor 80K skates get an improvement, so did the runners. While both sets of runners are coated with a black oxide treatment, the runners on the RibCor 80K skates, known as SpeedBlade XS1 runners, are 2 millimeters taller than the SpeedBlade Black blades found on the RibCor 70K skates. This height increase allows players to dig deeper into their turns, increase power in their strides, and reach top-end speed!