YOI Boots&Blades - a comprehensive list

[theglassheart]

By Lazuliblade Here

AKA The Encyclopedia of Yuri!!! on Ice Boots and Blades

Although the rigor of animating makes it difficult to keep the precise details in every scene, clearer DVD/Blu-ray images and the released production notes with character sketches make it possible to identify many of the brands and models. 

I want to preface this post saying that all of this - the researching, compilation, and decisions - was a practice in insanity. Some boots and blades were fairly straightforward to identify, while others involved poring over the size of toe-pick teeth, the shape of the mounting plates, and prioritizing certain design details (i.e. back of boot) over others (i.e. number of hooks). We see quite a few styles of boots and blades in YOI. To the best of my ability, I’ve pinned down boots and blades for every skater (16 skaters!) in Yuri on Ice, and in the case of vague production drafts resulting in multiple options, I’ve offered a few alternate choices with my reasoning.

This post is super long with dozens of pictures from the show, production drafts (from the Setting Material Collection), and boot and blade websites. For length’s sake, I’ve made a quick list above a cut and left the expanded notes and pics below. For boots, I’m looking at EDEA, GRAF, Risport, Riedell, and Jackson Ultima. For blades, I’m primarily looking at John Wilson and MK Blades unless the design is different enough to warrant referring to other brands. 

Formatting goes as follows:

Character name: brand of boots - model; finish (leather or suede), blade type (traditional or revolution); brand - model

———————

Yuuri Katsuki: KOSUGI; leather; traditional blades; John Wilson - Gold Seal
Victor Nikiforov: GRAF - Edmonton Special Classic; leather; traditional blades; John Wilson - Pattern 99
Yuri Plisetsky: Jackson Ultima - Elite; suede; revolution blades; John Wilson - Pattern 99 Rev 
Christophe Giacometti: unspecified brand but suggests Risport/Riedell/EDEA - I suggest Risport - Royal Elite; suede; traditional blades; John Wilson - Gold Seal 
Otabek Altin: unspecified brand but suggests Risport/Riedell/EDEA - I suggest EDEA - Concerto; suede; traditional blades; John Wilson - Pattern 99 or MK Blades - Phantom
Phichit Chulanont: EDEA (“EDEO” in-series) - Concerto; suede; traditional blades; Jackson Ultima - Matrix Freestyle (or Matrix Supreme)
Emil Nekola: Unspecified but same close-up picture as Phichit’s looks like EDEA/Riedell/GRAF - I suggest Riedell - Aria; unspecified finish; traditional blades; Jackson Ultima - Matrix Freestyle (or Matrix Supreme) 
Jean-Jaques Leroy:  EDEA - Ice Fly ; non-leather; revolution blades; John Wilson - Pattern 99 Rev
Seung-gil Lee: EDEA - Ice Fly; non-leather; traditional blades; John Wilson - Gold Seal
Leo de la Iglesia: EDEA - Ice Fly; non-leather; traditional blades; John Wilson - Gold Seal
Minami Kenjirou: Risport - RF1 Elite; leather; traditional blade; John Wilson - Gold Seal
Guang-Hong Ji: Risport (“RIZPORT” in-series) - RF1 Elite; leather; traditional blades; indistinct but possibly John Wilson - Gold Seal or MK Blades - Gold Star
Michele Crispino:  Jackson Ultima - Elite; suede; revolution blades; MK Blades - Phantom Rev
Sara Crispino: Jackson Ultima - Supreme; leather; revolution blades; MK Blades - Phantom Rev
Georgi Popovich: unspecified brand (refer to Chris/Otabek/Phichit/Emil for possibilities); leather; revolution blades; John Wilson - Gold Seal Rev
Milla Babicheva: Riedell - 2010 Fusion; leather; traditional blades; indistinct 

Other Skaters (small section at the end) include: Yakov, Yuuko, Nishigori, and the triplets

Diving into Details

For reference, traditional blades look like:

Revolution blades look like:

Specifically, you’ll want to check out the pages for the John Wilson Gold Seal (Yuuri), John Wilson Pattern 99 (Victor), and John Wilson Pattern 99 Rev (Yurio). 

There are plenty of other blade brands, but John Wilson and MK Blades are the leading ones, and the majority of elite-level skaters use them, so I’m going to venture that these two brands became the main models for the characters’ blades. Also, blade designs look incredibly similar to each other without the etched logos, and I doubt the designers would be looking at lesser-known brands unless they intended to make the blade a significant point. For this reason, I decided not to research obscure brands and models to match the character’s blades.

