I only have the old-school Ascension purple skins to compare to, but these don't seem to get quite the same traction as those. The tip connection is too wide for my skis and slips back pretty far, letting snow in. It also has the disadvantage that there's no elastic so you have to be very careful putting the skin on. My old Ascensions had a green elastic that let you stretch the tip connection around the tip once the rest of the skin was on. The tail clip seems to be overly complicated and I keep worrying that the metal piece will come loose and get lost, but on the plus side it is adjustable for different length skis.