Equipment: Pressure Marks with Bauer X600

[FelixD]

Hi guys,

all the way from Germany in desperate need of help. Hope anyone can help me - otherwise I might have to cease playing hockey

I started playing inline hockey about a year ago as we do not play icehockey in summer. In september I finally started skating and playing icehockey. As for inline hockey, I use the Bauer Vapor X500 and on the ice, I opted the Vapor X600. Unfortunately in EE, so a little bit wide at the toes, but they didn't have too many options and I didn't want to go for GRAF skates. Except from some slight problems at the ankles (they rub, but I could solve that problem with ankle booties) I never had any problems since I bought the skates in late september.

About 3 weeks ago, when I was skating together with a friend, I suddenly felt pressure on top of the left footroot bone. To be more precise:

There is a bony elevation that everybody has which started hurting during skating. It became so painful that I had to abort skating and was out for three weeks due to a pressure mark which started aching as soon as I tied the skates. Walking in tied skates was not possible. No hockey practice not even simple skating.

I went to another hockey shop with a bigger selection of skates and they measured my foot with this Bauer device.
Two results:
1) the Vapor shoe is not the right choice for my foot in general as it does not fit regarding the instep (he asked me whether I feel a lacebite or not)
2) the Supreme is what Bauer suggests

What I discovered for myself as a newbie: I do feel kind of a lacebite as I lean "forward" into the skates pretty much when skating - as you should do. Then the lacebite kicks in and everything presses down onto the pressure mark. Maybe the pressure mark originates in that lacebite? Like so:

Another thought: the tongue of the skate is filled with a sturdy material. Is it possible that this material "changes" over time. That might explain why I never had problems in the beginning. And maybe now it broke (or whatever) and presses down onto that mark.
Maybe what I feel to be lacebite is also this tongue which is damaged and presses into my foot?

Advice: when measuring my feet it came to light that my left foot is slightly bigger than the right one, especially regarding the instep. That's also why I never had problems on my right foot.

I tried so many things now...
- I tried different tying methods: into the holes from the inside and from the outside (slightly more loose). Leaving out that famous 4th hole when tying to avoid lacebite, even leaving out the hole right above the footroot bone. Tying to the top or leaving out the highest hole etc.
- waxed and non-waxed laces: the guy in the shop told me to use non-waxed laces as they give way under pressure slightly more
- special insoles which are very thin to create space between the tongue and the footroot bone
- a special sock with a gel insert with the shape of a ring to spread the pressure and take it away from that mark

None of the above (except from the sock) could help at all. The sock was able to improve the situation for 15-20 minutes when I was skating yesterday. After that it started hurting again and I had to abort skating again to avoid worse...

So my questions are:

1) does anyone know the exact same problem? I had a lot of guys telling me how they fixed that problem and then it came out that they had problems at a totally different position of the foot
2) if so: what did you do and could you solve that problem?
3) Concrete question: can another skate solve the problem or might I have lacebite and pressure problems as well? Thing is that the suggested shoe (Supreme...) has a price tag of around 700-800€. Not knowing whether this shoe can help me would just be a waste of (a lot of) money in my eyes as I cannot return it after usage

Do you have any advice?
I count on you! You are Canada, you are hockey. Please help me so I don't have to give up this awesome sport!

Click to read more...

 

[puckpilot]

I get this a little sometimes on that very specific spot. For me, it's a vertical volume issue. Specifically, the skate isn't really tall enough for my foot around the instep area. I won't bore you with the details of my story. But if you're wearing Vapors and Superemes are what's suggested, this is maybe the issue. Have you done the pencil test to see if your skates have enough vertical space?

Here's a link to what the pencil test is if you don't know.
How to Properly Fit Hockey Skates - Hockey Skate Fitting Guide

Having a skate that's too wide probably isn't helping either.

If your skates are too wide, this may force you to tie your laces up a lot tighter to get them stabilized around your foot. This can cause lace bite issues on its own, but if your boot isn't high enough, this will put even more pressure on the top your foot, compounding the issue.

It might be a good idea to consider new skates.

If you still want to try and make these skates work. Maybe try this lacing method in this link. It's something I came up with to lessen pressure on the top of my foot. It might help. It might not. It might at least give you ideas on what else you can try.

