Baking New Hockey Skates

These are instructions for how to bake your hockey skates in your household conventional oven.

Baking new hockey skates. Skates on the baking sheet. If not leave it in for another 2 3 minutes. There may actually be a suggested time indicated on the label. You can ruin your skates or worse.

At this point start your timer. Place the skate on your baking sheet. We show you how to do it in the comfort of your home. First of all not all hockey skates are able to be baked and molded safely.

In fact some players prefer the traditional way of breaking in skates which is to simply wear them. Keep them on for 15 minutes so they mold to your feet. Your skates should come with directions on how long they should be baked. If it s soft enough that it can be shaped it s ready.

To get a more customizable fit and to decrease break in time people bake their skates. Lay them sideways on the baking sheet. Don t put your skates directly on the rack. Bake until golden brown.

But don t try this at home. With the oven now pre heated to 175 turn it off and place the sheet with your skate on the middle rack. If you can t fit them both at the same time just do one at a time but don t cut any corners the second time around. But check the box your skates came in.

Then put the shoes on and lace them up. Some hockey players choose to heat mold their skates at home in the oven and others take them to a pro shop. Be sure not to leave the door open too long while. This is because the material that the less expensive skates are made out of cannot hold up against the heat.

Recreational and beginner skates are not recommended because the bake would make the lifespan of the skate much shorter. Follow the time. Most skates should bake for 6 8 minutes. Bake them in the oven for 6 to 8 minutes until they feel soft and you can smell plastic.

After 4 5 minutes open the oven and feel the boot. Start by heating your oven to 175 degrees fahrenheit then turning it off. Discount hockey suggests baking ice hockey skates when purchasing intermediate to advanced level skates. Buy your skates at a shop where they ll bake them for you for free like pure hockey or pay a few bucks to have them baked professionally.

Loosen the tongue of your shoes to make them easier to mold. Baking also known as heat molding reduces break in time and provides a very custom fit around your foot. Most will say to put your skates on a baking sheet so you don t end up with any strange grooves from the oven shelf but sometimes the time and exact temperature will vary. In general the less expensive skates are not able to be baked.

Once pre heating is complete turn off the oven and place one of your skates on a standard baking sheet before placing it directly on the center of the oven rack. Leave your shoes to sit for 24 hours. You will be putting on a warm skate and lacing it up so that it may form around your foot for a truly personalized fit. Check and double check the temperatures and methods the manufacture recommends.

Put the baking sheet on the center rack and make sure the skates aren t touching anything except that sheet. The heat from the oven softens the materials in the skate s boot. If your new hockey skates feel stiff you can soften them in the oven and mold them to your feet.