The same applies to the brand of boots I reference. The main brands I reference here are EDEA, GRAF, Risport, Riedell, and Jackson. Those are familiar names to figure skaters/figure skating fans. I looked into GAM, WIFA, S.P. Teri… but the designs didn’t match as well, and looking for lesser-known and more infrequently used brands wouldn’t merit the effort. 

---

Character name:

• brand of boots
  • model
• finish (leather or suede)
• blade type (traditional or revolution)
  • brand - model

Yuuri Katsuki:

(I made a prior post here)

• KOSUGI
• leather
• traditional blades
  • John Wilson - Gold Seal 
  • the toe-pick has the distinct curve instead of the straight edge that the pattern 99 has. The mounting plate that attaches to the sole is solid, whereas the MK Blade equivalent “Gold Star” would have a hole.

Victor Nikiforov: 

• GRAF
  • Edmonton Special Classic 
  • the simple design, four hooks on the side, v-notch, and back design with the cut-out oblong shape (where the GRAF “G” is supposed to go) are the keys here. 
  • Note especially the v-notch (flex notch) which is an easily identifiable design difference between the Edmonton and the Washington (which is rated for extreme stiffness/support).
• leather 
• traditional blades 
  • In the production notes, it seems like parts of the MK blades - Phantom are mixed in. The main mounting plate that attaches to the flat of the foot is drawn with a flat bottom edge, and the plate’s hole has a small indentation that makes it look heart-shaped instead of the oval-shaped John Wilson equivalent. The top two teeth are slightly longer whereas the John Wilson equivalent has the bottom two teeth slightly longer.
  • John Wilson - Pattern 99 These are the blades that Stephane Lambiel uses, which in turn are the blades that Victor’s are modeled after. In the anime itself, the blades seem to be drawn as the John Wilson model with an oval-shaped hole in the main mounting plate, and the heel mounting plate drawn with straight edges instead of with the indentation present in MK Blades’ version. The only inconsistency is the outer outline of the main mounting plate – the Wilson design should be heart-shaped.

 

Yuri Plisetsky:

(prior post here)

 

• Jackson Ultima 
  • Elite, although the Elite has a stiffness of 85 and is rated for doubles. EDEA has a model with a stiffness of 85 and rates it for triples/quads, but I’m not an elite skater who could compare the Jackson and EDEA models and see if the support feels the same. So, we’ll assume the appearance is from the Elite while the stiffness&support is more like the Supreme.
• Suede (although drawn in the anime as leather)
• Revolution blades
  • MK blades - Phantom Rev or John Wilson - Pattern 99 Rev 
  • The straight line of the toe-pick makes this a Phantom/Pattern 99 instead of a Gold Star/Seal with the curve. While the production drafts have a solid plate on the bottom of the boot (like Yuuri’s Gold Seal and the Gold Seal Rev), this was corrected in the anime to follow the Phantom/Pattern 99’s design. 
  • Arguing for Phantom Rev: the teeth between the top-most and bottom-most ones are about equal in size whereas the Wilson equivalent would have a larger tooth second from the bottom. 
  • Arguing for Pattern 99 Rev, there’s something fitting about Yurio using the new generation of Victor’s blades. This model is pretty famous. The distinct shape would immediately be recognized by Japanese viewers as “Yuzuru Hanyu’s blades.” I have no doubt the creators were aware of this. The blades are so iconic that I doubt the creators would be using the MK model instead.

Christophe Giacometti:

• unspecified brand 
  • details were added to the back of the boot in the anime. I would like to offer the Risport Royal Elite for consideration. The back has the V shaped detail, the heel is a simple design as opposed to the Royal Exclusive, and it’s marked for triple/quads with stiffness of 90.
  • If we strictly go with the production notes and rule out the Risport Royal Elite because of its design details, then perhaps he has the RF1 Elite, EDEA Concerto, or Riedell Aria (check Minami, Otabek and Emil below, respectively). I doubt it’s a Jackson, because that brand has distinct back designs which are animated with other characters. 
• the production notes say “no highlight” so I assume the finish is supposed to be suede or a dull leather. Despite this, some shots are very glossy….
• traditional blade 
  • John Wilson - Gold Seal

Otabek Altin:

• unspecified brand but the plate on the heel suggests Risport/Riedell/EDEA.
  • I would say it’s the EDEA Concerto due to the clean seam in the back, the simple side design, and lack of highlights.
• suede
• traditional blade
  • John Wilson - Pattern 99 or MK Blades - Phantom

Phichit Chulanont: 

