Sooooo...in my zeal to start the new year off right, I spent an hour making sure my skates were in tip-top condition. I checked the screws, waterproofed the soles then cleaned, touched up and polished the uppers.
I use neutral shoe polish on the uppers. Usually, I just do the parts that might get wet from skating, but this time I went above code and polished the tongue and the eyelet areas. Which, of course, resulted in my getting polish on the laces themselves. It's neutral (clear) - who cares, right?
The boots are a little narrow and in hindsight, I should have bought the wider-tongue option, plus they have the thick foam backing that all work together to make tying these skates difficult. I usually have to retie the skates when the laces slip.
Tying these skates has NEVER been so good! The laces slip through the eyelets easily, I can pull tighter when tying and they stay tight.
My next experiment will be to use beeswax on the ends of the laces, where they go around the hooks. If it works, that would be a boon to all the grandparents who struggle to get the laces tight.
My plan is to use a sewing notion to apply the wax:
Tailors and seamstresses use this to wax their thread for hand-sewing, which prevents tangling and makes sewing easier.
I'll post later with the results.