So I'm thinking about getting those Thems...
Those What?
Them Skates.
What Skates?
No, Them Skates...
What?
I'm just going to buy Them...
STOP!!
Gasp! oh not this again.
Here's some things you should know before you buy those Thems.
The laces are going to be
the first thing to break on the skate Mine started fraying on the first session
and it's extra bad on the skate because of the design.
The laces actually do something.
When you tighten your laces, it holds your foot in,
not quite as much as it does in the 908, but still enough
that the laces probably need to be extra strong compared to the average boot.
And it's extra weird because I know that Them makes a really good strong wax lace.
I don't know why they don't offer a boot
with it on it, but lucky for me, I have my own lace brand
with a bunch of options and literally the perfect color match for the skate.
So the second I'm done with this video, you know, I'm putting these on.
and ah, you can find those at a skateshop near you.
So this stock liner is unlike any other liner I've seen before.
It's like rough to touch and weirdly light, it makes me think of cardboard.
I don't know why that is. I doesn't seem like a cheap liner.
It's like quite durable and well-built.
There's no, like, weird fraying bits.
And I've been skating these a lot and I mean, it does the job it fit's good.
It did give me a blister on the inside of my foot,
which I haven't had happen in quite a while,
even though I'm skating a lot of fresh skates.
But I mean, I'm still skating them and they feel fine.
I have no issues.
They broke in good.
Plus they have everything
you'd want in the liner too, they have a nice grippy bottom.
They don't move around too much.
They have a neoprene toe, so it'll adjust to your foot,
but it does have the stupid loop skate carry a thing.
So I make sure you have a carabiner if you want to carry your skates around.
And it's probably worth upgrading to the Intuition Them.
But I have never skated that liner and so I don't blame me when you hate it.
Liner and the laces
have to be the worst part of the skate, and both of them aren't that bad overall.
Oh my god, these looks so fucking good dude.
Quality was the first thing I thought of when I put these at the box.
There are a bunch of little details that come together to make the skate feel
very premium, like the little Them branding all over the boot, the excellent
buckle protection, which you think would be standard for like big companies.
But somehow it isn't.
It is important to know that on the inside I have been cutting into the cuff
because it's kind of sharp.
But also the Inside Heel has been flattened out now, competing with the 908,
which is a massive improvement, as well as just the hardware overall.
All the bolts are really good quality.
They're not like as good as like an Adapt,
but they are like miles ahead of like an Aeon or something like that.
Not to mention the bridge hardware on the soulplate.
I don't know why no one has copyed this yet,
but it's so smart to have a bolt that doesn't
just spin around when you're trying to unscrew it.
And Jon must have been on a mission to stop that from ever happening again
because the rockerable cuff on the skate also doubles as a really good thread.
It it makes it impossible for it to turn around.
If you're curious, do I have it on the high setting
That's how they came, having touched it, and they feel perfect to me.
It is also important to note, though, that the bolts have been coming loose.
I'm definitely going to put some lock tight on them and you should as well.
All of those things are much better than the standard you get on the average aggressive skate.
Something that definitely is more confusing
than the average aggressive skate, though, was the sizing for these.
So these come in extra small, small, medium or large,
and it gets even more confusing once you get the intuition liner involved.
And I'm usually a US 10.5 for shoes and skates
and I have a round-a-bout a 28(.5) centimeter foot
and I got the medium and somehow it was a perfect fit.
Not too big, not too small, literally just right.
And it shouldn't have been.
If I look at the stats and everything that's writtien down for it.
I should be like,
right on the end of this boot and should not feel good, but I'm very happy.
That does feel good.
I really thought I was going to have to buy Intuition liners.
And as confusing as the sizing is, I want to give props to Them
because their chart is a bit more transparent than other brands
where other brands might just tell you a one off size and give you a shell
that's way too big with a liner that's small in it
Them gives you everything you need to know, which is good to see.
So I skated to the skate park on my first session on these,
and the first thing I noticed was they felt really fast again.
Next thing I noticed is there was quite a lot of shock
when I landed, like tricks off grinds and stuff,
one footprint insole later and that problem is completely solved.
They feel great. I didn't even mess with the fit two.
They still felt like they fit perfect.
Really adding to the whole feel of this skate.
It also really helps that everyone was complimenting me on these skates
the whole day too.
They love the marble effect on the cuff,
which really made me proud to be skating these skates.
I wanted to show them off.
They made an entirely new soulplate for the 909.
That's a little bit wider and a bit more modern than the original soulplate
they had on the 908 and it feels great it skates like a big soul plate
I can actually lock negatives now and I feel confident in all my tricks.
