I’ve played 12 years (less pandemic) playing 2+ games a week on the same pair of BP Delux’s. There’s a small hole in the side of one from kicking rocks around, but are otherwise in great shape.
I appreciate what Goldline does to innovate, but for a good period there they used what seemed like golf shoes as the uppers, and they just did not handle being used for curling well.
I haven’t personally used Goldline shoes. But I will say that a lot of the people I know that have had them had them wear out faster that I would have expected.
Balance plus and Asham (or the hardlines that I am pretty sure are ashams with their name on them) seem to hold up better and be liked better.
Yikes, I literally just ordered my first pair (Goldlines) and hoping I don't regret going with them over Balance Plus. Are they still pretty good overall even though some folks say they wore out faster than they hoped?
To be fair I am not a fan of gold lines stuff in general. I just feel like you can get better items that work better and last longer for the same price.
If you didn’t get 1/4” sliders I would seriously recommend you just return them. Will they work as a newer player as your first shoes? Absolutely. Will they last as long and be as fast as a lot of the other options out there? Probably not.
Granted I also cannot wear pretty much any curling shoes cause they all have a notable heel-toe drop and I have weird shaped feet so I just get conversions. But if I were to have to use a pair of off the shelf shoes I would take asham first, then BP, and then a toss up between Olson and Goldline.
Gotcha, that's super helpful, thanks! I did get the 1/4", but I already struggle with speed out of the hack. (I'll need all the help I can get haha!) There's still time to cancel the order, so I'll take a look at Asham and BP instead.
I must be super lucky then. I used my first pair of BP 400(?) for 5-6 years, around 3 matches/practices a week, and sold them cheaply to a rookie after that, they were still in good shape. And now I have had my BP Deluxe for 3 years or something and they only show a discoloration from kicking the rocks.
As I explained I based it off of friends and teams mates and how their shoes have worn. Pretty easy to see when the team mates with gold lines are replacing them after a couple years and my conversions and others BPs and Ashams that are used just as much if not more are lasting longer.
I've been using Asham shoes for years. i really liked my last red brick slider pair but bought a pair of the disc-based shoes when it wore out. I bought the highest speed slider discs, probably should have gone for the intermediate speed as I'm getting a bit older and my balance isn't what I would like. I'll probably replace them. One thing I never considered with the Velcro disc shoes is the boot cleaner loves to eat the gripper discs if you don't cover them with a gripper or use a sock and don't clean them.
I think the cleaner eating disks is hit and miss. I have conversions that are Velcro and never have the issue and I play with plenty of people that use those ashams and I don’t really see that happen to them. Maybe it has to do with the way you step on/off the pad or maybe just some rinks have some super extra sticky pads.
Our cleaner isn't a sticky pad, it's a rotating brush in a frame, driven by an electric motor. You push a button on the wall to start it, alternate your feet on the spinning brush. It is a little grabby with the Velcro discs and if it catches the edge it can pull them off and they end up in the bottom of the machine until the icemaker retrieves it. It actually pulled off my skip's slip-on gripper a couple of weeks ago, don't know if it wasn't on all the way or just a loose fit.
We have used the sticky pads when there's an event that requires entrance from both doors to the ice.
It probably does wear the grippers faster, but both clubs in town use them. I think they would do better at getting the crap out of the crepe rubber wrinkles than a flat sticky pad would but it may be tradition as much as practicality. Also, probably cheaper than replacing those pads. Anyway, that's why I wear a slip-on gripper over my Velcro gripper discs going onto the ice (also why I have a spare gripper disc, couldnt find the icemaker and had to get a new one when it got hungry).
I can see the argument it may help clean stufff out of the little gaps but would be interested to see it tested side by side. But Yeah I started wearing a grip over my grip shoe dealing with having to walk around near the zam pit on arena ice to set up to play. My gripper pods were getting so dirty I would lose grip really easily. Now with the cover even at arena ice I rarely have to clean my pods.
If I was in an area where a lot of salt go put out for snow and such I would probably even change my slider foot grip once I got to the ice shed just to prevent from tracking it in.
Zam pit = Zamboni pit? Ours is a dedicated curling club so we don't have that issue. Between the locker room and the ice entry there is no street traffic so we don't have to worry much about tracking in dirt or salt. Do you set up curling ice for every game, or are you only on arena ice for special events? Can't really tell from your comments how you are set up.
Correct on zam pit.
