Pro Flip Series 

 

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Snyder EZ Flip $82.95	Snyder EZ Flip II $82.95	Snyder Flip Grip $84.95	Bronco Pro flip $67.95

 

Cal-Flip $75.95

 

 

Alan Francis Series

 

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Signature $82.95	All-On $77.95	Bulls Eye $77.95	Legacy $95.95

 

Renegade Series

 

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Bandit $47.95	Cobra $52.95	GXL (Ultra Lightweight) $49.95
	Sold Out

 

Premier Series

 

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Imperial Original $82.95 Sold Out	Big Foot $72.95	Glory $57.95	Six Shooter Discontinued - See the Alan Francis Bullseye

 

Triple Crown Series

 

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Challenger $60.95	Mustang $74.95	Imperial Stinger $77.95

 

 

Accessories

 

 

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Hardshell Carry Bag $49.95	Softshell Saddle Bag $22.95	Horseshoe Hook $11.95	Regulation Pegs 30" $39.95

 

About Shoes

 

About "Horseshoe-Like" Looking Objects

     Remember.....the first rule of reality states: "....you get what you pay for." This maxim holds true in life and it certainly holds true in buying horseshoes.

 

     If you're looking to purchase a couple of sets of horseshoes for backyard or cottage use from the 'Big Box' stores, there are a few things that you should be aware of. I'm going to pick on those sets as sold locally in Canada by Canadian Tire and by WalMart. The same and similar sets are available from other 'Big Box' retailers in the U.S., as well as from a whole host of online re-sellers using Amazon and ebay.

 

   1) The horseshoes sold by Canadian Tire and WalMart are made in China. This is not necessarily a bad thing but the Chinese unfortunately don't know squat about how to make pitching horseshoes. What they are producing are 'horseshoe-like' looking objects.
  2) What the 'Big Box' stores are interested in is your money, not the quality of their horseshoes. When you ask them "....have you got horseshoes?" they can say "yes". Try asking the clerk if the shoes are better for a turn or a flip.......they're not going to have a clue.
  3) I've never come across a Chinese manufactured horseshoe that was comfortable or pleasurable to throw. Design, balance, and proper weighting are everything in a horseshoe and the off-shore 'shoes are not comfortable to my hand and I find them extremely difficult to throw with any accuracy at all.
  4) Throwing a really cheap set of horseshoes is the same as trying to play golf with a set of clubs that have bent shafts. You can play golf with the darn things but you're not going to have much fun at it.

 

     In summing this whole thing up: you don't have to be throwing competitive horseshoes or playing in a league to be able to feel and appreciate the difference between cheap horseshoes and those that are made by people that actually throw horseshoes and know what they're doing. Better horseshoes are easier to throw and make the game more fun.

Life is too short to throw junk.
Les

 

Blog

 

October 6, 2011
     It's almost Thanksgiving. So, that means we've made it through another outdoor season.
It's been a great summer and we only got rained out once or twice. On Monday and Tuesday nights
I play at the Moose on Wabanaki in Kitchener. With the Monday night guys we won both the B division
and the B division playoffs. With the Tuesday night guys we had a great time, but hey, well we didn't win
nada. On Thursday nightsI played at the K of C on Manitou and we played there until a big bloody windstorm
blew down all of the light towers. We finished the season at the Moose (thank you Moose Lodge).
     Oh yeah.....all shoes except the Glory are now back in stock. That was a fun season just trying to
keep everything in stock.....it had its moments. Now, on to the indoor season.
Les

 

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August 26, 2011
     Well I've succeeded in not writing anything for eight months, which is pretty hard to do. Let's see....the biggest story for us this horseshoe season has been the unavailability of certain horseshoes from time to time. WD, the manufacturer in Erie PA got hit with the basic double whammy: first, they couldn't get the foundry to make enough horseshoes and then second, they couldn't get the foundry to get the shoes out to them in a timely manner. It's been interesting from my perspective just trying to keep enough shoes in stock while the availability fluctuated all over the map.
     We've damn near made it through this season with remarkably little blood shed. We should not encounter the same problems next season.
Les

 

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December 28, 2010
     Well, 2010 was certainly an interesting year and I do apologize for the four month gap between blogs here.....I have no idea where the time goes. I'd like to thank all of the horsehoe players that have supported SD and purchased shoes from us as sales almost tripled compared to 2009.
Wishing you and your families all the best for a happy and healthy 2011,
Les

 

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August 30, 2010
     I hadn't thrown a set of Imperials for about 4 years until last Tuesday. The last pair that I threw back then were an old soft forged set that burred up badly if you just looked at them. I got so many little pieces of steel in my fingers from those damn things that I put them in a box and said 'see ya'. These new Imperials are the 'Originals' and are a cast shoe. They don't burr up like the old forged shoes and I don't end up feeling like I'm donating blood when I throw.

     Now, I prefer a set of shoes with no paint or powder coat on them, so I stripped all of that stuff off. I also smoothed out and rounded out (a bit more) the areas on the inside of the "U" to either side of the ringer break - you know the place where your fingers curl..... and then I went out and threw them. What a great shoe. What a great bloody shoe.....That's it for me, this is what I'm going to throw from now on.....
Les

 

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August 16, 2010
.....and a happy 62nd birthday to me (even though it went by nine days ago), but I digress. Last blog I was lamenting about my inconsistency in throwing and what I found out over the past month was that, yes!......I am inconsistent as all get out.
     Last year outside at the Moose, about a third of the way through an evening, 90% of the lights went out. We really couldn't see much of anything. You couldn't see the stake and you could sort of just make out the outline of the pits. So, basically in the dark, I threw about 45%. What does this tell me? Several things I suppose, although I don't think anyone else saw that evening as the high point of their summer.
     What I take from that 'experiment' is as follows: I think too much. I try adjusting my stride, my swing, the weight and the arc too much. After throwing about 25 million shoes over 15 years, I'm not willing to simply rely on muscle memory. So when something isn't working after a couple of ends, I start to fiddle with everything one bit at a time until.....until nothing works properly. Tonight I'm going to experiment a bit further. I'll warm up and just throw, no thinking, no mental gymnastics. Just so you know....

