Skate laces... why so long?

[guitarlp 0]

I've wondered about this for a while. Why, on roller skates (doesn't happen on ice), do they put such long laces on the skates? They were too big on my missions and now they're too big on my tours.

Everyone ends up needing to wrap them around their anke once before tying them. Is this what skate manufacturers want? is it to provide a little extra suport for our ankles because there is more stress placed on them then on ice? I can't see why manufacurers would put laces too long on a skate unless they wanted you to wrap them around your ankle for some reason (like support).

Can someone shed some light on this for me?

[Chadd 916]

If they one size lace for senior skates it makes inventory management easier. Using only one size means they use the biggest size on all skates. Just a guess, no secret knowledge on this one.

[Jason Harris 31]

Our skates come with really long laces. At first I didn't like it, because I had always heard we shouldn't tape our ankles, and wrapping the laces around once is somewhat akin to taping the ankles.

However, I've grown to like the longer laces. One, because the truth is it's not that much tighter to pull my laces tight without wrapping around versus wrapping around and then pulling tight. More importantly, however, I no longer need to pull any of the laces out of the eyelets, which is both quicker and makes the laces last longer since the ends aren't being frayed.

[guitarlp 0]

If they one size lace for senior skates it makes inventory management easier. Using only one size means they use the biggest size on all skates. Just a guess, no secret knowledge on this one.

But why do companies do differently for ice skates then? I was watching my fiancés roller game tonight and out of the 14 girls out there 12 of them had their laces tied around their ankles. I don't remember ever seeing anyone do that when I play ice.

Your thinking make sense... but then I would think they would do the same for ice as well.