The Best Skate Accessories for Everyday Riding: A Buyer's Guide

Everyday skaters do not wear out their gear on the ice as much as they wear it out after the ice. You finish a session, your blades are soaked with meltwater, and the skates go into a closed bag for the drive home — sometimes for the whole week. That gap between sessions is where blades rust, edges dull, and a season's worth of sharpening budget disappears.

The good news: the fix is small, cheap, and takes about ten seconds per skate. The catch: the accessories aisle does not explain itself. Soakers, hard guards, and blade towels all get shelved together, and buying the wrong one — or the right one in the wrong size — leaves you exactly where you started. This guide breaks the decision down the way a rink regular would explain it: the problem, why it costs you money, the five things worth checking before you buy, and an honest look at the pick we would put in our own bag. Everything product-specific below comes from the RidingRush catalog — real names, real prices, no invented specs.

The Problem

Picture the end of a normal session. Public skate wraps up, the kids pile off the ice, and everyone's blades are dripping. There is no bench-side drying rack and nobody is wiping steel with a towel in a crowded locker room. Skates get buckled, tossed in a bag, and zipped up with everything still damp. Meltwater sits against the blade for hours — in a car trunk, a hallway closet, or a school locker.

Steel plus standing water plus time equals rust. It usually shows up first as an orange haze along the edges, and it spreads from there. The blade's hollow — the curved groove ground into the bottom that gives you grip — is the first thing rust attacks. Once corrosion settles into the edges, the skate stops holding the ice the way it did when it was freshly sharpened.

Meanwhile, the accessory options are easy to get wrong:

• Soakers vs. hard guards. They look interchangeable on a product page and are not. Hard guards are rigid, for walking from the locker room to the bench without dulling blades on rubber and concrete. Soakers are soft, absorbent covers made for storage — the ten seconds after you take the skates off. Leaving hard guards on wet steel traps moisture against the blade, which is worse than nothing.
• Single covers vs. pairs. A one-cover purchase protects one skate. The other blade spends every week exactly as exposed as before.
• One size vs. actual fit. Blades range from small youth runners to adult figure blades. A cover sized wrong either fights its way onto the blade or slides off inside the bag.

Why It Matters

Rust is a money problem before it is a cosmetics problem. Every sharpening that has to grind through corrosion removes more steel than a maintenance pass on clean blades, and blades can only take so many sharpenings before they are due for replacement. For a family with two skaters on the ice every week, the difference between storing blades dry and storing them wet is a real line item over a season — and it shows up as either extra sharpenings or earlier blade replacement.

Fit failures cost differently. A soaker that will not stay on a youth blade gives you protection on the walk to the car and none during the week, which is when the rust actually forms. One that barely stretches over an adult figure blade becomes a wrestling match, and accessories that are annoying to use stop being used — usually the same week you buy them.

Lining quality is the third cost. A cover with a thin, low-absorbency lining soaks through on contact and then holds that moisture against the steel, doing the opposite of its job. According to RidingRush's product listing, the lining on their soakers is bamboo-terry — a fabric chosen specifically because it pulls water off the blade rather than letting it pool. That single detail decides whether the accessory works on the drive home or just makes the problem quieter.

There is also a safety angle that rarely makes the sales page. Uncovered blades are sharp edges loose in a bag that hands reach past every time you unpack. Cushioned covers on both blades mean fewer chances to catch a finger on an edge while fishing out a glove.

What to Look For

Run every candidate through these five checks. They take two minutes and filter out most of the lookalike options.

1. An absorbent lining that actually touches the blade. Skip anything where the description only mentions outer plush. The RidingRush Ice Skate Soakers use a soft bamboo-terry interior that absorbs meltwater after practice and helps reduce rust. If a listing does not say what the lining is made of, that absence is the answer.

2. A fit range that matches your real blades. Measure the blade from toe pick or front runner to the tail before you shop — a tape measure beats guessing. The RidingRush soakers use an elastic, universal design that fits most figure and hockey skate blades, youth through adult, up to 12 inches. That range also covers growing kids, whose blade length changes almost every season.

