Bear with me but I want to type this out ....
Last year we measured my daughters foot and was checked against a stick in a local shop. She was wearing 11s in Riedell 12W but they were falling apart and she was complaining her toes hurt. I figured - 4 yr old chunky feet, riedell is apparently narrow even thought she was only measuring a little over a 10 on the stick.
Her apparent Jackson size was a 10.5 on one foot, 11 on the other, I had 11.5B Jacksons at home I picked up on ebay, so we made the switch. A lot of sites say go up a half size for wiggle/growing room. Eventually she outgrew them, so I picked up another used pair of Jackson Artistes in a 12B. Those eventually started to hurt so I put a size 12 in Riedells on her and while they relieved the pain they looked too big.
Fast forward to today, Andrew at West Orange's Edge skate shop takes one look at her foot and tells me to put her in a Riedell Stride. Her foot measured at just under an 11. So the other skates were too big. Now I was like - that's it? I drove 1.5 hrs for that? So I was like are you sure? He said well you could do the Jackson Elle or Freestyle - difference wasn't that noticeable to me, but price wise I did not need to spend the extra for the 10 jump in stiffness when she is 40 lbs.
Anyways, DD says she wants the Jacksons, measure her - comes out at just over an 11 - would order her an 11.5. I was like no way! She's on a 12 and they hurt! He even said her foot was narrow and since the Riedell's have been re-designed, that he does not feel Jackson has a wider last.
After trying on 12C in Mystiques, and confirming the toe pinching (though less tears than the 12B at home), and 11.5 in Riedell Emeralds (no Stride in stock), we decided to go with an 11.5 in Riedell so she would have some growing room/toe wiggle AND be able to heat mold them. We may be able to still use her Jubilee blades from the 12s - better blade he said then the one it comes with normally.
Some things I noted from today:
- The PVC coated Jacksons may have hurt because they have no give, even though the boot is technically leather.
- Her foot was likely being pushed forward in the Jackson boot by the shape of it- which makes sense because the foot impression in her old boots suggests about 1cm of room behind the heel.
- The actual width of the Jacksons did not appear different from Riedell however they have different shapes. The Riedell had a nice high/rounded toe box which worked better with my DDs feet (straight across for the toes, not tapered) and the Jackson's is clearly tapered. My daughters feet are about the same width from heel to toe, I must have asked a million times if he was sure they were not wide but now I am convinced it is the tapered boot shape vs the rounded toe box. I just put her old 11.5B Freestyles on her and no way those suckers fit!
- The Riedell Emerald which she tried on was softer than what I would expect for a stiffness of 20 (Artiste's were 20). I am also convinced they have a GEM line to get more parents to buy the skates for their beginners because my DD was fascinated by the sparkles on the toe plate!
So in a week I will make another 3 hour trip to pick up her skates and get them molded. Hopefully I won't walk out with a ton of extra crap too (ie Rockers or the like lol).