Nature Lab phase 1 blog post
Can we make a removable Ice Skate?
Why buy the entire cow when all you need is the milk?
We have for many years talked about the idea of making an ice skate that you can attach to our shoes as a way to remove what we see as an unnecessary feature on a skate today for several reasons:
1. You can bring less when going ice skating
2: You can avoid putting your feet in a cold skate and then a cold boot afterward
3: The second--hand value of a skate is diminished due to hygiene issues. Would you buy a sweaty skate second-hand?
4: Easy to repair. With only hardware attached with screws, any broken piece can be easily repaired.
When doing our research we made some interesting finds! Attachable skates were the norm back in the day! Especially in Norway, I think we can all remember seeing these skates hanging on the walls of our grandparent's cabins. Usually, a metal skate is attached with leather straps. Secondly, we realized that these skates DO exist today, however, they are very long and used mostly for cross-country skating on ice.
Now the only question is can we market it and will it sell? What do you think?
Introducing Our New Skate Prototype
We have spent many years now trying to build these skates using existing components and finally have a functioning prototype!!
What do you think? Should we set up a pre-order for the skate in our webshop?
Feedback from the community
Your involvement is crucial for us to assess the viability of the projects. Please give us your comments and let us know what you think!