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tube skate

DCHP-2 (Jul 2016)

Spelling variants:
tube-skate

n. & adj. — Sports, Hockey, historical

an ice skate with a metal tube between the shoe and the blade (see Image 1).

Type: 1. Origin — The data suggests that the first mention of tube skates in newsprint comes from Canadian sources (see the 1903 quotation and Image 1). Given the cultural importance of hockey (and skating sports more generally) in Canada, this etymology is unsurprising. Tube skate, while hardly a very common term today, remains most prevalent in Canada (see Chart 1).
See also COD-2, s.v. "tube skate", which is marked "Cdn".

Quotations

1903

CELEBRATED FISHER TUBE SKATES

1923

Only a few sprinklers have been possible, with the result that when the teams skated out on to the ice last night they were greeted by a sheet about a fourth of an inch thick and very rubbery. It did not take five minutes for the tube-skate clad gladiators to go through this surface and dig up the saw-dust beneath.

1954

WANTED TO TRADE: a pair of boys tube skates, size 3 just like new for same type in size 5.

1977

The tube skate was designed in the 1920's, and the only design since has been the plastic heel cap.

1997

With more liberal free agency in hockey, the one-team career man is going the way of the maskless netminder and the tube skate.

2007

They're a link to a time when the players wore tube skates and carried wooden sticks, and the ice and boards were clear without a hint of advertising.

References

COD-2

Images

Image 1: Newspaper ad from 1925. Source: http://ecbiz132.inmotionhosting.com/~thebir7/birthplaceofhockey.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/mens-skt-outfit-1925-ad.gif. Original source unknown.