I'll give this a stab.
Original Fatty Pro/Fatty/Backyard era:
K2 Toe- when wearing K2 skates and hitting the toe cap really hard would usually bend the nail of your big toe and it would cut into the skin. Very painful and hard to skate for a few weeks until it healed.
The K2 backslide plate was made of a rubber/plastic compound that made the skates famous for awesome backslides. Since not many people were doing torques of farvs, no one really knew how deadly these backslide plates were at the time. Backslides and royales = awesome. Farvs/torques = sticking and dying.
The souls were narrow (but lasted for a long time) and if you had grind plates on, negatives were very scary unless you were a little topside on them.
The cuff rivets would sometimes sheer off over time, especially if you did a lot of gaps. I used a bunch of zip ties to rig it back together when it happened to me. The rivets were not replaceable.
The buckles on the Fatty Pros were better than on the Backyards and Fatties, as the latter would sometimes get bent and stay open if you hit the buckle receptor on an obstacle.
The H-block was replaceable, and the grind plates helped it keep its shape a little longer.
The frames were, believe it or not, pretty durable. My Backyards last almost 2 years, and all I skated were ledges and rails. The 6mm axles were junk, I'd break them all the time. So glad everyone moved onto 8mm.
I progressed a lot with the Backyards. They skated very well.
The King 55/Style Point Bob era:
The backslide plates were pretty much the same as the previous era. Maybe a little less rubbery, but not much.
The toe cap was removable, which a lot of people did despite the infamous "K2 Toe".
This was the first Teflon injection method they used for the souls. The slid a lot faster than previous eras.
The buckles were very sturdy and solid. After sliding out a lot, over time the metal edges would become very sharp. Unless you maintained that aspect, unexpected cuts would appear all over your hands or whatever else brushed up against the buckles.
Cuff rivets were replaced with replaceable cotter pin attachments that would rattle loose and the pin would fall out all the time. I spent a lot of time looking for those stupid pins!
The Style Points were the lower end skates, but I preferred them to the King 55s. They were super stable and supportive.
The King 55s had the first ever internal cuff. Despite some people liking this, I thought that the cuffs warped way too fast for being such expensive skates. I really disliked the functionality of the King 55s, even though they were gorgeous skates.
The Bing Air and Backyard Bob era:
Pretty much just aesthetically updated the Backyards with new colors and names. Very little changes other than making the souls a bit more level and not as curvaceous as the original Backyards.
Cotter pins for cuff attachment.
Thicker H-Blocks, still replaceable.
I never skated these, was still riding my Style Points.
The 250cc/125cc/Mini 80 era:
The backslide plate was updated to a newer and not so rubbery compound that allowed for slightly better torques/farvs. This time, the backslide plate and toe cap were all one piece.
Cotter pins for the cuffs, again.
I am pretty sure the Mini 80s were the first aggressive skates for kids that were adjustable.
The instep strap kept your foot snugly in place, but still allowed for comfortable forward flexibility.
Teflon injected frames slid very fast but they didn't seem to last as long as the King 55/Style Points.
These skates were the first K2s where everything was supposed to be replaceable, even the souls. It even looks like they were toying around with the thought of UFS, but that would wait for a while longer.
I'm on my second set of yellow and black 250ccs. The first set skated very well, the second set I have converted to UFS.
The Natural/Enemy/Mini Enemy era:
The Naturals were basically the same as the 250ccs, just aesthetically different and with no in-step strap.
They moved away from the cotter pin bullshit and went to regular cuff bolts that were replaceable.
The Enemy skates...god awful. I shall not speak of them here.
I never skated any of these skates, I held out until the Nemesis style boots came out.
The Nemesis/Schrijn/Transfer/Lennen/Weis/Yasutoko era:
Everything is replaceable. First UFS K2 skates. That option was pretty late in the UFS game, but it allowed some people who wouldn't skate non-UFS skates a chance to pick up some of these bad mamma-jammas.
New frames with laminated graphics, a first in the industry. Also the last, as the graphics sucked.
Completely new cuff and buckle system, borrowed designs from their snowboard boots. Tons of support. These skates were bulky as hell, but ankle injuries were the last thing on your mind when skating these.
The most comfortable skates ever made, some would argue. They were like pillows on your feet.
Aircraft carrier-wide soul plates, with negatives bigger than the souls on some skates. Great for cess slides, farvs and torques.
Replaceable souls meant that the skates could last a very long time if maintained properly.
These were all-around skates that you could use for vert, street and park.
The 2008 Fatty Pro/Fatty era:
Back to old school with very few replaceable parts. It seems like K2 stopped trying to compete at this point. Lots of downgrades: some came with non-replaceable cuff rivets, none came with sturdy buckles that stay closed 90% of the time. Hit the receptors once or twice, and they'll stay open all the time. Keep some needle nosed pliers around to fix the buckles at just about every session.
The Fatty Pro has a useless instep strap that is no where near wide enough to offer any real support. This causes heel lift. Not cool.
The toe cap is not easily removable, and can actually render the skates useless if you try to pry it off. The boot will quickly separate from the souls.
Using 2 foot pads is the best bet. I bruised my heels when I switched the frames. Weird.
These skates are cheap for a reason. The stock frames are super durable, but really hard to get a groove in without the aid of a disc grinder. They still use 6mm hardware, which is retarded for this day and age.
Overall, the skates were disappointing. Good for beginner, bad of people who have been skating for a long time and appreciate quality products.
The Varsity era:
for a detailed review with tons of photos of the skates disassembled, go to issue #6 of Balance rolling magazine:
www.balancerollingmag.com
Originally Posted by Mahmoud Jalloh
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