• EDEA skates ( “EDEO” in-series) 
  • EDEA - Concerto.
  • although the close-up boot&blade sketch is the same as Emil’s and has a different side-design (more on that in Emil’s section below). 
• suede 
• Traditional blade; 
  • Jackson Ultima - Matrix Freestyle (or Matrix Supreme?)
  • The little edge detail makes the drawings look closer to the Riedell ECLIPSE blades - Quantum. However, the mounting plate of the blade has the lobes of Matrix and not the triangular hole of Quantum. Also, the gold color of Phichit’s blades in his Phichit on Ice daydream point to the various colors that Matrix offers. 
  • The straight line of the toe pick looks like the Matrix Freestyle rather than the Matrix Supreme, but almost every Men’s figure skater who uses Jackson Ultima blades uses the Matrix Supreme - including Michael Christian Martinez, Jason Brown, and Evgeni Plushenko - so it may well be that Phichit’s blades are intended to be the Matrix Supreme. 
  • They probably used the Matrix Nova for design reference, too, since there are easily accessible full pictures for this model.

Emil Nekola: 

essentially the same close-up picture as Phichit’s boots, so:

• Unspecified but looks like EDEA in the back (clean, simple seam) and GRAF or Riedell on the side (the notched “V” and four hooks). 
• leather
  • Riedell Aria 
  • if it was suede, I might ignore the notched V (flex notch) and suggest EDEA Concerto because of the simple design and clean back seam, but the Aria is similarly simple in design and has the flex notch. The reason I’m not going with GRAF is because the backs of their boots have slightly more complex looks than Riedell’s.
• traditional blade 
  • Riedell ECLIPSE blades - Quantum or Jackson Ultima - Matrix Freestyle (or Matrix Supreme)
  • I wouldn’t say it’s the Riedell Eclipse, because those are rated for singles/doubles, but I’m including the picture here because the sketch looks spot-on. 
  • The same reasoning as Phichit’s blades would apply for determining between Matrix Freestyle and Supreme.

Jean-Jacques Leroy:  

• EDEA
  • Ice Fly 
  • the designs on the side are a giveaway. They’re a popular model, so it’s not hard to recognize them.
• technically the Ice Fly is a non-leather, new tech material - no highlights for J.J.’s boots
• revolution blades
  • John Wilson Pattern 99 Rev

Seung-gil Lee: 

• EDEA
  • Ice Fly
• technically non-leather, but this time with glossy highlights
• traditional blades
  • John Wilson - Gold Seal

Leo de la Iglesia: 

• EDEA 
  • Ice Fly
• technically non-leather, but looks like Leo has glossy highlights for the finish on his boots
• traditional blades
  • John Wilson - Gold Seal

Minami Kenjirou:

•  Risport (classic “R” logo on the heel)
  • RF1 Elite (high quality pic here).
  • the design is fairly simple in the side and the heel, production notes mention the “R” is gold, and the back of the boot seems to have a single line running on one side   
• leather (unspecified, but looks like highlights are drawn)
• traditional blades
  • John Wilson - Gold Seal

Guang-Hong Ji: 

• Risport (“RIZPORT” in-series). Instead of the classic Risport “R,” the plate on the heel has the full brand name. 
  • RF1 Elite - due to its simplicity and rating for triples/quads
• leather (same as Minami above)
• traditional blades
  • It looks like Gold Seal/Gold Star in the drafts but lack of decent closeups makes this hard to definitively identify as a gold seal/star or a pattern 99/phantom type of blade. 

Michele Crispino:

• Jackson Ultima (there’s a plate on the back of the heel)
  • As with Yurio, the design is likely also based on the Elite. What we can see of the back design shows a tapering going from bottom-to-top similar to the Elite, as opposed to the rather straight design of the Supreme.
• suede
• revolution blades
  • MK Blades Phantom Rev (check Sara below)

Sara Crispino:

• no boot/blade image in the production book, but in-series pictures reveal them as Jackson Ultima - Supreme due to the placement of the brand plate, the design of the back of the boot, and the white hooks.
  • Despite being rated the same 85 stiffness like the Men’s Elite, these are apparently capable of supporting Triples/Quads.
• leather
• revolution blades
  • MK Blades - Phantom Rev
  • The coloring of the hardware doesn’t have much to do with my decision as I’ve seen pictures of John Wilson being both dark and light. The reason I went with MK Blades was because of Carolina Kostner, although she uses the Gold Star Rev model. Due to the straight line of the toe pick, Sara is using the Phantom Rev.

