What Happens If Your Skates Are Too Big – Wrong Fit Problem & Solution

Excessive Length

A pair of roller skate shoes that are too long for your feet will cause you so many grimaces when skating.

Back And Forth Slipping

When there is too much room for growth on the long side of the skates, your feet will be slipping back and forth inside. Most of the time, you will struggle to control your speed because physically speaking, the inertia will go wild. And if you are an experienced skater, you may manage to keep the balance; still, the speed will be compromised.

For most beginners, this will be a big problem. Balance is the key to roller skating, and they will not even be able to stand on the skates, let alone start moving with them.

Improper Wheel Arrangement

As the roller skates are longer, the distance between the first front wheel and the last back wheel is also longer. And because of this unnecessary long arrangement of wheels, the balls of your feet (especially the toes) cannot rest in a proper position.

A longer wheel arrangement also leads to difficulty in spinning the wheels while doing tricks. Growing fraction between your feet and the inside of the skate shoes will ruin the comfort. That means there will be a lot of trippings, and your toes are too far or too slippery to be controlled.

Toe Balls Falling Into An Arch

Besides trippings and instability, skates with excessive length will sometimes cause the toes’ balls to fall into the arch. The arch is the narrowest part of a skate shoe, so if the toe keeps hitting it, you will feel so much pain on the front half of the feet.

Many people actually choose the size that is longer than their actual size because they reckon there will be more room for comfort when skating. But this assumption is not true to roller skating; it will never be the case.

Because the toe is the highest point sticking out from the foot, a wrong fit pair of roller skates will concentrate most of the force on the toe’s ball. Especially when you need to stop, the toes are more likely to head down the surface and “embrace” all the pain.

Depreciated Support On Feet

Another common issue stemming from a too big skate is the lack of support on your feet. As the boot cannot match with the ankle and the foot, it will crease in places that it was not supposed to. The boot will break down much sooner than you expected.

Also, when the boots are bent, they cannot provide enough support and a flat surface for your feet to place on. Chances are your feet inside will also have to curve up a little, just a little enough for you to quit your performance/ training because of pain.

Excessive Width

Just as with length, a pair of skate boots with too much width will also cause many troubles to your skating experience.

Too Much Pressure On Boot

The inside part of your ankles and the edge of your feet are where your body weight most concentrates on. So with the skates that are too wide, the pressure will increase in these areas, causing so much discomfort when you skate for a while.

Too much pressure applied to the wrong place will also break down the inside quarter panel of the skates. And as the pressure may keep increasing over time, your skate begins to offer less support for the inside. Sooner than you expect, you will encounter the pronation while skating.

Uneven Wear

When the pronation (rolling in) starts to appear, the wheels will meet the surface at an angle that is not perpendicular as it should be. Balance is the first and foremost feature you should be ready to lose on your skates. And even worse, the wheels will wear off unevenly, your body then keeps shifting left to right uncontrollably.

Uneven grip when skating, especially skating on ice, is extremely dangerous. Once you push your first move, the roller skates will have enough pressure to knock you down right onto the skating surface. Before you know it, your head is already stroke down, and you definitely don’t want that kind of “memorable” experience.

Inability To Control The Movement And Direction

You can tolerate your big skates a few times, but not forever. Soon you won’t be able to control where you want to go on your skates. If the pronation gets more serious, the left foot rolling inward won’t go the left, similar things happen with the right.

So the situation is pretty much like driving a car with an incorrect wheel alignment. You will end up moving around in random directions, and even cruising just straightforward will be such a frustrating challenge. Crossover and spin, stop dreaming, you won’t make it with these skates.

Slipping Up And Down

Finally, another common problem caused by too much width in skates is that the skate heels will keep slipping up and down. You may already know that the heels must be locked in place so that moving and landing will be stable.

When your feet move from side to side in the skates that are too wide, the heels will slip right off. Landing will be a huge danger, and the blisters will be waiting.

So either too wide or too long, the skates will ruin all the fun. Your feet will just try to hang on for “Dear life…” rather than actually help you to enjoy skating.

Excuse me people from the back; your skates are both too long and too wide? Jackpot! Be ready to wipe the sweat and the tears because there will be a lot to do.