Timely thread, I am looking to get new skins for my 2 year old AT setup. My Black Diamond Glidelight mix skins (mohair/nylon mix) are in good shape, but I don't like the glide on them. I would describe them as more snow shoe than glide. I cross country a lot, so that is my basis of comparison.
Personally, I am switching to 100% mohair and will probably get Pomoca skins. If what I am reading on the web is true, 100% mohair has much better glide and not a lot less grip. It does depend on snow conditions to a degree.
My beef is I can't slightly unweight my skis and slide them forward without a lot of resistance force from the skin. I basically have to get the skin almost completely out of the snow to slide it. This translates to heavy breathing. I am talking about pretty firm snow, as well. I finally tried waxing my skins, which improved it, but the resistance of mohair/nylon skins is pretty noticable on 30+ minute skins. The grip is fantastic, I can climb up a veritcal icy wall with them.
The other thing is I have 108mm wide skis and wall to wall skins. You can buy skins wider than your tips and trim them full length so about 5mm of edge is showing per side. OR you can match tail width or waist width. Wall to wall is best grip, worst glide. Waist width is the opposite. When side hilling, wall to wall seems like the best to not loose grip (only partial width is touching snow due to angle of slope)
I have come to the conclusion that you have to balance the grip versus glide versus skin width vs ski width options. For wide skis, you don't need wall to wall grippy skins. For narrow skis, that is probably what you do want.