CCM Outcast Inline Hockey Skates: upping Nike’s ante in the soft boot
Written: Apr 01 '04 (Updated Oct 05 '05)
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Pros: Comfortable, quick break in, very durable boots and frames
Cons: Hyper wheels were terrible - look for Kryptonics
The Bottom Line: The Externo was one of only two serious inline skates made last year. It had minor problems, but overall was a good buy.
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| puckmugger's Full Review: CCM Externo Outcast Seniorinline Hockey Skates |
A few years ago if anyone told me that CCM would be taking cues from Nike, I would have laughed at them. Nike had weird ideas about how to make a hockey boot, and none of them seemed good. Nike came to the hockey market with more confidence than know how and it showed in their early skates. The one thing that they brought to the table that no other skate manufacturer could was their entirely fresh perspective. Why did skates have to be uncomfortable out of the box? Now all of the big brands are asking that same question, and following the steps of the athletic shoe giant.
CCM’s inline skates served as a proving ground for their own concept of comfortable fit right out of the box. A year after the introduction of the popular Externo skates on the inline market CCM crossed the technology into the Ice Hockey.
Inline Skates for 2003
The Outcast is the top of the line model for CCM’s inline skates. The Maverick, the Cage and the Rush follow it (from top to bottom). The Outcast is a high performance inline skate, of very high quality. It is matched in the 2003 competitors only by Mission’s D-1 in quality. Tour made horrible skates in 2003 with heels that were too big for human feet, and Bauer seemed to be making a statement that it didn’t care about inline hockey with its purely recreational line in 2003. With Nexed skipping the skate business altogether and Nike still learning their new trade, this left only, Mission and CCM as serious contenders.
The Outcast Boot
One area that the CCM Outcast was perhaps a little better than the Mission skates was the durability of their boot. The Outcast is a soft boot design that is intended to fit with little or no break in time. CCM accomplished this by building an external skeleton around the shell of the boot for support and utilizing soft materials to conform to foot shape on the inside. The result is a skate that has a very hard exterior shell, perfect to hold up to the rigors of inline skating.
The CCM boot does just what it should: it fits comfortably. Most people with fairly wide feet will find the CCM Outcast to offer them a snug fit and good support. It does this with minimal adjustments right out of the box. The break-in time is only a few hours for most people, and relatively painless. One area that I did notice a number of people had complaints about is the ankles. The boot does fit a little more tightly there than in other areas and might take some minor punch work to loosen up. As top-end skates go, this is relatively mild however – certainly better than in a traditional skate.
The tongue is also among the stiffest I have seen on any skate. While this will practically ensure that there will be no problem with lace-bite, it might be a bit uncomfortable at first. I highly recommend a heat fitting of this skate as it will help with the tongue as well as ensure a good snug fit from the start with a boot this stiff.
The Outcast is the stiffest of the CCM line and gives excellent support throughout. Smaller and less aggressive skater will still likely be comfortable in this skate, however, they will suffer from an inability to create any forward lean. This is one thing to be aware of when looking at the Outcast. If you cannot lean forward in a boot, you will never be able to skate well in it. I would recommend that the skater be at least 150 pound in this skate and if under 175 pounds be skating at least 5 hours weekly.
The sole of the outcast is a carbon fiber base. It gives the highest level of stiffness available in an inline boot. This ensures that more of your leg drive is transferred to the skating surface, not diffused in the boot. It also gives the skates a much longer life span than a traditionally plastic soled boot.
CCM replaced their trademark wedge with the reflex-bar in the Outcast as in all the other Externo skates. This is a metal bar that puts the lace pressure in a more appropriate place to lock the heel into the skate. I found this to be a great improvement over the wedge in their ice hockey skates. It does have one minor flaw. The reflex-bar is attached to the boot with a single screw that does on rare occasions come loose. Make sure to check this screw often. If it continues to come loose, put some lock-tite on it.
In all, the boot is a very comfortable fit and highly durable one. Expect minimal break in time, but do try to find a shop that will heat fit the skates.
The Components
The Prolite 7000 frames are beefier on the Outcast and Maverick than the 6000’s on the Cage and Rush. The prolite 7000 is among the most sturdy I have seen on a new skate, comparable to the top of the line Missions. The frames are, of course, anodized aluminum. The forward lean is very similar to CCM’s Pro-light carriers for ice hockey skates. This has been described as a neutral lean, unlike Bauer’s lean which is too far toward the heels, and Graf’s which tends towards the toes. I have not seen any breakage on these frames.
The bearings are ABEC 7 micro bearings. Only ceramic “Swiss” style bearings have a higher rating than ABEC 7. Swiss bearings cost almost as much as this pair of skates and I have never heard of anyone actually using them, so the ABEC 7 is about as good as you can expect on a new pair of skates.
The wheels CCM put on the Outcast were perhaps the weakest point of the entire skate. I noticed on the epinion’s details for this skate that the wheels are listed as Kryptonic Wicked Stickys, if the skate is available with these now, it is a huge improvement. The wheels that were on all of the Outcasts that I ever sold were actually Hyper Duality.
The Duality wheels are a two piece wheel. They were designed with a hard composite hub and a gas filled urethane tire mounted on it. The initial reaction was that these wheels had fantastic grip characteristics. However, in a matter of weeks numerous wheels came back. Harder skaters were actually popping the “tire” right off the rims. I sent dozens of these inferior wheels back to CCM, as I imagine most retailers did. It is highly likely that they changed the wheels to the Kryptonics. If you’re buying a pair of Outcast, I would look for Kryptos.
Final Ramblings
The only real downside to the Outcast was the quality of wheels that CCM put on some of them. If you do find a pair with the Hyper Duality wheels on them, consider the cost of replacing them before buying the skates. Granted, the wheels are going to wear out anyway, but you might be spending $40 on a new set in a matter of weeks and that isn’t fun.
The Outcast is a great skate by a trusted maker of skates. It is perhaps the most durable of the inlines on the market and very comfortable. I highly recommend this skate to competitive inline players, especially those playing primarily indoors. The cost of the Outcast makes it a bit more inclined towards skate friendly surfaces. However, prices have dropped quite a bit since the Outcast was selling for $400. Just be aware that outdoor use on abrasive surfaces will destroy almost any skate in about a year of hockey.
© Scott Noble – Unauthorized use prohibited
Also see: Mission D-2 Skates
Recommended:
Yes
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