Measuring Your Foot

Leon Basin, owner of Shop Task, tells you how to measure your skate size.


Trying Skates On

How Skates Should Fit
When skates are new out of the box, a good fitting skate should generally be more snug than what you might find comfortable in other types of casual footwear. Having a tight fitting skate improves the support provided by the boot to keep you stable over the frame, allows for better energy transfer when putting power into your strides and for the skate to be controlled more naturally by the movements of your foot/leg. A tighter fitting skate can also improve the long term comfort of your skate by properly holding the foot in place, which prevent blisters and overall foot fatigue when skating.

Trying Them On
When trying skates on your toes should be up at the end of the skate, a bit of pressure is OK, but you generally do not want your toes crunched up and curled. Your foot should be held securely throughout the skate and should not come up when you lift your heel or slide significantly when shifting from edge to edge.

Breaking Them In
As you use your skates the padding will expand to give you more room for comfort. The padding will expand throughout and your heel will sink back into the heel pocket which will pull your toes back from the front. Skates generally expand about a half to a full size.

Generally, skates become fully broken in within 5-10 outings.

5 Tips For Trying On

1. Loosen the laces thoroughly before putting your foot in for the first time. Make sure your tightening mechanisms are properly aligned and tightened well. We usually recommend tightening your skates with the laces first, then mid-strap, then top buckle. The mid strap, (if your skates have one) whether velcro or a ratcheting mechanism, can be especially effective in pulling your toes back from the front of the boot into the heel pocket. Good laces can make a big difference in skates that do not have a mid strap.

2. Put the skates on, tighten fully and let your foot sit in them for a while. Even if they are tighter than what you initially find comfortable, keep an open mind! Leave them on for 5-10 minutes (if they are particularly uncomfortable then as long as you can stand), then take them off, give your foot a break for a few minutes then put the skates back on. The second time you put them on the padding will have expanded a bit and your foot will be a bit more used to the fit.

3. If the skates feel a bit tight, especially width wise, you can try removing the insole at the bottom of the liner. This will remove some volume from the skates initially and can give you a bit of an idea of what the skate will feel like once some of the padding has broken in.

You can skate them without the insole until the rest of the liner breaks in then re-introduce the insole or you can replace with a lower volume, more supportive insole like the Superfeet Hockey Comfort or the Carbon Pro.

4. Wear thin socks! Thin, tight fitting socks that are tall enough to reach over the top of the skates usually work best. Our favorite are the Lorpen Coolmax Liner.

5. Make sure your nails are cut. Sounds silly but with a more precise fit something like this can make a difference!

Feel free to contact us with any questions when trying your skates on!