Skates for strange feet

[Duke 0]

Hi All,

Hoping to get some advice about getting a new pair of skates to fit my oddball feet. I have a wide forefoot, very high arch and instep, narrow heels and ankles but pronounced ankle bones. My last pair of skate are Bauer One100's. Great skates but I get nasty lace bit the more I play. I think I would fail the pencil test on them, I have tried new tounges, gell inserts, different lacing patterns... everything. I am bout ready to give up and start over on a new pair. Any suggestions? thanks!

[kadayo 9]

Highly recommend VH Skates. There is a huge thread about them on this site.

http://modsquadhockey.com/forums/index.php/topic/63437-vh-footwear/

[Vet88 674]

Hi All,

Hoping to get some advice about getting a new pair of skates to fit my oddball feet. I have a wide forefoot, very high arch and instep, narrow heels and ankles but pronounced ankle bones. My last pair of skate are Bauer One100's. Great skates but I get nasty lace bit the more I play. I think I would fail the pencil test on them, I have tried new tounges, gell inserts, different lacing patterns... everything. I am bout ready to give up and start over on a new pair. Any suggestions? thanks!

With lace bite, gel inserts etc aren't the answer. You have to either get the pressure off the tendon or spread it over a wider area, covering the tendon up with thicker material generally doesn't work. If you still want to keep the skates, here are 3 other options you might want to try.

1: A Forsberg pad. It doesn't matter what lace bite you have, this will get you back into your skates and all for the cost of a few dollars. Make your own out of pipe insulation, I wear mine with some ezyfit booties to help hold it in place.

2: Lace bite typically comes from the 2nd and 3rd eyelet crossovers (the first eyelet is the top one). I did this for a while, or variations of - lace up to the 4th eyelet, tie it off. Using another short lace, lace up the top eyelet only, completely skip the 2nd and 3rd eyelets. The boot feel is still very similar in feel to a total lace up but you don't get lace bite.

3: If you can stand the odd jibe or 2, an Option B skate strap in conjunction with lacing up to the 4th eyelet also works really well. I've used these with kids who have had lace bite and once fitted, they have never had lace bite again.

[Davetronz 109]

Similar foot to mine. Struggled with fits for the past 5+ years. The VH Footwear skates may solve your problem. I recommend them and skate on them.

For me, anything with an AA heel and a C-width through the body seems to work if I stretch and punch the forefoot, but it doesn't have the volume to prevent the lace-bite across the tendon.

Vet88 made a good suggestion above. Depending on the exact specifics of your foot, customs (including VH) may be your option, but it depends on how extreme your issue is.