Which skate brand would fit my foot best

[linklemming]

I am having a hard time finding any stores which carry skates...let alone anybody who carries size 13.

I am looking for a fitness type skate (like a k2 vo2).

I have size 13 feet and typically need a narrow heal but alot of toe room. I have a bone spur on my left side of my little toe from skiing too much in ill fitting boots.

So far what I have been able to try:

K2 Exo 2.0 in a 13 - lots of toe room but I had tons of heal room, I feel like I was swimming in them. Pretty comfy though.

K2 Exo 6.0 in a 12 - this felt about perfect, still lots of room due to my narrow heal but felt much more like I would expect. I did get a little rubbing on the bone spur, if it wasnt for this I would say this skate was perfect.

RB Zetrablade in a 13 - wow, much better fit to my narrow foot but not enough room in the toe box.

RB Zetrablade in a 12 - Ouch!!

I have no idea how roces and Salomon's would fit...any ideas.

Other than that I am thinking of a k2 vo2 or vo2 max in a 12.5 with perhaps something to take up room in the back part of the foot....perhaps a superfeet insert or ezefit ankle booties.

Any suggestions welcome!

Gary

[IW Staff]

Due to your special circumstances (spur), it would be difficult for me to kow what would fit your feet the best. Trying them naturally is the most sure fire way. K2 or Salomon would be my guess and it seems you are fairly close with the K2. Inserts help a lot, but may not do a whole lot for the position of the spur. Hard to say. Sorry I can't be of more help, but I would hate to steer you to something that wouldn't work. You know your feet better than I do and I don't have them here. Keep doing what you are doing and when find one close, think about the socks you are wearing. Salomon may give you a little room in the toe, but wide in the heel.

Thanks for the post.

[linklemming]

I guess what I was looking for was some kind of general description of how salomons, RB, Roces, Salomons fit. What I am looking for is a narrowish size 13ish boot with a big toe box.

So far it seems like:

RB - generally the narrowest and the smallest toe box.
K2 - a little wider in the foot and toe box.
Roces?
Salomon?

The Spur just requires a little more toe space in my experience.

The options for trying on skates is all I had, nothing else locally to try.

Gary

[IW Staff]

Salomon traditionally the wider of the 3. Roces about par with RB.

Thanks for the post.

[linklemming]

Well, I decided to go with K2 VO2's in a 12.5. I dont recall you having those when I ordered... so I had to order them elsewhere (12.5 seems really hard to find and I was in a super rush) but it was all a blur. I did order some superfeet insoles from you and must say they seemed to have fixed the problem...both reducing volume in the heel and giving more toe room by solidly locking in the heel. Puurfect fit.

Is it possible to special order a size as I was thinking of getting a little shorter wheelbase rec. skate for playing around.

Given that Roces and RB are about the same as far as a narrow foot, are they the same as far as toe room?

Gary

[IW Staff]

Pretty close in my opinion. Yes.

IW

[linklemming]

Thought I would post an update for anyone interested.

I now own a set of K2 Vo2's in a size 12.5 and a set of Rollerblade Twisters in a size 13. While the k2's are great for distance/trail skating, the wheelbase of 300mm is a little long for playing around. For playing around, the twisters are alot more fun at 250mm.

These two skates for me fit about the same giving about the same toe room and length. The twister is definately more narrow in the heel which for the most part is good except the arch is a little tight(need to fix that with the heat gun). The nice thing with the twister is being able to use a heat gun/hair dryer to customize the fit. There is so much room in the K2 that this isnt an issue but I would prefer a tighter fit.

The twister had so much ankle support that it caused pain on an ankle bone. A few minutes with a heat gun, C-clamp and a PCV 1.25" cap fixed that right up.

Gary