[Before I go into the boot repair article this is just a brief announcement: to all the skaters who signed up for my prototype boot program, please take a look at the project status page for more information. I'm presently booking all your casting appointments. I'll try to do as many as I can during the weekend of April 12/13 - please keep in mind that it does take about 1.5 hours to cast. If I haven't contacted you by the end of this week, please email me.]
A couple of friends from my skating club approached me recently to perform some repairs to their boots. Unlike their plastic recreational counterparts, properly broken in speed skating boot can be quite comfortable. Sometimes it’s better to buy a new pair, but more often it’s worth the time, effort and cost to repair them.
[Photo] three pairs of boots to repair.
In my opinion, leather is still the best material for making skates and shoes, many of the newer boots are being made with an artificial fiber. Microfiber is said to be both lighter and more durable than leather. In practice though, it’s actually easier to rip and traps moisture vapor. For most shorter duration and indoor or ice skating, breathe-ability isn’t a noticeable problem. For inline, outdoor long distance skating, it can quickly become a concern. Microfiber may not “breathe” that well, but in usage, the material stands up to the rigors of inline racing quite well.
[Photo1] [Photo2] repairs needed on a Bont Vaypor.
In this article, we perform repairs on a Bont Vaypor, then replace the EVA tongue of the boot. I’ll discuss further about the boot’s shape as I proceed with the repair.
“The one place where I had some difficulty was in attaching the new tongues. My sewing machine wouldn’t fit in that tight space, so I had to sew the tongue’s on by hand. This was quite an ordeal, taking nearly an hour to complete the stitching. “
Let’s first take a look at the damage:
As you can see – the microfiber has been damaged. The first step will be to glue everything back in to place, then re-stitch the top opening. The tongue of the boot is somewhat problematic for this skater.
[Photo1] showing the boot cuff being re-stitched.
[Photo2] the microfiber is glued back into place.
I was fortunate to have feet that are a similar size, so I tried inserting my foot and assuming the speed skating position. I was unpleasantly surprised by how restrictive the cuff felt. It severely limited my ability to bend the ankles and get my knees forward. When the top eyelets were loosened, the tongue would pull forward and out of the boot and I was not even in a very low position! It’s no wonder, the skater wanted the boot tongue replaced with something wider.
In my hand, the boot felt very solid and well built. In my opinion though, it actually felt a little over-built. The ankle area was extremely stiff perhaps too stiff to achieve any kind of edge control. While supportive, I think a few less layers of carbon or thermoplastic would have been preferred here. That being said, I would emphasize that this is an inline boot, NOT a short track boot. You would actually want a short track boot to be super-stiff. This boot was too stiff and a touch too high cut for inline. It would make a great short track boot, except I couldn’t mount my favorite blade on a 3-point.
[Photo1] showing the tongues being built.
[Photo2] a close-up view of the attaching point.
The tongue of the boot is Microfiber glued/fused onto an EVA foam liner. In between the liner, I could feel a stiffer material, perhaps a thin thermoplastic that can be heat molded. It was attached to the boot at two points. The microfiber top cover and a small piece of Dacron webbing type material. In order to replace the tongue, I had to remove the stitching and dissolve some of the cement holding it on. Fortunately, there wasn’t a lot of it and the tongue came right off with little effort.
I used my usual technique of leather/EVA/Dacron webbing to make the tongue. This time I used the original tongue as a guide, then drew out a wider and slightly longer pattern. The tongue is assembled using contact cement. The Dacron webbing and the Velcro are glued and stitched using my new Techsew shoe patcher.
The one place where I had some difficulty was in attaching the new tongues. My sewing machine wouldn’t fit in that tight space, so I had to sew the tongue’s on by hand. This was quite an ordeal, taking nearly an hour to complete the stitching. Here, we’re using a hand-lock-stitch, which is superior in strength to a machine lock-stitch.
[Photo1] hand lock stitch
[Photo2] the completed tongue
Also on hand were a pair of Canariam and Powerslide boots. Another skater was using them for short track ice. As I mentioned above, short track ice has different demands on a boot. You’ll want something that fits tighter, is stiffer and has much more support (so more straps and buckles.) Keeping this in mind, an inline boot that is lower cut, more flexible and has fewer securing mechanisms will be prone to having their eyelets torn out from tightening. Here are a few photos showing the carnage.
The fix for this is a fiber reinforced eyelet sheeting. These are sold at shoe repair shops and are extremely rip and tear resistant. They can be layered in between the liner and outer to increase the strength of the eyelet area. In this case though, the top-line is badly damaged and will have to be removed.
[Photo]
In this photo, I show the plan of action. Short Track technique is different from inline technique. It’s very important that the boot is stiff laterally, but allows the skater to flex forward. Any boot that doesn’t allow for this will weaken at the ankle’s flex point. One very popular solution is to cut a small “v” section out of the quarters. This allows the boot to be cinched tight, yet allow for some flex to occur.
These boots had virtually no top opening. It was as if the leather was sliced right down the middle with no lacing margin. While the skater may be lucky and not require this margin for inline, when used for short track, the boots will not be tight enough.
One possible solution is to remove the damaged eyelets, and widen the top opening. I have actually seen this done on several short track boot designs. It makes a lot of sense to allow the skater, the ability to tighten the ankle area, but leave the forefoot a little looser.
In this article, we talked a little bit about boot repair and showed an example of a boot that desperately needed fixing. We also talked a bit about skating technique, the bending of the ankles and how a boot has to allow the skater that level of mobility. We increased the size of the boot tongue to allow the skater to bend forward. While this is a band-aid solution for the problem, a better fix would have been to completely rebuild the cuff of this boot. That’s major surgery and the effort and cost of doing that would be nearly 50% of a new boot (or perhaps even covered warrantee.)
Next time, we’ll take a stab at those Canariams and Powerslide’s, cut off the damaged materials and convert them into something that will work better for Short Track ice.
Thanks for reading.
p.s.: before you attempt to modify your skates, consult with your boot manufacturer. Chances are they will take the boots back and perform the needed repairs for free or a very small fee. This article is for information purposes only. I don’t suggest nor advise you modify your boots or skates unless you are willing to assume all risk of damages resulting from your actions.
