How-to: Heat Mold Figure Skating Boots at Home

Note from Ice Mom: This guest post is from Diane Mars. (Diane Mars is not the gal under the hair dryer.) Diane offers how-to information for skaters who have a pressure point on their figure skating boots and don’t have time to go to the figure skating shop to have them punched out. Diane explains how skaters can heat mold the boots at home and relieve the pressure. I have translated it from French. Any errors are mine.

I have tested a way to home heat mold figure skate boots with a hair dryer. It works! Just call me MacGyver’s main squeeze!

You’ll need:

a pair of knee-high socks, like you use when you skate
Dr. Scholl’s Molefoam padding
Rubbing alcohol (or something less caustic – it will be used for removing all oil from your skin)
A pair of scissors
A hair dryer

Step One:

To start, wash your tootsies, dry them well, and put them in those hard wooden boots (well, yes, right now they are more like hard wood than something comfortable, so…) bare foot, and make sure that your heel is in the back of the boot. Put the boot’s tongue in place (well, try anyway, seeing as the tongue is probably wooden, too; ok, lined with something very moldable, but you don’t feel that flexibility yet). Try to lace them up. Don’t pull out your hair if you can’t do it. Tighten the boots very well, because the goal is to find the pressure points and get rid of them. When you’re sure where the boot hurts you, take them off.

If you have been smart and you quickly took off the boots, you can move on to step two right away. If, like me, you had really wanted to verify your pain like, “Yes, but if I push a bit more, it stops hurting.” That doesn’t work; it just hurts worse. Wait 24 hours until that bone sticking out of your ankle (malleolus) is more or less its normal color, every two hours moisturize the spot on your ankle where it burns from the friction in your boot, try fitting the boot around your ankle again, and verify that the swelling in your shins has gone down.

Step Two:

Find the Molefoam. Cut the stuff into pieces that you’ll stick on your feet at the pressure points. (Personally, I made circles that I stuck to my left malleolus – the right foot was perfect!) I made two more strips to protect my shins where they were still swollen from step one the night before.

Wash your tootsies very carefully and, at the places where you’re going to stick your Molefoam, degrease the skin well. (I’m hardcore; I do it with rubbing alcohol until it burns.) Stick your foam to each foot’s pressure points. Then, put your knee socks or nylon skate socks on top. (If you skate with bare feet, you still need to put on a very thin nylon knee sock so you’re sure the moleskin doesn’t move out of place. Again, degrease your skin very well to prevent this.)

This is the annoying part: the hair dryer (so, normally, you’re in the living room, bathroom, kitchen, in knee-highs, with these growths on your feet, a hair dryer in one hand and a pair of skates on the gound. Before you begin, go into a room with a mirror and take a look at yourself. When you’ve finished laughing like a maniac, go get something to drink because once your skates are hot and on your tootsies, you can’t move! You don’t want to deform your friendly skating boot and deform yourself, too.)

Take the first skate, unlace it correctly with the boot’s tongue wide open, and warm it up little by little with the hair dryer. Give it around 10 minutes on full blast. One problem is that the hair dryer can overheat and catch fire and whoops! – the skate boot can scorch, too. If this happens, you’ll have to extinguish the flames and then start over). So, don’t put the hair dryer in the skate and then leave to open a bottle of wine, hey? And besides, if you have followed the instructions well, you already have something to drink!

When the boot is very hot, (watch out for the skate lace hooks), and the boot is flexible, turn off the hair dryer and slip it on, MAKING SURE to:

Put your heel in the back of the boot
Put the boot’s tongue in place

Lace the boot all the way up as tightly as possible (yes, I know, it’s not great against your shins…it will hurt, but that’s the way it is!). Sit down. No, don’t walk and don’t bend. You want the boot to mold around your foot, not take a year off of your life.