3. Cushioning for life inside the bag. Blades share the bag with water bottles, tools, and sometimes a second pair of skates. Long-pile plush on the RidingRush soakers cushions the blade edges and prevents scratches inside your skate bag — protection that matters between sessions, not just on the way home.

4. Pair coverage in one purchase. Buy covers the way skates come: in pairs. The RidingRush set is a 2-pack covering a complete pair of skates, which the listing calls out as ideal for practice and competitions. One purchase, both blades protected, no mismatched singles.

5. A price that respects the rest of your gear budget. The RidingRush Ice Skate Soakers 2-Pack lists at CAD 20.99 for the pair. At that price the accessory pays for itself the first sharpening it helps you skip. Source: RidingRush product listing (ASIN B0FWQT5KM6).

Put together, those five checks describe one specific product: the RidingRush Ice Skate Soakers 2-Pack Plush Blade Covers — bamboo-terry lining, elastic fit up to 12 inches for youth and adult skaters, long-pile plush cushioning, sold as a pair in Pink Purple/Teal. For everyday riding, it is the piece we would buy first.

What Others Say

We will not quote star ratings we cannot verify, and we have no verified review data for this exact listing that belongs on this page. Invented review quotes and star counts are everywhere in buying guides; they do not help you, so you will not find them here. What we can give you is a two-minute routine for reading the reviews on any listing like this one:

• Sort by most recent. Lining quality and stitching show up in reviews written after a few weeks of use, not after unboxing.
• Search for your blade type. Type "figure," "hockey," "youth," or your approximate blade length into the review search. Fit feedback from a similar setup transfers to you; feedback from a different setup does not.
• Look for the word "rust." Skaters who stored wet blades in the covers between sessions will mention whether rust showed up — it is the single most useful data point for this product category.
• Weigh photo reviews for color. The Pink Purple/Teal colorway reads differently on every screen; buyer photos are the honest version.
• Check the questions section and the return window. A seller who answers fit questions before the sale tends to handle problems after it.

FAQ: Skate Accessory Questions From Everyday Riders

Can I walk around in blade soakers?

No — that is what hard guards are for. Soakers are soft covers with absorbent linings, made for storage and short walks on carpet or rubber mats. Walking on concrete or parking-lot grit in soakers grinds the lining and can push debris against the blade. Use soakers off the ice and out of the bag, hard guards for walking, and take both off before you skate.

How do I keep my blades from rusting after every session?

Three steps, about fifteen seconds per skate: wipe the blades with a dry cloth if one is handy, slide an absorbent soaker onto each blade, and air the bag out when you get home instead of leaving it zipped shut. The bamboo-terry lining in the RidingRush soakers is built for step two — it absorbs meltwater so the water is in the fabric, not against the steel.

What size soaker fits my skates?

Measure the blade from the front edge to the tail and compare it to the cover's stated range. The RidingRush soakers fit most figure and hockey blades up to 12 inches with an elastic opening, covering youth through adult sizes. If your blade is longer than 12 inches, check the range on the listing before ordering.

Do I need soakers for hockey skates, or just figure skates?

Both. Figure blades and hockey runners rust the same way, and the same storage problem hits both. The elastic fit on the RidingRush 2-pack is designed to work on either blade type, so one pair of covers handles a mixed household — the figure skater and the hockey player can share a product and even a colorway.

Where to Buy

The RidingRush Ice Skate Soakers 2-Pack Plush Blade Covers (ASIN B0FWQT5KM6) lists at CAD 20.99 for the pair in Pink Purple/Teal. It covers both skates, fits figure and hockey blades up to 12 inches, and does the specific job everyday riders need most: keeping meltwater off the steel between sessions.

Ready to fix the wet-blade routine? Shop now and put the 2-pack in your cart before your next session. Want to compare first? See all options and browse the full RidingRush product catalog — the lineup also covers cycling accessories like saddle bags and bike bells, plus action camera cases, if your seasons run from ice to asphalt. Have a fit question about your blade length? Use the RidingRush contact page and tell us your skate size — we will point you to the right pick before you order.