Georgi Popovich:

• unspecified brand - no brand plates were drawn, so I can’t narrow down brands like I did with Chris or Otabek. All we know is that it’s a simple design. Refer to Victor, Chris, Otabek/Phichit, or Emil.
• leather (because of the highlights drawn)
• Revolution blades
  • John Wilson Gold Seal Rev - due to the solid mounting plate and not a plate with a center hole.

Milla Babicheva:

• Riedell
  • 2010 Fusion
• leather
• traditional blades
  • might be the same blades as in the product picture (Eclipse Pinnacle Titanium), or it might be one of the two big brands. There are no in-series closeups to reference for the final outcome.

Other skaters:

There aren’t enough close pictures of Yakov’s skates to be able to tell what he wears. All we know is that he has traditional blades. I would guess for his 70+ year-old feet he has instructor boots like the kind Riedell makes, but who knows.  

Yuuko and Nishigori also don’t have closeups or multiple images to try figuring out what they wore as kids (forget about adulthood - we’re given even less images). Just going by the toe pick, the blades look like the entry level John Wilson Majestic or MK Double Star. Yuuko might be experienced enough to be doing all single jumps and moving onto doubles, so she might be on the Coronation Ace. Definitely when she was 13 she would be on an intermediate or competitive blade.
I’d guess for their boots, either Kosugi since that’s the local brand (based in Osaka) and Yuuri uses it, or more likely a more prevalent brand like Risport or EDEA. Then again, who’s to say that Kosugi isn’t popular in-series?

Or perhaps they weren’t popular back when they were kids and Yuuri is currently making them popular.

The triplets skate too, so that makes them skaters to be included here. My best guess is that their mom and dad gave them the brand they have experience with. For those who can’t tell, Loop is the youngest with the ponytail, Lutz is the middle child with the bun, and Axel is the eldest with the pigtails (she’s the eldest, so of course she needs two ponytails and not just one!).

A couple of notes on brands and designs:

Jackson tends to be recommended for wider feet, EDEA and Risport are known for suiting narrower feet. I don’t think GRAF or Riedell have a reputation either way.
All brands have narrow, medium, and wide options with different brands offering various extra degrees of narrow/wide. People have all sorts of feet shapes – it’s possible to have a boot with wide sole and narrow heel (or vice versa), and it’s possible to order different sizes for each foot (Denis Ten has to do this).
Some brands advertise heat molding technology so the boot fits the skater’s foot perfectly. 
Of course, elite-level boots come with a large price tag. $700-900 depending on brand and model.

Revolution type blades are being favored by jumpers while traditional type blades tend to be used by skaters who lean on the artistic side. There are plenty of exceptions, but that’s kind of the image. “Rev = jumper”
Rev blades used to be exclusive to higher level elements - they were made for top-level skaters who do doubles/triples and triples/quads. Probably because Rev blades are new technology and super expensive, they aren’t made for recreational level skating, and it’s only recently that a single/double jumps-level version has been made available. I guess this is partially why having a Rev blade gives the image of a high-level jumper.
Blades are also expensive - the Wilson and MK blades referenced here run about $650-900 on some sites. Jackson Ultima Matrix, Risport Eclipse, and Paramount blades are also around that price range - Matrix and Paramount are slightly more affordable with the $500+ range.

Colored Blades – We all know about Victor, but I want to point out Yurio who uses blades that are quite a bit darker than what normal Rev blades look like. They are very consistently dark grey/black, so I don’t think you can blame this on the lighting. 

Earlier, I pointed out the John Wilson instagram picture of the black blades, and we know Stephane Lambiel has his Pattern 99 blades custom colored to gold, but there are so many more options.

Paramount Skates are known for their nearly limitless options for colored blades. Their 5 stock colors include icy pink, icy blue, icy purple, polished, and jet black, but you can order any combination of color – even tri-colored blades. Jackson Ultima’s blade line doesn’t offer the impressive range of Paramount, but they do offer stock colors in gold, black, pink, and lilac. 
It’s worth noting that colored blades aren’t some magical gift given to champions or highly accomplished skaters.

 

Final comments

It was taking me so long to clean the pictures of the setting/production book pages that I was losing steam and knew this post would never be released if I waited until I was done with those. So for now, this post has the clearest phone photos I could take, and I’ll be replacing them with cleaned versions as I finish each one.

I’m just really relieved that this is essentially done (done? done???!!) after working on it over a span of 6 or so weeks. Working during Anime Fest in Dallas, during Labor Day weekend – I even dreamed about allocating the correct boots and blades to the respective character!

You could probably write meta about the boot and blade types that the skaters have……..
 

I’ll just see myself out..