You have to be well inside the boot and it should have been easy to lace and get your foot inside. If that wasn’t the case, start up the hair dryer again and heat the boot where you have pain, while keeping your foot in the skate boot. And yes, after the first fitting, you can do it all over again, but this time even tighter. Once the skate boot is cold, take if off (or not, because it’s so comfortable that you don’t remember you have it on) and do the same thing for skate #2 (if it’s necessary).

This heat molding method doesn’t perform as well as heat molding with a convection oven, but in my case I didn’t have too many adjustments to make and it’s worked well. And I swear to you that I had no desire to take off the blade during the heat molding and then mount it again!

Now most of you will know how perfectly well how to heat mold your own skate. Maybe that will be useful to someone, which would be cool!

Do you have any questions about this process? Have you tried it at home with success? Did you try some other method with good results? Do you think that home heat molding is a good idea or a bad idea? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Do you have a question for Ice Mom or the Advisory Board? Please send it! Are you an expert and want to write a guest post? Let me know! Is there a post you’d really like to see on this site? Suggest it! I love e-mail so, don’t be worried about sending me some! E-mail me at icemom.diane@gmail.com

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Photo Credits:
Silver hair dryer photo: Tophee, Flickr Creative Commons
Lady under hair dryer photo: Old Shoe Woman, Flickr Creative Commons

szuszu

Thanks for the wonderful article! I just purchased a new pair of skates for my daughter. They are heat moldable, but the guy at the pro shop suggested that we try them out for a week or two before heat molding. We were told, “If they don't hurt too much then not to do the heat mold”. My question is: why would we not take advantage of heat molding even to address minor discomfort? The area that is hurting my daughter is the ankle (malleolus). Right now gel ankle sleeves are helping ease the break in process.
http://twitter.com/icemom icemom

Hi, szuszu.

I'm just a parent. I'm not a coach, skater, or skate tech. However, I say: HEAT MOLD THEM! Hello! Heat molding shortens the painful break-in process. If I'm spending $500 on boots and $500 on blades, then, darn it, my kid's going to wear those things! Ice Girl won't wear 'em if they hurt.

You have seen the post about vacuuming to break in skates, right?

The comments for the following link didn't make the leap (yet) from the old Blogspot site, but you can view the break-in post here: http://icemom.net/2009/08/how-to-break-in-new-f...

Good luck, szuszu!

Ice Mom
http://www.facebook.com/diane.mars Diane Mars

Thanks a lot, szuszu

To be sincere, I don't know why the guy told you not to heat mold them (even in case of “minor” discomfort), because it's such a great “profit” in term of comfort… and painful time avoided ! Maybe did he want to drink a coffee and didn't want to spend the 20 requested minutes to achieve this process completely ? (joking !)

If it still hurts your daughter malleolous and if your skate shop is not too far, go there asap with your daughter and let her skates be heat molded (fyi, in my skate shop, in Switzerland, this process is a part of the price when you purchase new skates… which means that you don't leave the shop before you feel “comfortable” in your new skates).

If it's not possible, try the hair dryer , knowing that you still can heat mold them more “professionally” in your skate shop later, if it's still hurting.

I hope it helps… and that you understood my English -and if not, don't hesitate to tell, as it's far from being my mother tongue !
http://icemom.net Ice Mom

I think your English is very, very good, Diane!
szuszu

Diane,

Thanks for the advice (you too ice mom!) I will go back to the shop and have the heat molding done. Sharpening and heat mold were part of the price of buying the skates.

I was also told by someone at the rink NOT to skate right away on newly heat molded skates? If this is true, how many days for them to “cool off”?!

Thanks again! your English is great
http://twitter.com/RainboSports Christine Hathaway

As a professional skate fitter with Rainbo, it seems very strange to me that he would send you out without heat molding. It's usually part of the deal of buying new skates. Back in the old days before they did heat molding, we would suffer for weeks while our own feet would heat up and sweat and mold the boot. Go back to the shop and get it done regardless of whether she's feeling any discomfort.
http://www.facebook.com/diane.mars Diane Mars

Thanks for your comments regarding my English *embarassed*

So, according to what I know, you can use the new heat molded skates once they are cold… So OK, not “right away”, but the time you drive from the skate shop to the ice rink will be sufficient !
sk8rmomp

Great advice to get the heat molding.

