A few people get cold hands or feet when skating.
There are many good things to try.
- Better insulation all over
- proper boot fit (extremely tight fit cuts off circulation and makes you cold)
- neoprene boot covers (trade-off: interferes with very close footwork)
- pre-warming boots with hand or hair drier, or with a microwaved sock full of rice
- insulated insoles (e.g., some are made of multiple layers of aluminized mylar)
But a few of you have said these are not good enough. Some people simply can't generate enough heat in their hands and feet to stay warm.
Chemical hand and foot warmers generate heat for you. The foot warmers take up very little space in the boot, though a few of you with very tight fits may want to replace your insole with a dollar pair, and shape it and hollow out a space under the insole for the pack.
Alas, they cost $1 - $1.50 / pair in camping good stores, and are only good for 1 use.
Costco is temporarily selling boxes of hand and foot warmers relatively cheap, in the variety that heats for about 8 hours.
40 pair of hand warmers, + 3 body warmers: $14.99
30 pair of foot warmers: $12.99
That's $0.375 / hand warmer and $0.433 / foot warmer.
If hand or foot warmth interferes with your skating enjoyment or safety, it could be worth it - if you already belong to Costco.
The sale isn't on the website. I don't know if it is just my store, but it's probably the whole chain.