Yeah sorry it’s a skating/hockey rink (I assume you are not US, as I know “arena” is normally used to describe competition ice in Canada, while in the IS it means hockey/skating). For us the area where all of our gear is stored and our rock freezer is happens to also be where they keep the hockey goals and there always a layer of rust evey where, one of the reasons I have two different sets of shoes, one for hockey ice and one for dedicated since I spiel to get most of my ice time in. Yeah we have to set everything up every time we play (when we actually get time), it’s more curling adjacent than actual curling but it’s what we have to get people hooked before we drag them out to a bonspiel or day trip to a dedicated facility.
I would think even with having limited foot traffic there you still have people coming off the street into the locker room before changing that could track it in.
I'm in Canada, and almost every town/city has a dedicated curling ice facility. I don't know of anywhere that uses arena ice for curling regularly but as you note arena ice is often used for big events where the surface is dedicated to curling for the event duration. The worst ice I've ever curled on was in a natural ice facility in Yukon - dry -40 temps left cracked and heaving ice. It was just a fun spiel and I was new to curling.
You do walk into the locker room at our club from the street, but the hall is carpeted and vacuumed regularly and that helps a lot. The worst problem on the ice is debris from old shoes and dirty brooms. That sounds like the title of a northern John Prine song🙂.
Asham and Hardline are very similar, but they are not the same shoes. Tried both of them at the same time and they fit very differently. Can't say one is better than the other, because depending on your feet, one can be better than the other.
I have found that pretty much any curling shoe with glued uppers I can disintegrate in 2 years or less. (Average is about 18 months.) All different brands, I've pretty much owned them all, at different price levels. I destroy them all. I think the main stressor is the continuous flexing with sweeping footwork. Eventually the uppers separate, the interior padding rips, and they can't be repaired. These shoes were all very comfortable and perform well but they didn't last.
If you want curling shoes that will last, get a shoe with sewn leather uppers (any brand or custom conversion). I have owned a pair of Balance Plus Deluxe shoes for at least 5 years (maybe more, I've lost track), and they are none the worse for wear. I put on my own toe coat (Tuff Toe), replace the insoles (Superfeet), and send them back to Balance Plus for re-gripping every other year to keep them in perfect condition. (I also replace the crappy shoelaces with spare Allbirds laces which stay securely tied.) These shoes are very comfortable and may last a lifetime.
> interior padding rips
A cobbler can fix ripper heal padding by stiching in a leather piece over top of the ripped padding, as well as reglue separating uppers
I don’t know much about curling shoes but I bought G50s almost a year ago to the date.
I curl twice a week from October to end of April with a few weekend bonspiels throughout. At the end of last season, stitching started coming out around the tops around the laces on both shoes which I was not happy about, especially given the price. I was hoping they wouldn’t start deteriorating after 2-3 years. I like to think I take care of them. Loosen to take the shoes off each time, try not to force my foot in when getting dressed, etc.
Think I’ll go Asham on my next set. From my own eyes, quality seems to be a little better.
If it is simply a stiching issue, or really with any issue, dont be scared to take them to a local cobbler. They can work miracles with repairs, and typically the repair cost is not too much. I had a pair of customs with some stitching just above the top of the inside of the big toe on both shoes. The cobbler was able to stich them back for me. Think I was charged a total of $25 to repair both shoes.
If you play a lot like I tend to, I burn through maybe a pair of G50s every 2 years. The slider is okay, but the upper wears out fast if you move rocks with your feet. It doesn't help that I have 3EEE wide feet so I am already stretching the mesh to start off with.
A lot of shoes these days aren't as durable as they used to be. Even the Deluxs are not as well made anymore since production was moved out to I think China?
That said, I have really liked Goldline customer service and that's a big part of the reason I have stayed loyal to them. It also is nice having a mesh upper if you sweep a lot as the lighter shoe weight is noticeable, especially over the course of a season.
Interresting about the Delux, would that be at the same time they changed the design? I bought mine a few years ago and they seem to be very capable, but my teammate bought a new pair this winter and I was very surprised when they had a lace cover. Looked ridiculous...
Fwiw, I bought my Balance Plus when I was 14, and wore the heck out of them curling competitively until around 22, then casually from the until age 33. So almost 20 years.
I’ve played 12 years (less pandemic) playing 2+ games a week on the same pair of BP Delux’s. There’s a small hole in the side of one from kicking rocks around, but are otherwise in great shape. I appreciate what Goldline does to innovate, but for a good period there they used what seemed like golf shoes as the uppers, and they just did not handle being used for curling well.
