Yep i did 45 miles on them yesterday. They weren’t perfect, which is a bummer, but I’m probably just being overly critical because I had such high hopes.
They fit kinda weird. I got a size 14 (i normally wear a 13) and they are both to big and too small in different ways.
I can barely get them on/off, even with the laces fully loosened all the way down. Meaning I HAVE to loosen the laces all the way down every time. Gross.
But once my foot is in the boot, they are kinda loose all around my heel and midfoot. Meaning I have to pull the laces really tight all the way down the boot to get them to grip my foot properly. Ugh.
The toe box is fine. Significant improvement over my vans, not quite as wide as my Within shoes. But since they’re loose around my midfoot, my whole foot can slide/roll inside the boot, smashing my toes against the side of the boot. Especially my leading pinky toe when I’m braking or riding downhill. Ouch.
The grip is fantastic with this outsole, no complaints there. The boots are very flexible and comfortable to walk in. I really just gotta solve my fit issues and lacing issues.
I experimented with installing a Boa strap lacing kit to these boots, like my Vans had. It was my favorite feature of the Vans. But unfortunately it didnt work for these boots. The tension on the lace didnt get distributed evenly down the boot, so i would have a lot of tension around my ankle and none around my foot.
I also tried some elastic laces, which I have on my Within shoes. No luck. Couldnt find a setup that would allow me to get them on my feet and have sufficient holding force.
So I’m just lacing them up and down like a caveman every time I put them on or take them off. And stopping every few miles in my ride to adjust lace tension to try and relieve toe pain.
Damn when I type it all out like this it really sounds like I don’t like these boots
Tight lacing boots are foot prisons!
Loose lacing saves lives! Free the feet!
But seriously start slowly especially if you have fallen arches - gotta lear to walk correctly (if it isn’t an indication of a bigger problem) and the feets will slowly get back into shape (allegedly)
I hadn’t realized why i hated every other shoe i was riding in except my slip on Romeos or flippy flops… the toe box always sucked. But the romeos have a slight heel which isn’t ideal for skating. But the toe box breaks in huge so my triangle feet’s were happiest there. Grabbed a pair of the amazon whitin canvas shoes and it all clicked.
Thanks @rafaelinmissouri btw that video you posted up thread was my eureka moment. Just thought i was a picky shoe connoisseur - destined to just flip flop and barefoot through life because i didn’t like anything. But really it was that i spent so much time barefoot my feet were the wrong shape - or the correct shape.
It’s less the “benefits of tight laces” as it is the “drawbacks of a shoe that’s too loose.”
If my skate shoes are too loose then I dont get proper ankle support, my heels can roll too easily, my forefoot slides around in the toe box, etc.
Properly fitting shoes dont need to be laced super tight. Unfortunately my Lems are not currently “properly fitting” so I have to lace them pretty tight just to get the fit closer to correct.
Just ordered some insoles from fpfootwear.com so they will hopefully solve some of my fit issues
I know you’re absolutely a function over form kind of guy. But God damn did you succeed in choosing a shoe that could not be further from looking like it belongs in a skateboard
This pic could be the punchline to a joke about what skateboarders in Portland wear or something
Debating a topic by attacking the other person’s character, instead of the topic, is a classic and clear sign of low intelligence. We were talking about shoes.
I look for high tops - or the highest top i can find - then skip the top laces. It’s just skid pro for me. With the nice wide toe box the heel cup is the right size instead of oversized and my foot doesn’t shift around in the shoe. Support at or above the ankle line is not a part of the equation for me.
Edit: anyone here who uses high tops and laces them snugly for support: how do your feet feel when you tuck? I can’t imagine it even working let alone getting into a stable position without maybe adding wedging ala al’s crimes against the mach 1 but more extreme. Also i dont bindings - bindings are also foot prisons - fight me
Definitely, that’s what initially drew me to high tops for esk8. I also used to skip the top laces so I could still get in and out of them.
Then I got the MTE with boa straps, and suddenly i could have my cake and eat it too. Super even lacing pressure up the whole shoe, and still get in/out in seconds. That’s what made me realize I was missing out on ankle support.
I dont tuck
Though it’s worth mentioning that I also dont lace my shoes so tight that i lose that kind of flexibility. Nor do I wear shoes that are stiff enough to restrict my mobility, no matter how tight I lace them.
I also kind of view ankle “support” more as a restriction than support.
Also, I think in one or two situations, my shoes coming off may have actually saved me from harm, rather than caused it, but that is in part because of using bindings. My board has made off with one of my shoes once or twice before.
After my more recent fall, where, for whatever reason, my foot got stuck in my binding, I’ve actually been mentally toying with whether it would be possible and actually usable to use a mountain bike clipless pedal type system on a skateboard. I’ve not even used those on bikes, though, so my mentally toying around with it hasn’t gotten very far.
so I have to lace them pretty tight just to get the fit closer to correct.
