=m Part V
Recent History and Beyond
In 1987, inventor and aerospace engineer Sid Broadbent was selected by the Sports Equipment and Technology Committee of the US Olympic Committee with the mandate to improve the figure skate. The USOC grant funded research from 1988 to 1992, testing ice-skate and bobsled-skate friction, which was reported in his manuscript, “Research into Skate and Boot Design and Blade Sharpening with Recommended Design Improvements.” He initially performed his research in the basement of the former Alpine rink in Denver in a state-of-theart laboratory Broadbent assembled. The lab featured a massive rotating boom, similar to the scribe used by “figure” skaters, and at the end of which the skates met with the ice. Various gauges measured the downward force on drag on the blade from which Broadbent could easily calculate the coefficient of kinetic friction. Several of the conclusions from the report were used to create new designs. The most notable was the COPLANAR concept. Traditional skating boots were made from lasts used to make walking boots which mimicked the gait of a walking. The sole of the boot was curved which simulated the rocker radius of the blade. The COPLANAR concept dealt principally with the boot-blade interface. The sole and heel surfaces of the COPLANAR boots and blades lie flat allowing the blade to be mounted perfectly, regardless of placement. In order for the concept to take off, cooperation from boot and blade manufacturers was vital. At that time there were
no standards set up between skate manufacturers and boot manufacturers. Blades fit differently on each maker’s boot. Harlick, Klingbeil, Riedell, and SP-Teri, along with MK and Wilson who were separate companies at the time, were initially supportive. According to Broadbent, “…of the two, MK showed enthusiasm allowing me free access to their manufacturing plant.” Additionally, he was appalled; neither MK nor Wilson had any technical drawings of their product. At the time, the blades were made to makeshift templates. MK bought Broadbent a drawing board and the needed instruments to produce the mechanical drawings. Broadbent’s partner at the time was podiatrist Dr. Daryl Phillips. It was Dr. Phillips that thought a neutral posture of the foot in coplanar configuration would be beneficial. Dr. Phillips other concern was the weight of the boot, which he suggested could be reduced by using a carbon-graphite sole. A prototype was produced and tested by an elite skater who performed each jump through triples with no issues. Unfortunately, the technique was not cost effective for the industry and was not developed further. Dr. Phillips left the project and Broadbent pursued the COPLANAR approach by using the research funds to provide COPLANAR lasts to the manufacturers. SP Teri received a full line of lasts before funds were cut off in 1991. Future funding was promised by the USOC for Riedell and Harlick, but U.S. Figure Skating stepped in and the funds never came. Fortunately for Klingbeil, their custom-made boots needed no additional lasts to configure either the COPLANAR or traditional configuration. Ultimately, according to Sid, the additional expense for the major distributors combined with dealers who were afraid of their current stock of becoming obsolete made selling the product difficult, and by 2010 only about 1000 pairs of the COPLANAR were sold. The other key recommendation of Broadbent’s research was a detachable toe-pick design. Twenty years later, the concept was patented and the first prototype hit the ice in 2008. The blade, called Goldquest, allows the full length of the blade to be sharpened and the toe-picks to be replaced or interchanged. In fact, according to the patent abstract, a smaller toe pick arrangement can be swapped once the sharpening has reached a certain depth, extending the life of the blade. In 1994, hockey giant Bauer acquired the English skate manufacturer Hattersley and Davidson for their John Wilson skate brand with the intention of developing figure skating blades to go with their hockey brand. Shortly thereafter, Nike bought Bauer Skates from Canstar, but eventually decided that figure skating was not going to develop their core business and sold the skating business back to the Hattersley & Davidson management team. In 1997, Hattersley & Davidson bought the world's second prestigious figure skating company, Mitchell & King (MK), mostly for their chrome plating process and therein created a company that came to totally dominate the figure skating blade industry. The management of Hattersley and Davidson restructured the business in 1999 to fully concentrate on the sports world, changing the company name to HD Sports, as it is known as today. While the PSA had already been endorsing the John Wilson brand since 1978, after their purchase of MK, the MK brand was also submitted to the PSA for consideration as an endorsed product. European skate company Risport Skates of Montebelluna, PS MAGAZINE
25