Why does the Bauer TUUK have an 80% approval rating in the NHL?
Written: May 12 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Stiff holder with great agility
Cons: Mediocre hardware, poor foot positioning
The Bottom Line: The TUUK is a good holder, but it isn't worth the money to switch a pair of skates that come with something else.
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| puckmugger's Full Review: Bauer Tuuk Custom Plus Holder&Runner |
The Bauer TUUK is the preferred runner and holder of over 80% of the players in the NHL. Let me put this into perspective just so everyone understands that this is a big deal. Bauer and Nike are the only brand currently using Bauer’s TUUK. CCM is the most popular skate supplier to the NHL. Bauer would be the number two brand. Graf, Easton and Mission have a pretty big market share as well. Just a few pros are in Nike skates. That pretty much covers it.
So what makes 80% market share so remarkable? Among NHL players Bauer and Nike make up about 30% of the NHL population. All the other players in that 80% have removed the factory mounted holders and runners and switched them over to the Bauer TUUK.
▪ But what makes the TUUK so popular?
There are a few very good things about the Bauer TUUK and a few not so good things. Most of the bad has a bigger impact on people working on the skates than those using them. But let’s take a look at the good first.
Agility
This was such a high point that the single word agility has often been used in Bauer’s publications. As is typical in hockey marketing, Bauer doesn’t waste any money on ink to explain what agility means in reference to the TUUK.
Really it’s a pretty simple concept. The Bauer TUUK utilizes a nine-foot rocker where all but one other major brand (Mission) uses eleven-foot rockers. The rocker describes the radius that would be achieved if the skate blade’s heel to toe curve continued to form a circle. Incidentally, goalie skates generally use about a thirty-foot rocker.
A shorter rocker allows for quicker turns on the ice. Further, there is a slight increase in acceleration with a shorter rocker. This is what the single word agility is attempting to convey in Bauer’s advertising of their TUUK holder. Despite being and under-explained marketing catch phrase, agility is a very apt term to describe the TUUK runners and carriers. The nine-foot rocker does indeed allow quicker turning and acceleration.
Durability
The Bauer TUUK is built like a tank. Bauer credits the sturdiness of their holder to a material called ZYTEL. I would simply say that ABS reinforced with nylon is what makes them strong. Regardless of what tag we put on the materials, I will grant them that the TUUK has a great combination of stiffness while still remaining flexible enough to take most impacts.
The TUUK design is one of the oldest on the market and compliments the choice of materials perfectly. Unlike many other holders, it is stiff enough to skate on without relying on major support from the boot sole. CCM’s Prolite holder is the best example of a holder that needs major help from the boot. It is barely rigid enough to skate on when riveted to a corbon fiber outsole, let alone be self-supporting.
The real proof is in the use of both holders. While many player’s prefer the feel of the Prolite on the ice, within six months the average player will start experiencing loose rivets and twisting of the entire holder. The TUUK has no such problems. It doesn’t twist from the weight of the skater and rivets stay put.
Further, the TUUK, despite its popularity, is rarely broken by hard shots or any other normal use. Don’t get me wrong, all carriers break. Still in my experience, only the Graf Cobra is more durable than the TUUK. CCM, Easton, and Mission skates seemed to be coming in more often for repairs than Bauer and Nike skates did. When the Bauer’s did come in, they were usually well worn. Most skaters spent a great deal of time trying to decide if it was better to replace the TUUK or upgrade to a new pair of skates.
▪ The TUUK models
There are three basic models of the TUUK holder currently on the market. All of them have essentially the same benefits, not all have the same liabilities.
Custom
The Custom is a one-piece design with Carbon Steel runners permanently attached to it. The Custom will need to be replaced in pairs when either the steel or the holder is damaged, or the steel is worn out from too many sharpenings. Initially it is the cheapest of the three models, in the long run it will cost more if it needs to be repaired.
Custom Plus
The Custom Plus is the most commonly used of the TUUK models. While in appearance it is identical to the Custom, with the single exception of a “+” printed on it, this holder has a replaceable stainless steel blade. The steel and the holder can be replaced individually, saving money on repairs. Also the stainless blade will hold an edge longer and require less frequent sharpening.
Lightspeed
The newest model is the Lightspeed TUUK. This is a lighter weight version of the TUUK. It comes with the choice of perforated or solid stainless steel runners. The other notable change to the Lightspeed is the new single screw method to attach the blade to the holder. The Lightspeed is still fairly durable, but the weight reduction does take away some of the stiffness of the holder especially in the middle section. Also the perforated steel is highly prone to bending and/or breaking.
▪ Why hasn’t Bauer hit 100% usage in the NHL?
Like most products, the TUUK has it flaws as well. I’m not likely to every claim that any product is perfect. In fact, the TUUK has enough flaws that I won’t even claim that it’s close. I might rank it in the top two holders on the market, but neither is a pure gem in my book.
Anti-agility
While the nine-foot rocker is great, very few skaters are pleased with the angle of the foot in a TUUK mounted skate. The problem is simple. Bauer puts players in a position that is too far back on their heels. In order to play almost any sport well, you need to be on the balls of your feet, ready to react in a blink. Imagine shoes that had 1” thick soles at the front and ¼” thick soles at the heel. It would make you feel like you were walking uphill all day. This is the basic arrangement of the TUUK and, in my opinion, its biggest flaw.
CCM’s Prolite puts the skater into a fairly neutral position. Essentially players on Prolites are flat on their feet, an improvement over being on their heels. Graf’s Cobra holder is the best on the market right out of the box. It has a higher heel putting the player right where they need to be, on the balls of their feet.