I would encourage you to also let them know before hand about the ankle pain. The malleolus is a very common area that needs to be punched out. DS. like many skaters is apparently over-endowed with a large ankle bone and any pair of skates needs to be punched out on top of heat molding. It makes life soooo much nicer if they can be done before even skating in them. If you leave with the boots feeling good, but your DD gets on the ice and feels pain after skating, they might need to be punched out more. Don't hesitate to ask for it, it should be included in the price of the new boots, and your skater will be so much more comfortable, sooner!

If you are lucky, in the years to come you will be able to find a brand that works well for your DD, and know the usual problem areas, so that they can be punched ahead of time. This makes break in so much easier!
http://twitter.com/icemom icemom

Oh, absolutely, p!

Ice Girl has her problem areas on her feet, too. Whenever we buy new boots, I just plan on making the trip to the skate shop every week for the next month or so. We just get 'em punched out and punched out, until they feel good.
bethalice

I see so many skates now come pre-punched in the ankle area. I wish that was an option and the skates didn't come that way already. My dd has small ankles, and never a problem with her malleolus. She pronates, and when she tried pre-punched skates and it made her pronation worse.

She has tailor's bunions on both feet. Those do cause a lot of problems. Is there a way to punch that area out at home (the skates were heat molded right after she got them in January)? Or do I need to have the skate shop do it?

Another question, as I mentioned she has small ankles. She also has narrow feet, especially her heel area. It is more narrow than the ball of her foot; even without the bunions the ball is wider – add the bunions to it and there is a bigger difference. Is there a way to get skates to fit properly without getting custom skates (would consider it if she wasn't still growing)? I notice that each time she wears the skates, it is more difficult to get them tight enough to keep her heel from slipping (and maybe the slipping is making the bunions worse?) Is there something to put in the heel area?

Anyway to prevent the bunions from getting worse? To get rid of them? To keep them from hurting?

Thanks!
http://www.facebook.com/diane.mars Diane Mars

Hi bethalice !

I’m not a skate fitter, but one question comes to my mind : did your daughter try diverse skate brands ? I’m living in Switzerland, and we don’t have the same skate brands as yours (i.e. Jackson, GAM, Harlick, SP Teri, etc. are not common here, but you can find Graf of Risport easily).

Which brand are your daughter’s skates ? Because, according to my little experience, North American brands are wider than european ones… Did your daughter had the opportunity of trying “european” skates (I was thinking about Risport) ? I think it could solve her problem !

Regarding the bunions, they’re more than probably caused by inappropriate fitted skates, because her feet are not “tight” enough in the boot and her toes are always touching the “top” of the boot when she skates, jumps, etc. !

Makes sense ?
http://www.facebook.com/diane.mars Diane Mars

Hi bethalice !

I'm not a skate fitter, but one question comes to my mind : did your daughter try diverse skate brands ? I'm living in Switzerland, and we don't have the same skate brands as yours (i.e. Jackson, GAM, Harlick, SP Teri, etc. are not common here, but you can find Graf of Risport easily).

Which brand are your daughter's skates ? Because, according to my little experience, North American brands are wider than european ones… Did your daughter had the opportunity of trying “european” skates (I was thinking about Risport) ? I think it could solve her problem !

Regarding the bunions, they're more than probably caused by inappropriate fitted skates, because her feet are not “tight” enough in the boot and her toes are always touching the “top” of the boot when she skates, jumps, etc. !

Makes sense ?
http://www.moldremoval.com Mold in Homes

Intriguing article. I’m sure I’m slightly late in posting my comment but the article ended up being the purpose and just the info I became searching for.