I don't know why. All I know is she has another student who has custom Klingbeils too. It will cost a lot more to get a pair of custom Klingbeils I suppose? I'm paying about $450 for the Jacksons (w/ tax), and keeping my old blades, which she says are still good, to save money.

When we ordered our custom Klings, we were given lots of horror stories about how heavy they were, how stiff they were, etc etc etc. So, I asked about that, being one of those parents who always checks facts on things and asks annoying questions , and apparently there have been some changes to Klings in the past few years in terms of lightness.

They're actually lighter than my other kid's Riedells, although the Klings are a larger size (we're weird, we weighed the boots for comparison, both have the same blade, and we weighed without blades anyways). Also, our coach's skaters use these boots almost exclusively, so, Klingbeil's fitter knows how to build them for the skaters - and it's an underbooting strength. Most fitters would probably have put my kid in an S2 or up. The custom ones are just a bit stiffer than an S1, and I have the "notch" put in them. They were broken in within a week (aggressive sit spinning ) and we laced them up in a particular sequence of hooks as they broke in. The goalposts prevented the tongue from twisting OR sliding, which is great.

yes, they're custom; they solved all of the foot issues (there are scars on my kid's feet from one pair of skates that rubbed on a nasty bony protuberance, plus there was chronic Achilles inflammation); yes we've got the fancy tongue that prevents lace bit and slippage; yes we've got the notch, the roll collar and the heel lock.

So, that's my two cents worth. I love my kid's boots and what they do for the skating, but, damn I pay for them, a fair bundle of cash; fortunately, I was able to get the growth insoles put in, which buys me longer in the boots than otherwise, again, a custom feature, one only a parent could love ...

My off-topic rant.

One fun thing we found with the custom Klings was that they couldn't really predict the size of the blade until the boots were made ... because they are not made at a stock size but instead the size of the foot and on a custom last. Thus, the blade that we had "hoped" would be able to transfer on to the new Klings turned out to be just a fraction too small for usage, so we had to buy new blades.

Definitely blade price is a huge consideration. Those things aren't cheap!

There are a lot of coaches out there who only know about the kind of boots/blades they themselves use. My daughter's first coach was like that and she simply told me to get her a high end recreational skate or a low end professional one for her first skates. After a few years in Riedells which fit, but were not right for her feet, she developed huge bumps on her heels and we switched to custom Klingbeils. The bumps gradually resorbed. There is no one boot that is right for everyone, but it is worth paying for the boot that is right for you!

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bricks as in stiff. I personally wouldn't have suggested so much boot. You get enough ankle support with a lower model that will actually break in not break down (which is probably what will happen). I wish you well with them. I loved my Jacksons with the wide toe box..did you try Gam's??? Jackson actually took over Gam's and thye have a wide toe box. Thats the boot I just got.