Les

 

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July 16, 2010
.....mumble mumble.....I'm just wondering why I can throw 12 for 28 in one game and 5 for 30 in the next one.....Same guy, same shoes, same pit, same opponent. The only thing that's changed is that it is now ten minutes later.....

Les 

 

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July 9, 2010
     Over the past couple of weeks we've had a lot of our Bandit and Cobra Recreational sets going out. I can't tell you the number of customers who have called and told me about how the shoes were breaking in the 'backyard' sets that they purchased from the big box stores. Some shoes were breaking on the first contact with the stake, others lasted a game or two before they broke. Here's a short email conversation that I had a couple of days ago:

Good evening
     I was wondering if you could tell me if your horseshoes are cast, forged or drop forged steel? And what is the difference? We've never played before and are considering joining a local club. We did buy a set at the Superstore and after 30 minutes of playing one of the shoes snapped in two.
     I was able to return the set, but before I did I checked the box. It stated on the box that they were steel shoes, but they were cast steel...eventually all of the shoes would have ended up broken. The only other place I could find that had shoes what Canadian Tire and their packaging states they are cast steel.

Thank you
Debbie


Hi Debbie,
     All of the good shoes that are currently being made pretty well anywhere are cast ductile iron, including all of our shoes that are made by WD. The word 'steel' on the box of shoes that you got is probably being used generically. The offshore shoes, such as the ones carried by Canadian Tire and Walmart are generally cast something or other.....or might even be a 'forged' shoe and all do, I believe come from China. What is at issue is the quality of the materials used in the shoe and you're certainly not the first to have the offshore shoes break quickly. It is the lack of quality in the materials in the offshore shoes that enable them to break so easily, it doesn't matter if they are forged or cast. If the materials are poor, the shoes will break.
     The materials used in all of the WD shoes are of the highest quality and all of the shoes are guaranteed for a year (there is one set that is guaranteed for 3 years because it is made of a different composition). Through the two plus seasons that we have been carrying the WD shoes we have not had a warranty claim or a report of breakage.
If you have any further questions, let me know.
Regards,
Les

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July 7, 2010
     Wow, that's been a really quick couple of weeks. Shoes have been basically flying out of here for the past six weeks or so. I'm finding that keeping everything in stock all the time is getting progressively harder but so far we've never run out of anything for more than 7 days - not bad considering that all of the shoes are coming in from Erie, PA. Take a bow.
     Oh, and we're sitting here in the middle of a 4 or 5 day heat wave and guess what? But yes, of course.....the air conditioning in the whole place went down this morning. Right now it's a cheery 88 degrees F. here in my office (that's an equally inspiring 31 degrees C.) This squawking about the heat will only appear humorous when we re-read this later on in the dead of a Canadian winter.
Les

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June 18/2010
   I want to talk about shoe weights here. To me, a normal shoe is a medium weight shoe and goes 2 pounds 8 ounces to 2 pounds 8 1/2 ounces. I found 2 pounds 9 to be little on 'chuck it harder' side of things....and of course there was that 2 pounds 10 set of shoes that Eugene always threw (and that I had to throw back to him) because, hey, who was going to argue with a 50 percenter? I always had a hell of time with those heavy shoes....I always felt like I was trying to throw a large brick.
    After a couple of years with bad feet and being on crutches on and off over that period of time - which certainly limited my horseshoe career, I've finally started to find my game again a bit. Going from being a high 20's to mid 30's average before injury to mucking around in the 12 to 18 percent range for the prior indoor season hasn't exactly been fun.
Which brings me to this:
     The first game I played last night I went 11 for 28. While certainly not Elmer Hohl territory, me throwing 39 percent was a revelation. And I did it with a set of forty five dollar Bandits. But it's not the price that was interesting, it was the weight. The shoes weighed 2 pounds 6 ounces.
Think about it.
Les

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 June 8, 2010
     I should have done this a long time ago! This is good....I can talk about stuff and air things out. Ok, a brief word about shoes then....
     I've been slowly working my way through the shoes that we carry. Since I'm a flip player, I obviously tend towards 'flip' shoes. I've always wanted to be able to throw a turn as well and I had a really good turn player explain how it's supposed to be done and show me how to do it. First turn shoe that I threw went forty feet with a turn and a quarter and landed perfectly on the stake....and this was indoors! Piece of cake, I thought. The next six hundred shoes that I threw more closely resembled helicopters and were all over the place. For the time being I'll have to stick to throwing a flip.

A brief history of the shoes that I've thrown (in order, from the first shoes I ever threw, on up to the present):

1) Gordons
2) New Elmers
3) Old Imperials
4) CanAms
5) Old Elmers
6) Canucks
7) Broncos
8) Cobras
9) Snyder EZ Flips
10) Alan Francis Legacy's
11) Mustangs

     As you can see, the bulk of the shoes that I've used have pretty well all been flip shoes....with the exceptions being I suppose really only the Old Elmers and the Old Imperials. Now I know that a lot of people can turn just about any shoe or flip just about any shoe properly. I suppose that what I'm leading up to is that some shoes are perceived as being one type of shoe and not the other....and that's how we'll classify them and review them.

     For reviewing 'turn' shoes I will get a couple of really good turn throwers together to throw, judge, and otherwise stick their two cents in about the shoes.

Stay Tuned.

Les

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