I don't know anything about the specific boots you used or are considering. I am basing this only on personal experience, combined with discussions with various skate techs and boot makers, and the comments of other people here.
But a lot of people say that one of the fastest ways to break down boots is to use ones that don't precisely fit your feet. As a one time rink guard/rental desk person, I watched people completely break down new rental boots in less than an hour, because they were too loose, or otherwise didn't fit the shape of their feet.
This is a bit of a simplification, but to a large extant, a crease can form if there is room for it to form. There shouldn't be. The skates should be snug just about everywhere. Most people want a little space to the sides and some people say to the front of the toes, to reduce damage to the feet, and a little space above the ankle just ahead of and behind the foot - but no where else. Everywhere else, the standard (which may be modified if you have certain specific medical needs) if the the boot to apply approximately equal pressure to every other part of the foot - and that should fit several times tighter than an ordinary shoe. Most of the experts say that except for forward/backwards tilt at the ankle, there should literally be no movement of the foot against the boot, completely different from most shoes. Part of that snug fit is in the lacing - I tie my boots just about as tight as I can. But boots should fit as close to perfectly as possible even without that.
A good starting point, if you can remove the insoles from the boots, is to stand with your feet on the insoles. Ideally, the bottom of your feet should perfectly fill the outline of the insole - except perhaps the sides and front of the toes. That's not everything, because you are actually looking for a full 3D fit, but it should be there. Another criteria, possibly even more important, is to observe whether the top of the insole, inside the boot, bends upwards near the ball of your foot. You pretty much want that bend to be directly under the ball of your foot. If it isn't, the stress on your foot could lead to a bone fracture, or other injury. One well respected skate tech I knew said that was the single most important thing to look for in boot fit. He felt that fitters who determine optimal boot length only by measuring the length of the foot were doing it wrong.
If you were underbooted, that means your boot probably wasn't stiff enough. I' had boots (incidentally also Risports, different model) break down in a couple months. And I wasn't doing anything serious, just low level ice dance. They initially fit perfectly, and had been barely used by the prior owner before they were presumably outgrown, but they were only a single layer of leather. And the one thing I did that wasn't completely beginnerish, was that I was taught to do deep edge leans, so the top of the boot brushed the ice during underpushes - a common ice dance criteria. Presumably, those deep edges forced the boot to bend and break down, even though I wasn't jumping significantly. I had carefully lined the insides with adhesive foam so there wasn't really any room for initial creases - but the boots rapidly became softer, until they no longer supported my feet - and if I remember right, they did eventually crease, because they no longer conformed to my feet. I'm not saying all Risports are bad. I'm saying you need boots that will stay sufficiently stiff to do the job, for a long time. If I had to choose between underbooting and overboot, I would overboot.
Boots that can be heat molded to your feet are a good idea. While heat molding can't compensate for everything, heat molding does seem to help a significant amount. If the boots are reasonably close, you can fill slightly loose spots with adhesive foam (like moleskin), to get that snug feeling all over. First, you can use cloth athletic tape under the insole, to make it snug everywhere there.
If your coach is good at this sort of thing, it may be a good idea to listen to what he says regarding boot and blade level. Boot problems are one of the most common problems good coaches deal with, so I believe good coaches should know what is needed. But, for the most part, only you can tell whether a boot fits a given foot - unless you have numb feet that can't feel pressures against them.
Topic: New boot/blade advice and recomendations (Read 1966 times)