Taking boots at cobblers got me thinking:

Wouldn't be better if eyelets had rectangular shaped holes rather than circular, that way flat laces would stay flat and not twist.

Hooks should have a much wider plate to spread out the pressure and stop them digging into the leather and breaking.

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Skate Free

and you would think that by now, someone would have invented laces that DON'T STRETCH or get dirty; boots that don't show gouges from your blades either


and stay warm when you are on the ice for hours teaching...

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

And don't cost a fortune, take ages to break in, still hurt, and then have to be replaced within 2 years?

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Karen

I skate - therefore I am

sort of related, i wish hockey skates had a cam-lock system like rollerblades...can't tell you how many times my hand has cramped up helping the kids (mine and others) lace up their hockey skates....would be so much easier and the kids could do it ALL BY THEMSELVES!!!!

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

Tight lacing can be done by using one finger to lock the lower part of the lace onto a hole or hook while using the rest of your hand to pull. Yeah, it's awkward. Only works if you get out most of the loose stuff before you do a final tighten of the whole lace, starting from the bottom.

And obviously full tightening only occurs if you pull inwards after you pull upwards and outwards, because it draws the sides together.

Have you tried lace hooks? You can buy them for a dollar. They help tight lacing a lot, especially for people with clumsy fingers. In fact you have to be careful not to cut off circulation.

Non-elastic cotton laces exist, but if they slip even a few thousandths of an inch, they lose their tension.

Besides, you can repair (elastic) nylon lace ends by slightly melting them with a match or burner, and rolling it between your fingers (danger: hot and flammable - not for young children or irresponsible adults), impossible with cotton.

Simple jam cleats like they use in sailboats (i.e., you jam and pull the body of the lace into something thin) are simpler, less trouble prone and easier to tighten then some other mechanisms mentioned, and let you seperately adjust tightness at each point. Simple ones could be very cheap.

I've said before it would be nice to replace all lace holes and hooks with jam cleats, and run them all around the skate, so one could adjust range of motion and resistance everywhere seperately.

Jackson ProFlex boots use some sort of complicated mechanism to tighten a cable using a ratchet system instead of laces. Someone told me they've tripped over where they put the knob, and someone else claimed the system is trouble prone, but it might give you what you want.

Lace tighteners work for adults and teens, but not very well for little kids (4-about 10-12) since they don't have the fine-motor skills needed to manipulate. We are lucky to even get them to remember their helmet let alone lace up boots.

The jam cleats would really work great if they were flatter, they are bigger than the knob on the Pro-Flex boot. The early models were prone to trouble, but the ones out now are much better. Since the knob is in the back one is less likely to trip over it or get tangled up in it. But for some people, they manage no matter what!!!

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

Speaking of Jackson ProFlex there is now a revised 2008 model called the ProFlex 2. They have also released a new cheaper hinged boot called the ProFlex Elite.

WOW!!! MY boot, in a FLEX model! man!!! oh well, a girl can dream.

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!