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Have you ever played around with the laces of your roller skates or inline skates for a more comfortable fit?
Did you know that lacing your skates differently can help with common foot pain?
You don’t have to keep lacing your skates the way they came in the box!
One of the best and easiest ways to feel more comfortable in your skates is to play with your laces and find the right technique for you.
Experiment with different styles to get the right feel.
Here’s a few of our tried and true favourites.
Standard Lacing – Criss Cross
The most common technique is the good old criss cross.
This is how most skates will come straight out of the box.
This is a firm way to lace your skates, pulling the boot in tight in all areas.
Some people like to laces over and under, while others like the under and over.
If this is just fine and you don’t have any discomfort, numbness or pain then you can keep them like this.
Lock Lace
If you like a firmer feeling around the ankle or you have skinny ankles then you can lock it down with the lace lock.
The laces lock occurs at the top of the boot to help tighten the ankle area.
This can also help with ankle slip and offers another form of support around the ankle.
This technique can be useful for skaters transitioning from a recreational skate with a buckle/cuff system to a hockey skate with no ankle strap or going from a high boot to a low boot and suddenly feeling that they need more security around the ankle.
High Arches
Do you have high arches?
You can experiement with allowing more space around the arch section of your skate.
To do this lace downwards rather than across.
If it’s not helping try repeating the process either one lace down or one lace up to target the area that needs more space.
More Width Please
Do you have a wider foot?
Did you know that a lot of Aussies have wider feet, a result of wearing no shoes or thongs (flips flops) all the time?
Feet can also get wider over time due to age and weight or even get wider if you choose to go barefoot.
Straight lacing will give you more width overall rather that pulling in everything tight with the standard criss cross lacing technique.
You can also consider skipping lacing at the points that are wider for you.
Sore Toes or Corns
If you have sore toes or corns you can miss the front lace hole and straight lace to give your lil toes room to breathe.
Fussy Lacer
Are you a “I like this bit tight and that bit loose” kind of skater?
Use 2 shorter laces. That was you can get the best of both worlds and make one area tighter or looser.
Most skates come with standard cotton laces. Changing to a higher quality wax laces can help to hold your lacing in position.
Waxed laces are also stronger so they tend to last longer.
Regular vs. Waxed Laces
Regular laces like Criss Cross are soft and easy to lace straight away as they don’t stick, the downside is they don’t last as long.
Waxed laces like these Derby Laces are laces coated in a clear wax making them stronger and more grippy.
When you lace your roller skates or roller blades with a waxed lace you will find that they hold tighter and won’t loosen as often.
They are also stonger than standard laces so they last a lot longer and tend not to wear and fray.
One of the most common causes of foot pain or numbness is lacing too tight or not lacing your skates to suit your foot type.
If you’re having foot pain or discomfort give a new lacing technique a go and see if it helps you, you might be surprised.
Check out all the laces we have here.
And if you’re looking for what lace length is right for your skates we have a blog for that too.
