Hockey Skates Sizing Guide

If your hockey skates do not fit you well, you will be in a world of trouble. Not only will your performance on the ice be affected, but you are more likely to receive an injury.

Ill-fitting skates can also create bad habits on the ice as your feet compensate from the lack of fit.

Here’s what you need to know about hockey skates sizing.

The Proper Fit

A proper fit with hockey skates means that your toes should barely touch the end of the skate and you should have a small space in the back of your heel.

With your socks on and skates laced, the skates should be snug around your feet. Standing in laced up skates, your feet should be able to be flat within the boot. The feet should not be able to slip around within the skates at all.

Slippage is more likely to cause blisters or make it so your feet are less secure within the boots.

If you are trying to fit skates for a child, you might be inclined to get them big so the child can use them longer before outgrowing them. While this is a way to save money, it is not a good idea to get them too big.

You can allow for an extra half of a size or so, but any more than that puts them at a risk of injury and will negatively impact their performance. If you have wide feet, you really need to look for the best hockey skates for wide feet.

Sizing

Generally speaking, hockey skates run about 1 to 1.5 sizes smaller than your standard street shoes. This means that you cannot simply walk into a sports shop and grab a pair that is in your normal size and be good to go.

Not only do the sizes run differently, but they also vary from brand to brand. While Bauer and CCM are pretty similar, it is still best to go off of the sizing guides for the individual brands rather than make a general guess.

Measuring 

In order to get the sizing right, you will need to know the dimensions of your feet. You can do this a couple of different ways, but the most effective way is to stand on a sheet of paper, wearing whatever socks that you wear in your hockey skates, and trace a line all around your foot while standing.

This is easier to accomplish if you have someone helping you do it. Once you have an outline of your foot, you can simply use a ruler and find out what the length and width of your feet is. You should do this for each foot, one at a time, to ensure that there is not a large size difference between the two.

Foot Width And Skate Fit

Once you have your size and dimensions of your foot, you will need to make sure that the skate that you are buying matches not just the size, but your foot itself. Bauer and CCM have skate lines that are made specifically for people with wide feet.

In order to determine the width of your foot, you can take your foot’s length and divide it by the width, which will show you how wide your foot is compared to its length. This will help you with your foot volume.

• If the width ratio is greater than 3, you have a low volume foot with a shallow heel and a narrow forefoot.
• If the width ratio is between 2.5 and 3, you have a standard forefoot with medium volume, and a standard heel.
• If the width ratio is less than 2.5, you have a high volume foot with a deep heel and wide forefoot.

If you find that your width ratio isn’t quite 3, so you would opt for the medium volume skate, you also have the option of getting a low volume skate in a wide width. Meanwhile if you are under 2.5, you can still go with a medium volume skate with wide width as well. You can tinker around with the sizing to find the perfect fit for you.

Bottom Line

When it comes down to it, you should always try the skates on before you buy. If you are shopping online, however, this might not be an option. So measure carefully, compare to the size charts, and get the right fit.