How To Fill Time Waiting for Better Boots

[SparkleScrunchie]

Have you had very poorly fitting boots? What did you work on while waiting to get better ones? Did you take a break? Keep practicing even though you could tell the boots were holding you back in certain areas? Focus on a narrow set of movements that you felt didn't run into as many issues? I have a coach whose recommendations I'll be taking but I just figured I'd see what other perspectives were out there.

I've ordered new boots after getting a professional fitting but they're going to take a moment to be made and delivered (extra narrow Riedell Motions, half a size smaller than my current ones - feel free to speculate on how long Riedell usually takes to make custom orders - I'm expecting it to be about 4 weeks but I'm hopeful that maybe they'll get done early).

At the moment, I just feel incredibly frustrated with how much time I have to spend thinking about making sure my feet are in place in my boot because if I don't move very carefully my feet can literally roll from side to side in the boot, and my heel lifts up by about 2cm (from how it feels, my guess may be inaccurate) any time I do anything real weight-shift-centric - I'm genuinely kind of impressed I didn't injure myself in them when I first started skating, they're so oddly loose. The only thing that keeps them from being entirely hazardous is the fact that my arch is somewhat locked in but even that feels tenuous at best. I've been skating in them regularly since August 2022, after regularly rollerskating since November 2021, so I've had a fair deal of practice both in those ice skating boots and in moderately better fitting rollerskating boots (one pair that fit well but had zero ankle support, one pair that was overly wide but with a little bit of ankle support at least). The transferred skills/strength/balance/awareness helped make these skates tenable for learning some real basic skills but even holding a strong edge is a challenge in them.

But with better skates on the way, there's not much left for me to do, I suppose. So do I just wait? Keep practicing and see if I have some breakthroughs? Put them through the ringer doing things I wouldn't normally do to skates? Experiment with ad hoc space filling remedies? Or just throw in the towel for a bit? Would taking a month off be worse than skating in boots that so clearly do not fit me well? I'm sure in the grand scheme of my skating this will be a minor blip but I'm just feeling impatient at the moment, y'know?

 

[tstop4me]

* Didn't you ask your tech what the lead time for the custom boots would be? The Riedell website states a typical lead time of 5 - 8 weeks. But these are not typical times. Many boot and blade manufacturers are still being hit hard with supply-chain disruptions. Ask your tech to check with Riedell what their estimated delivery time is. I'm surprised both that you didn't ask when you ordered and that your tech didn't volunteer the info.

* Check with your tech whether your current boots can be reasonably modified (e.g., with inserts) to allow low-level skating. If not, spend your time on off-ice exercises.

 

[mskater93]

Check the Reidell website to see if they are projecting LT for custom orders. I know that I had heard my custom manufacturer was quoting 12 MONTH lead times last year and knowing how I beat boots down, ordered replacements from them last April. My manufacturer is currently quote an 11 MONTH lead time. If you have the order number, you could also call Reidell and inquire on timeline.

 

[SparkleScrunchie]

* Didn't you ask your tech what the lead time for the custom boots would be? The Riedell website states a typical lead time of 5 - 8 weeks. But these are not typical times. Many boot and blade manufacturers are still being hit hard with supply-chain disruptions. Ask your tech to check with Riedell what their estimated delivery time is. I'm surprised both that you didn't ask when you ordered and that your tech didn't volunteer the info.

* Check with your tech whether your current boots can be reasonably modified (e.g., with inserts) to allow low-level skating. If not, spend your time on off-ice exercises.

They did give me an estimate, I also figured I'd see what other people were experiencing lately - on the rollerskate side of things the estimates vs. reality have typically differed. Looking through the Riedell site for the 5-8 week figure you mention, and I'm not seeing it stated on their websites but a number of distributor websites have their own estimates in that range.

Honestly, the leadtime is just going to be what it it's going to be and isn't a problem to be solved, I was just curious if it was one of those times when Riedell was being slower or faster than their estimates.

Check the Reidell website to see if they are projecting LT for custom orders. I know that I had heard my custom manufacturer was quoting 12 MONTH lead times last year and knowing how I beat boots down, ordered replacements from them last April. My manufacturer is currently quote an 11 MONTH lead time. If you have the order number, you could also call Reidell and inquire on timeline.

Checked the website, not seeing anything that indicates a wait anywhere near that long. The rollerskate site has a 10-12 week wait listed but many people are getting boots sooner than that, especially if they're not that customized. The ice skate portion of the site is even more vague. I've heard of other custom manufacturers taking up to a year to fulfill orders (Harlick) but considering this is literally just a stock boot in a narrow width from a non-bespoke boot maker I can't imagine these being on the same timeframe as something much nicer. And surely if it were a multi-month wait...the distributor would be aware of that? And have mentioned it? I'll let ya know if I was told wrong, but I'm having a hard time buying that this would be anything close to a 12 month wait.

Anyway, wasn't looking for lead time problem solving, just a bit of conversation on filling time while waiting on better things because I figured we'd all been there before. It'll take as long as it takes, and I'm happy with the skates I picked after trying on several pairs - and considering I shouldn't have to make this wait again for a long time - so it's not really like I want to go pick another manufacturer to get skates from, and I can't really change whatever lead time Riedell has on them. So the only question I get is what to do with the time in between - which I'm finding may be even less productive than I'd hoped

 

[tstop4me]

See https://www.ice.riedellskates.com/custom-skates.

"Want to order your new Full Custom Boots? Here's what you need to do:


-----

• Once we have all the necessary information from you, we will begin to build your dream custom boots. A pair of Full Custom Boots will typically take 5–8 weeks for production and shipping."

As one example of how wacko the figure skate boot supply chain has become, in Nov I asked my tech what the delivery time on a pair of stock Jackson boots would be. He told me if my size were in stock, I could get them in two weeks. But if they weren't, I would get them in April or so.

 

[SparkleScrunchie]

See https://www.ice.riedellskates.com/custom-skates.

"Want to order your new Full Custom Boots? Here's what you need to do:


-----

• Once we have all the necessary information from you, we will begin to build your dream custom boots. A pair of Full Custom Boots will typically take 5–8 weeks for production and shipping."

As one example of how wacko the figure skate boot supply chain has become, in Nov I asked my tech what the delivery time on a pair of stock Jackson boots would be. He told me if my size were in stock, I could get them in two weeks. But if they weren't, I would get them in April or so.

Thanks!