Shout out to Rainbo Skates
As a bad skater I always wanted new boots.
In October I finally got my Jackson FS2192 from Rainbo, but I disregarded their good advices and settled on a larger size (Men's 8) at the first sight. It was pressing hard on the ankles, I thought it might go away after some breaking-in, but once I got on the ice, it was hurting me so much whenever I tilted or glide backwards. I only skated a short while and spent more time tying and re-tying them.
Today I spent whole two hours to try different sizes, put them on and off, walked around, tried to feel them. My foot was measured 7, left foot being smaller, and I used to wear JS1592 size 7.5 - Both size 7.5 and 7 of FS2192 actually felt better and squeezed/pressed less hard than the size 8 pair. Eventually settled on the size 7 ones. All the time people at Rainbo were very helpful and offered good advices, encouraged me (and all the kids coming in for shoe-fitting) a lot. They were very proud of their work and how unique they were: the only place in state for certain services. I heard a lot of stories in the most recent visits, and I wish their business doing well.
Rule of thumb:
- make appointments and better leave enough time for travel and shoe-fitting. One hour before closing time would be too much hurry.
- trust professional opinion. The size of foot changes from morning to evening, and running can also affect foot size (for running I wear size 9.5 and about 35mi per week)
- try all sizes and understand what is the feeling of good/bad fit. If possible experience more models and sizes.
I remembered that once a parent blamed the child really hard for unwilling to size up. One pair of shoes for that level was nearly a thousand, so I understood the parent and also always did the same to my own kid.. but now I felt their pain.
In the running club, occasionally we have the chance to try on brand shoes and run for an hour or so. If only skates can be tried like this! Unfortunately skates have not progressed so far as running shoes. If a "super shoes" business model is applied to skates, making them highly technical, have a ultra short but performant life, would that be of any appeals?
x-posted at https://www.reddit.com/r/FigureSkating/comments/1gjwdle/shout_out_to_rainbo_skates/