Buying Skates Online

We love it when people come to Nerd HQ and try on all the skates. But what if you’re far away? Well until we get our transporter beam working, we’ll have to use low tech methods; a pencil, a piece of paper, a ruler, and a tape measure. 

Skate sizing is very important; the power you provide through your legs should be directed to your skate wheels, they should become a part of you. This is a difficult concept for most of us who wear comfortable shoes or oversize our everyday shoes for comfort. Roller Skating is a performance sport – your footwear should fit properly in order to get the most enjoyment out of your skating experience. 

There are some general rules for skate sizing like “women go one size down from your shoe size” but this doesn’t always work. The best way to find your skate size is to measure your feet.

1. Place a piece of paper on a hard floor lined up against the wall and tape it down.
2. Mark the line where the wall meets the floor.
3. Stand with your heel against the wall
4. Ask a helpful friend to trace all around your foot. Make sure that the pencil stays straight up and down; if you tilt it, you won’t get an accurate measurement.
5. Use a ruler to measure from where your heel was touching the wall to the end of your longest toe to get the length measurement. Mark down both feet measurements in Millimetres 
6. To measure the width, stand on the tape measure at the widest part of the ball of the foot.
7. Ask your friend to measure the circumference of your foot. This is very important if you think you have very wide or very narrow feet.
8. Do both feet. Most people have one foot bigger than the other so you want to make sure your skates will fit your larger foot.
9. Write your name, email address and phone number on the tracing.
10. Thank your helpful friend.
11. Send your measurements and tracing to Nerd. Don’t just scan the tracing without sending measurements, as images can come out different sizes when you print them.
12. NEVER buy a boot one size bigger in order to compensate for wide feet.

Sending pictures of your feet is very helpful, especially if you have issues you are concerned about, like bunions, high arches, narrow heels, odd lengths of toes, etc.

Make sure you get a top view looking down at your toes, a side view that shows the arch, and a back view that shows your heels.

We’ll do our best to find the best skates for you! Read our Boot Fitting article and follow the steps when you try on your new skates for the first time. Hopefully it all worked out and you’re ready to roll!