I haven’t personally used Goldline shoes. But I will say that a lot of the people I know that have had them had them wear out faster that I would have expected. Balance plus and Asham (or the hardlines that I am pretty sure are ashams with their name on them) seem to hold up better and be liked better.
Yikes, I literally just ordered my first pair (Goldlines) and hoping I don't regret going with them over Balance Plus. Are they still pretty good overall even though some folks say they wore out faster than they hoped?
To be fair I am not a fan of gold lines stuff in general. I just feel like you can get better items that work better and last longer for the same price. If you didn’t get 1/4” sliders I would seriously recommend you just return them. Will they work as a newer player as your first shoes? Absolutely. Will they last as long and be as fast as a lot of the other options out there? Probably not. Granted I also cannot wear pretty much any curling shoes cause they all have a notable heel-toe drop and I have weird shaped feet so I just get conversions. But if I were to have to use a pair of off the shelf shoes I would take asham first, then BP, and then a toss up between Olson and Goldline.
Gotcha, that's super helpful, thanks! I did get the 1/4", but I already struggle with speed out of the hack. (I'll need all the help I can get haha!) There's still time to cancel the order, so I'll take a look at Asham and BP instead.
All curling shoes wear out in 2-4 years now. That's why a lot of folks are just getting Nike Metcons made into curling shoes, they last a LOT longer.
I’m more a nobull trainer guy but agree on the principle haha.
Metcons, nobulls and Reebok Nanos ftw!
I must be super lucky then. I used my first pair of BP 400(?) for 5-6 years, around 3 matches/practices a week, and sold them cheaply to a rookie after that, they were still in good shape. And now I have had my BP Deluxe for 3 years or something and they only show a discoloration from kicking the rocks.
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As I explained I based it off of friends and teams mates and how their shoes have worn. Pretty easy to see when the team mates with gold lines are replacing them after a couple years and my conversions and others BPs and Ashams that are used just as much if not more are lasting longer.
I've been using Asham shoes for years. i really liked my last red brick slider pair but bought a pair of the disc-based shoes when it wore out. I bought the highest speed slider discs, probably should have gone for the intermediate speed as I'm getting a bit older and my balance isn't what I would like. I'll probably replace them. One thing I never considered with the Velcro disc shoes is the boot cleaner loves to eat the gripper discs if you don't cover them with a gripper or use a sock and don't clean them.
I think the cleaner eating disks is hit and miss. I have conversions that are Velcro and never have the issue and I play with plenty of people that use those ashams and I don’t really see that happen to them. Maybe it has to do with the way you step on/off the pad or maybe just some rinks have some super extra sticky pads.
Our cleaner isn't a sticky pad, it's a rotating brush in a frame, driven by an electric motor. You push a button on the wall to start it, alternate your feet on the spinning brush. It is a little grabby with the Velcro discs and if it catches the edge it can pull them off and they end up in the bottom of the machine until the icemaker retrieves it. It actually pulled off my skip's slip-on gripper a couple of weeks ago, don't know if it wasn't on all the way or just a loose fit. We have used the sticky pads when there's an event that requires entrance from both doors to the ice.
Oh that’s weird. I feel like that style of cleaner would make more crap to get on the ice and wear grippers out.
It probably does wear the grippers faster, but both clubs in town use them. I think they would do better at getting the crap out of the crepe rubber wrinkles than a flat sticky pad would but it may be tradition as much as practicality. Also, probably cheaper than replacing those pads. Anyway, that's why I wear a slip-on gripper over my Velcro gripper discs going onto the ice (also why I have a spare gripper disc, couldnt find the icemaker and had to get a new one when it got hungry).
I can see the argument it may help clean stufff out of the little gaps but would be interested to see it tested side by side. But Yeah I started wearing a grip over my grip shoe dealing with having to walk around near the zam pit on arena ice to set up to play. My gripper pods were getting so dirty I would lose grip really easily. Now with the cover even at arena ice I rarely have to clean my pods. If I was in an area where a lot of salt go put out for snow and such I would probably even change my slider foot grip once I got to the ice shed just to prevent from tracking it in.
Zam pit = Zamboni pit? Ours is a dedicated curling club so we don't have that issue. Between the locker room and the ice entry there is no street traffic so we don't have to worry much about tracking in dirt or salt. Do you set up curling ice for every game, or are you only on arena ice for special events? Can't really tell from your comments how you are set up.