Feedback on custom skates

Another thing you can try is to add some padding around your fore foot to try and get the skates to fit snugger so you don't have to tie your skates as tight. But this is really only a stop gap at best.

You can and try to develop some different ways to pad that area. Here's a different type of gel sleeve.

Here's an example of home made padding designed to take pressure off an area. Maybe you can try making something like this.

And then there are eyelet extenders.

Great Saves Equipment and Repair


But if you're going to have to go through all these hoops to make your skates fit. It'll probably be a better idea to just buy new skates that actually fit properly.

Hope this helps.

 

[FelixD]

Thanks so much for your advice puckpilot!
I will check the links.

Yesterday I have been to my local retailer to try different skates. The Supreme didn't fit at all. Around the ankles it was way better than the Vapor but I had the same problems with the pressure mark.
I then tried the top model of the CCM Tacks. Surpisingly I didn't feel any pressure at all at that very spot. They seem to have a different tongue design which spreads the pressure evenly over the whole instep. It would have been the perfect shoe for me if there wouldn't be another source of pressure somewhat more to the toes. The cap of the shoe and the tongue are probably stitched together with a very thick seam which bulges into the shoe and presses onto the top of the forefoot
I would actually love to try whether this works or not. Unfortunately you can't lend that shoe to try it over a longer period of time. And 700€ is quite a lot when you don't know whether you are going to have problems immediately...

Do you have any experience with custom made skates? Is it worth the buy? I only know TRUE. But I don't know if they solve my exact problem...
And it takes you 6 or 8 weeks until they ship to Germany, so the season would be over when they arrive. And then there is the price tag of more than a thousand €. And what if they don't fit exactly?

Thanks for the link to the custom skates. Gone go deeper into that today!

 

[puckpilot]

Do you have any experience with custom made skates? Is it worth the buy? I only know TRUE. But I don't know if they solve my exact problem...
And it takes you 6 or 8 weeks until they ship to Germany, so the season would be over when they arrive. And then there is the price tag of more than a thousand €. And what if they don't fit exactly?

I don't have any direct experience with custom skates. I've looked into them and even considered buying a pair of TRUE skates, but other than that, I don't know how they fit first hand. I've seen reviews, and I haven't heard anything bad about their fit. Most seem to be very happy with them.

 

[Grodon]

Thanks so much for your advice puckpilot!
Do you have any experience with custom made skates? Is it worth the buy? I only know TRUE. But I don't know if they solve my exact problem...

I have odd shaped feet and for years I've been trying to save money by purchasing skates, and then punching/stretching them to have it not hurt my feet. I've recently bit the bullet and went with True, and now I love the fit so much that I'm regretting all of the times wasted. I highly recommend it, especially for your issue, as the tongue on the True is malleable, and you can adjust it slightly up or down (they are velcroed on) to fit your comfort.

 

[FelixD]

I was at my LHS yesterday. They got me the Nexus N2 which I tried. I didn't have any problems at all with the pressure mark. The guy in the shop told me: if this shoe doesn't fit, basically no shoe will fit as the Nexus is ultra wide at the instep. It is indeed. Today I was skating with a friend and didn't have any problems for the first 30 mins. Then I feld a slight pressure coming which got more and more over time to a point where I had to abort skating. I still feel my foot hurting, but not as bad as last time. Overall the feeling with the Nexus was by far better than with the Vapor which did hurt immediately. The Nexus tongue seems to spread the pressure a little bit more over the whole forefoot.
However after some time of skating it started hurting due to the lace bite which presses the tongue into the footroot bone so much that even the Nexus can't help.

I talked to the guy in the shop about the True skates. He told me that they use Easton skates as a basis which are very tight and caused him sincere pain with the feet. He said that - regarding my problem feet - this would be a very costly experiment as you never know whether they will fit properly or not. If not, there is no chance to return them to True and no chance to sell them as they won't fit anybody but yourself.

I think the biggest problem for now is that I just can't wait. I want to skate and attend practice! However I think I should wait for a few weeks for the inflammation to ease...

 

[Filthy Dangles]

try lacing your skates "outside-in" instead of the traditional inside-out method. Should transfer more pressure and load of the laces to the boot instead of the tongue. sounds like you've tried just about everything else though. Maybe even skip the top/middle eyelets too.



i'm glad i don't know what lacebite feels like and i've skated inline/ice hockey regularly for like 20 years now.