The TUUK gives the worst foot position of any holder on the market. It makes it difficult not only to get your weight on the balls of your feet, but even to get proper knee bend for skating. This flaw essentially eliminates any benefit of the short nine-foot rocker. So now you must be wondering, if the TUUK is so flawed why to NHL players use them so prevalently?
Well the solution is as simple as the problem. A little fix called heel lifts puts the player back on the ball of his or her feet and remedies the issue. A piece of plastic is simply placed between the heel of the boot and the holder lifting the heel from 3 to 5 millimeters. It is a pretty simple procedure that most shops would be able to do for about $20. I skated on my Nikes both ways and found that a mere 3 millimeters made an amazing difference. I tried my old Koho skates (11-foot CCM rocker) the other day and felt like I was skating with my laces tied together in comparison to the TUUK holders with lifts.
Hardware
Hardware on the TUUK is an issue which will affect techs working on the skates more than it will the skater. However there is a potential for hardware failures in the TUUK to make repairs very expensive and sometimes border on impossible.
Buyers of junior sized skates (smaller than a size 6) should be aware that Bauer and Nike’s design makes repairs on these skates much harder than they should and could be. With larger skates, there is a hole in the sole of the skates that is covered with a small plug. The hole grants access to the screws that hold the steel runner in place. In the TUUK Custom Plus there is a screw in the tow and one in the heel. In the newer Lightspeed TUUK a single heel screw holds the blade in place (a tab holds the front of the blade).
Junior skates for reasons unknown to the civilized world outside of Nike/Bauer do not have these holes. With the Lightspeed TUUK, the steel will almost certainly come loose in a matter of months. In a TUUK Custom Plus there is about a 25% chance that the steel will come loose. The only way to repair this issue in a junior skate is to completely remove the holder, make the repair and re-rivet it. This turns what should have been a five-minute job into more than thirty minutes. It also results in a charge of about $20 for something that most shops would have been able to do for free on a senior pair of skates.
Make sure to ask your shop to drill a hole in the heel of any pair of junior skates with the Lightspeed if you do have to get the nut tightened. I always did this for my customers since the Lightspeed TUUK is notorious for coming loose. If they don’t want to drill it, then I would suggest finding another place to get repairs done. They are trying to milk you rather than help you out.
With the Custom Plus, the holes are a bit more difficult. The toes in junior skates are too tight for the special tool to get into even if the hole was there to do so. A heel hole might solve some problems, but the hole required for the Custom Plus is much bigger and could potentially cause the narrower sole of a junior or youth skate to crack there. I would have them put some locktite on the nut and leave the skates as they are.
Even with senior skates there are instances where the Custom Plus hardware will create expensive issues. Occasionally the two small bolts that hold the steel in place become rusted and the nuts are seized. This situation can make it nearly impossible to replace a broken or worn out blade without destroying the plastic holder. I have had some success in cutting a slot in the head with a dremel, getting a screwdriver in it to get the seized bolt apart, but even then there is a chance of melting the holder, and my success rate is about 50%.
In the other cases skaters ended up having to buy a new holder at $35 plus $10 installation. And they already had to drop $20 for new steel so it got a little painful. Shops that insist on taking off the TUUK Custom Plus holders for all steel replacement should be avoided. There is a special tool that allows access to the front nut on the Custom Plus so the only reasons for wanting to remove the entire TUUK are ignorance, or greed - wanting to charge you extra for putting rivets in. In the end, having a holder removed and replaced always makes it slightly less secure. A few times won’t hurt - four or five might.
Rusted bolts are one that you as the owner have a bit of control over, but I cannot guarantee you will not have the problem no matter how careful you are. The biggest issue causing the nuts to rust is players not letting their skates dry out. The best thing you can do for your skates is take out your insoles to let them dry every time you are done skating. Most skates I’ve seen with seized nuts belonged to player who had substantial amounts of rust, mildew and, often, still wet skates.
▪ Parting thoughts
The TUUK is a good holder. Just like any holder on the market it has its highs and lows. Having used my Koho skates with a CCM style holder and steel partially in anticipation of this review, I was surprised to find how much better I was able to skate on my TUUKs.
Out of the box, I think I would rate the TUUK as perhaps the third best holder of the major brands. The heel position is the reason for this. However, with a heel lift I can easily move the TUUK up to a tie for first position with Graf’s Cobra holder.
As far as reasons that NHL skaters prefer the TUUK, the agility and durability are the major factors. These are skaters who have a great staff to work on issues with their skates. To put the levels of service they get into perspective, Peter Forsberg had one of the skate builders from Graf spend a week tuning his skates a few years back. This guy flew down from Canada to make sure his skates were perfect. (They had Cobras on them by the way).
My point is that NHL players don’t have to spend their money and time getting their skates fixed. I imagine that most of the 80% who are using TUUK holders have custom aligned skates that were built with their name embossed on the liner and a pair of heel lifts to their exact specifications.
For those of us in the real world, the TUUK is pretty good, but there is no need to make it the overwhelming choice of the general public. Keep the holders that your skates came with until they fail. Then, and only then, if you feel like the boots are worth $100 investment, you might consider upgrading to a pair of TUUK holders with heel lifts.
A few of my other reviews that you might find helpful:
Hockey Skate buying demystified
How to Care for Skates
Bauer Vapor XX Skates
Bauer Supreme 8000 Skates
Recommended:
Yes
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