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Sports equipment is notorious for being difficult to wear right out of the box. Most sports pad their players in stiff leathers and polymers to protect them and these rough materials can do a number on your skin, especially during an intense game. One of the most infamous sports for chafe causing gear is Hockey. From head to toe the player is stuffed into rigged foams and leather padding to protect them from the high impact style of the game. If you want to avoid skin irritation, blistering, and other generally uncomfortable feelings it is a good idea to break in your equipment before you actually start using it.
Hockey skates are probably the worst pieces of hockey equipment when it comes to breaking them in. It takes a long time to get the groove in the padding of the boot and playing in cold, dry, unforgiving climates doesn’t help much either. Hockey skates must be broken in before serious competition if you want to be comfortable in them, just like baseball gloves. Unlike baseball gloves, however, there is no easy method for breaking in your brand new ice hockey skates, roller hockey skates, or inline hockey skates.
Basically it just takes a bit of pressure and time to break in your hockey skates but there are three ways to help speed up the process a little bit and get your feet comfortably planted on the ice as soon as possible.
Wear Them
If you ever find a good pair of used hockey skates for sale that fit you well and aren’t too beat up, you should buy them. It seems that the best way to break in your hockey skates is usually just the old fashioned way: wear them a lot. Hockey skates are designed like a turtle with a hard, unmovable, shell on the outside and a soft (or relatively soft) padded layer on the inside.
Most skate manufacturers will stuff extra padding into the boot so that when you stick your foot in you will push some of the padding to the sides and conform the hockey skate to the shape of your foot.; the tighter the fit the better the protection. To properly break in your skates you just need to give the padding time to get out of the way.
Wear your hockey skates around your house (remember to keep the blade protector on if they are ice hockey skates) while you are watching television or playing video games. Walk around in them as much as possible and do a few practice skates here and there until you feel comfortable with the hockey skates. The more you wear them the more they will adjust to your foot and the better they will feel.
Heat Them
Let’s say you have a big playoff game next week but your hockey skates broke in the last game and you are forced to buy a new pair. Now you don’t have time to wear them all day long and wait for them to break in, so what do you do? A quick and simple way to speed up the breaking in process is to heat up your hockey skates before you put them on or while you are wearing them.
Use a hair dryer to heat up your skates for ten minutes before you put them on for the first time. The heat will loosen up the padding material and make it softer and easier to manipulate. You will also find that some hockey shops will have ovens designed for hockey skates. When you buy the skates, ask if they have something like that available and they will heat up your skates for you before you wear them for the first time.
Compress Them
If you’re not comfortable with heat you can use the compression method. Some ice skating facilities and hockey shops will have compressor machines that you can rest your feet in with your skates on. The machine will press on all of the sides of the boot to help squeeze the padding into place. If you can’t find a machine to do it you can always get a strong friend to crush your feet in his hands while you wear the skates. It’s always fun to watch a father pressing hard on his son’s brand new youth hockey skates before a big game.