Except for Ally oop souls was for some reason on ally oop souls,
the heel feels very floaty
and it doesn't really lock in, but it's definitely better than it felt on the 908.
Soulplate and ah I didn't hate it. I liked it a lot.
This soul plate is a massive improvement from the original.
Somehow these are great in grinds, but don't make the skate feel big and clunky.
I don't know how they did it,
but it's actually perfect the way these feel to skate.
I would describe as like a modern old school boot.
And what I mean by that is it's fast, small and responsive, like an M12,
but it's still comfortable and grinds well, like the average modern boot
you get today. The flex of the skate is good too.
It feels supportive, but it still easily lets me do groove tricks.
This is the first boot I've been able to do torque souls out of the box ever,
so I definitely approve of it.
And if you need some more ankle support or less ankle support,
you can change the height of the cuffs.
I really don't think you can go wrong. The wheels and bearing on These are good.
They are far above what you normally get on a stock set up
actually, I have a quick update about the wheels recently.
They've gotten really clackly on me.
I have all the bolts as tight as I can go, and every single wheel
now makes a clacky sound when I like put it down like, yeah,
which is very gross.
It makes the skate feel a whole lot worse now.
I think I've just got unlucky
where I was skating in the perfect climate to stretch the cores out.
I've had this happen to like pretty much every wheel I have ever had, we're
I just have an unlucky session that seems to ruin them.
But there's a chance
it is the wheel if you've had a similar situation,
let me know in the comments and check the comments.
And if it's a trend happening, then you know that
you should probably not get this stock if those wheels are bad.
But even if you have no option
of replacing the wheels they're still totally fine like this.
It's just not going to feel as good.
And the stock frame has everything you'd want in a stock frame.
It has the one sided bolts, so you don't need two alan keys.
It's fast.
It's not too heavy, and it's works for flat.
I was getting some squeak when I stayed in the round,
but on rail and quarter these work great for flat and I took it to ledge.
I was definitely getting some wheel bite, especially on acids,
but I have been getting used to it.
And this definitely works as a flat frame.
I just wouldn't call a beginner friendly flat frame.
So I paid full price for these.
They are 350 US dollars, which is definitely on
the upper end of the plastic pro skate price range.
But it's worth noting that Them has some of the industry leading high royalties
for the pro skaters Moopi got 30 US dollars (I think) when I bought the skate.
So I got these straight from Them and it only cost me 18 U.S.
dollars to ship them to New Zealand and they got here in four days.
That's a new record.
I can't believe that is so goddamn fast and such a good value for money.
But overall I think the price is very fair for these skates.
I brought the original Them 908 v1 the day it came out and I ended up hating it.
The quality I didn't think it was up to par.
The flex was absolutely crazy.
The soul plate treated me bad and as much as I love them as a brand,
it really put me off buying any more skates off them.
By comparing this skate to the 909 that I have in my hand now,
they almost don't compare.
This is better than the 908 in absolutely every way possible them really has taken
all the downsides that they had with the 908 and fixed them with the 909.
The name just fits so well because of That.
Them actually did just come out
with a brand new buckle that'll be on all the 909's from here out
and this skate does not have that buckle on it.
But other than that this will be like
every other 9 0 9 you buy from here outwards
and it's worth talking about that buckle though because it is marking
a massive milestone for Them as it's the last piece of the skate
that wasn't designed by them so now the Them 909 is completely 100%
made by them every part of it and it makes it 100% skater designed.
And I think that's why it's such a good product
because who would know how to make a better skate than skaters themselves?
You know, I'm absolutely in love with them myself
and they are going to be my go to aggressive skate, my baseline skate
and of course I'll let you know
if my opinion changes on them and something is really bad about them.
So subscribe if you want to see that
and that's all you really need to know before you buy these Thems.
And if you were thinking about getting them, I would say go for it.
Them has made an excellent
premium product here that I think stands out above the competition,
and not to mention that Them as a brand does so many good things for blading.
I don't think you'll regret getting them. You should definitely go for it.
Most of the clips you saw me skating in this video
were taken from my stream because that's the only footage I got.
And if you wanted to catch one of those streams and me skating should follow me on
Twitch I'd love to have you there.
Suggest me some tricks,
help me become the first rollerblader to be partnered on Twitch.
That would be absolutely amazing and I would love to be there.
But also, if you want a reminder of what it's going to be like
to have that first session
on a brand new pair of skates, you should watch this video here.
I think I nailed the vibe really well.
and other than that,
I hope you have a really good night and you get to go for a skate.
And I really appreciate you for watching. Thank you so much, guys.
You're the best.