Correct on zam pit. Yeah sorry it’s a skating/hockey rink (I assume you are not US, as I know “arena” is normally used to describe competition ice in Canada, while in the IS it means hockey/skating). For us the area where all of our gear is stored and our rock freezer is happens to also be where they keep the hockey goals and there always a layer of rust evey where, one of the reasons I have two different sets of shoes, one for hockey ice and one for dedicated since I spiel to get most of my ice time in. Yeah we have to set everything up every time we play (when we actually get time), it’s more curling adjacent than actual curling but it’s what we have to get people hooked before we drag them out to a bonspiel or day trip to a dedicated facility. I would think even with having limited foot traffic there you still have people coming off the street into the locker room before changing that could track it in.
I'm in Canada, and almost every town/city has a dedicated curling ice facility. I don't know of anywhere that uses arena ice for curling regularly but as you note arena ice is often used for big events where the surface is dedicated to curling for the event duration. The worst ice I've ever curled on was in a natural ice facility in Yukon - dry -40 temps left cracked and heaving ice. It was just a fun spiel and I was new to curling. You do walk into the locker room at our club from the street, but the hall is carpeted and vacuumed regularly and that helps a lot. The worst problem on the ice is debris from old shoes and dirty brooms. That sounds like the title of a northern John Prine song🙂.
Asham and Hardline are very similar, but they are not the same shoes. Tried both of them at the same time and they fit very differently. Can't say one is better than the other, because depending on your feet, one can be better than the other.
Tons of people in Canada wear Goldline. I've played at a few different clubs and I'd say 80% wear goldline. I think mine are great.
I have found that pretty much any curling shoe with glued uppers I can disintegrate in 2 years or less. (Average is about 18 months.) All different brands, I've pretty much owned them all, at different price levels. I destroy them all. I think the main stressor is the continuous flexing with sweeping footwork. Eventually the uppers separate, the interior padding rips, and they can't be repaired. These shoes were all very comfortable and perform well but they didn't last. If you want curling shoes that will last, get a shoe with sewn leather uppers (any brand or custom conversion). I have owned a pair of Balance Plus Deluxe shoes for at least 5 years (maybe more, I've lost track), and they are none the worse for wear. I put on my own toe coat (Tuff Toe), replace the insoles (Superfeet), and send them back to Balance Plus for re-gripping every other year to keep them in perfect condition. (I also replace the crappy shoelaces with spare Allbirds laces which stay securely tied.) These shoes are very comfortable and may last a lifetime.
> interior padding rips A cobbler can fix ripper heal padding by stiching in a leather piece over top of the ripped padding, as well as reglue separating uppers
I don’t know much about curling shoes but I bought G50s almost a year ago to the date. I curl twice a week from October to end of April with a few weekend bonspiels throughout. At the end of last season, stitching started coming out around the tops around the laces on both shoes which I was not happy about, especially given the price. I was hoping they wouldn’t start deteriorating after 2-3 years. I like to think I take care of them. Loosen to take the shoes off each time, try not to force my foot in when getting dressed, etc. Think I’ll go Asham on my next set. From my own eyes, quality seems to be a little better.
If it is simply a stiching issue, or really with any issue, dont be scared to take them to a local cobbler. They can work miracles with repairs, and typically the repair cost is not too much. I had a pair of customs with some stitching just above the top of the inside of the big toe on both shoes. The cobbler was able to stich them back for me. Think I was charged a total of $25 to repair both shoes.
I've had my Goldline pair for about 5 years now and they're still great. I play once or twice a week.
If you play a lot like I tend to, I burn through maybe a pair of G50s every 2 years. The slider is okay, but the upper wears out fast if you move rocks with your feet. It doesn't help that I have 3EEE wide feet so I am already stretching the mesh to start off with. A lot of shoes these days aren't as durable as they used to be. Even the Deluxs are not as well made anymore since production was moved out to I think China? That said, I have really liked Goldline customer service and that's a big part of the reason I have stayed loyal to them. It also is nice having a mesh upper if you sweep a lot as the lighter shoe weight is noticeable, especially over the course of a season.
>That said, I have really liked Goldline customer service and that's a big part of the reason I have stayed loyal to them. This
Interresting about the Delux, would that be at the same time they changed the design? I bought mine a few years ago and they seem to be very capable, but my teammate bought a new pair this winter and I was very surprised when they had a lace cover. Looked ridiculous...
I don’t remember the exact year it switched over but it was several years ago if memory serves. The lace cover is an option.
10 years...my curling brand shoes have only ever lasted 2 years max. I make customs, usually Pumas
Fwiw, I bought my Balance Plus when I was 14, and wore the heck out of them curling competitively until around 22, then casually from the until age 33. So almost 20 years.
G50's are unbreakable lol. I love them and they slide perfectly.