Will lace bite go away with break in?

[psyx 1]

I took a gamble on a new pair of skates, they felt comfortable and seemed to fit although I wasn't getting much help from any of the stores that I went to in that regard. 

I had them baked. The tongue felt is very very thick, the thickest I've ever seen, and after wearing them even just sitting around the house I get lace bite pain on the top of my foot. I tried changing the lace technique to out-to-in, and also the majority of the lacing in the middle is very loose.

I pass the pencil test, so the only thing I can think of is that maybe the felt is just too thick and is more of a pain than it's intended to be? I'm not really sure though. My foot does seem to be bursting out in the middle but again this tongue is so thick and stiff I don't know if it's that or me. This is only happening on one foot, the other seems to be fine.  Just wondering if another bake could help or if I just have to take the loss on these and put them up for sale.

 

[tcraig 42]

Mind sharing what skates they are? Could help in identifying possible solutions for you.

[chippa13 1844]

Lace bite will only get worse with break in since it sounds like the skate is too shallow. 

[puckpilot 312]

Are these the newest Bauer Supremes with the metatarsal guard on the tongue?  Because it's pretty much exactly what happened with my Supreme S190s. If it is, from my experience, and from what I've heard from my LHS, it's a common complaint for the new tongue. 

If they are Supremes, I found that I only really felt the lace bite when I was wearing them around the house. Once I was skating, that feeling went mostly away. Enough to be confident that the more the tongue got worn away, the better things would get. 

Otherwise what skate do you have?

[psyx 1]

Interesting about the Supremes. I have the Graf 9035, I compared the boot to my old skates and the boot seems to be a similar fit, the thing is the tongue is a LOT thicker, and I only have this happening with one boot for some reason. They say the tongue is fully moldable, is it possible to punch the tongue to soften it up a little?

I see people also talk about gel pads, but I'm not fully grasping how that will work. The pressure point is right on my tendon, wouldn't the pad add even more volume?

[proth0303 29]

I'm not an expert but I'll share my experience given that it's recent (purchased new skates in early December).  I purchase some Bauer Vapor X700's and they felt good in the store and walking around; however, when I went to do my first skate I tightened the heck out of them.  I noticed pain but thought it was just part of the break in process but once I took the skates off I had a big lump in my ankle/top foot area.  A little bit of googling and I found out I had the perfect case of lace bite (only on my left).  For starters, I picked up some gel lace bit pads which made it tolerable to put the skates on but I knew there was more to it.  I experimented with lace tightness, not lacing the top eyelet, wax laces, and different lacing method (over-under vs under-over).  Here's what I found to work for me...

I no longer use the gel pads as the padding from the tongue is sufficient.  I lace all the way up (no skipping of eyelets) and use wax laces.  I use an over-under lacing method.  The biggest change that I think had the most affect was I tighten the lower part of the skate fairly tight but once I get to the transition from foot to ankle (~4 eyelets down) I just pull the laces snug.  The wax laces really help hold this tightness.

As you can tell, I tried a lot of different things until I got it right.  Ironically enough that while public skating with my wife isn't terribly exciting, it does allow for me to test different things related to skate comfort.  I was very concerned that once I had lace bite I would have to take a break to make it go away; however, I'm happy to share that I've been skating ever since and it's been healing ever since I started lacing the foot area tight and the ankle area snug.   

[vinprun71 61]

You shouldn't really be "bursting out" of the middle of the boot. If you are, the boot is too shallow. It's pretty common for one foot to experience lace bite and not the other. That's exactly what happened to me. No two feet are created equal. If you're in Supreme boots currently, it would benefit you to try Nexus. You could even try an EE Supreme, but without knowledge of foot width, it may make more sense to go with the first option (Nexus boots). In the mean time, grab yourself a Bunga pad. It will make skating 80% (estimate from my experience personally) more comfortable for the time being.

[stick9 896]

There are a couple of things you could try. But keep in mind, you cant fix lack of depth.

Use a wider lace - spreads the pressure out.

If you are using waxed laces, switch to unwaxed - they give a little.

[psyx 1]

I'll try not to be in denial that it could very well be lack of depth, I'm just still probably preoccupied on trying to beat down the tongue. Compared to my old tongues, these are 2-3 times the thickness. I understood from Graf that this was to prevent lace bite but all it seems to me is that it removes all the volume down there. It almost looks like it's bursting out without my foot even in there, plus the tongues are very stiff.

I don't want to destroy my foot though. I just switched laces from waxed to unwaxed and maybe I'll give it a try at a public skate and see how it goes from there. If none of this works out I'll accept the loss and take the lesson from it.

[puckpilot 312]

For me, wax laces work better because I have better control. But any way you could try this lacing method. It will give you a lot more volume.  Probably most volume possible.

https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/straightbarlacing.htm

It will make tightening a little more tricky but probably best you can do without getting into eylet extenders.