Ice Skate Soakers:

One of the fun accessories of skating is soakers. A folded piece of cloth and a half hour and you can have a workable individual cover for your blades. However, the home sewer will be unable to deliver the delightful insouciance of the mustachio of this Jerry's fruit soaker. (They're cute in person too)

Unfortunately, for me to do make my own,  I would have to haul the sewing machine up from the basement where its 40 - enameled - steel - 1970 manufactured - pounds have been since 2001. It would be easier  to buy a new one than move boxes to clear the way to the old machine, lift it up step by step to the second floor, wrench my back and make an appointment with my orthopedic surgeon. . . . Moving on.

So I'm limited by my own laziness to purchasing pre-made soakers. Here's the major players in the game.

Reinforced soakers: (edit) Although widely believed to be strong enough for walking in on the matting, this isn't a use approved of by the manufacturer (end edit) These soakers have terry cloth bodies and a polyester grosgrain ribbon along the bottom. The main ones I've seen are Tuff Terry's. Another brand is Xtreme Blade Covers which I like the looks of since they not only vary the body color, but have a contrasting color for the reinforcement; Terry's only uses black on the bottom, but they've got a variety of colors and patterns for the body.

Tuff Terry's are only for Walking on the Mat

 I want to comment that I saw a girl wearing Tuff Terry's walking in her skates on concrete. These aren't protective enough for that. Only blade guards are approved for walking in on the matting or other surfaces.

Jerry's seems to have dived deeply into the end of the soaker pool, they've got lots of choices. And they've been darn successful at developing soaker styles. But every time I see a little girl metaphorically crushing the spine of a helpless stuffed terry frog, puppy, cat, elephant, monkey or dolphin soaker with her blades, I have to wonder "Who Thinks Up This Stuff?" Then I think,  "ODG, I'm Getting OLD! It's Just A TOY! Stop Being So Judgmental!" And, then I discovered Chole Noel had animal soakers too but made with fake fur. Furry, crushed toy animals...And there's Zookerz animal soakers that squeak.

As I researched for this post, I realized, I wish I had the Chloe Noel soaker Guernsey. I grew up on a dairy farm; I love cattle.

OMG, isn't this adorable!
My inner 5 year old wants one!

Adult Styles of Soakers:  Okay, I need to calm down after the excitement of realizing I can be tempted by a stuffed  cow. If you want to have adult soakers, that is, soakers that don't squeak, and soakers that don't look like pets, or soakers that look boring mature there's always Terry's and Softpawz and Jerry's.

Terry's

Softpawz label matches the inner lining (a nice touch)
And are fully lined. Bunches of color combos and materials.

Then there's puffy soakers, fuzzy soakers, flannel soakers, satin, glitter, sequined and many more commercially made ones from the three big soaker makers.

And if you can't find something you like? There's always ETSY. I've seen some really nice soaker sets on there that look every bit as good if not superior to the commercial ones. It's certainly worth a trip.

Now that I've finished with my soaker review, I want to nominate the butt ugliest soaker I've ever seen. I can't imagine anyone, anywhere buying this soaker unless it was the only one left on the shelf, or the buyer was actively toking up. Ladies and gentlemen, I present Terry's Lava Lamp.