Signs That you Need to Replace Your Skate Shoes

At first, I thought skateboarding would be free after I had bought my first board, if only this was the reality. Many parts on your board deteriorate over time, but the thing I need to replace the most is my skate shoes.

Some people use their shoes until they have holes in their socks, or their outsoles fall out, but you should aim to replace your shoes every 2-6 months. If you skate 3 times a week or more, then you should probably replace them after 2 months. If you only skate 1 - 2 times a week, then you won't need to replace them before 4-6 months have passed.

Your style of skating is a huge factor in how fast you need to replace your skate shoes. If you don't do many flip tricks and prefer skating in half pipes you should still get a new pair every 4-6 months. The wear on your shoe isn't always visible, after you have used them for a while, the shoe won't be able to support you properly, the impact on your feet will be much worse if this is the case and this can lead to injuries.

12 Signs you Need to Replace Your Skate Shoes

When you are an experienced skateboarder, you probably know when it's time to get new shoes, but most skaters tend to delay getting a new pair.

buying new skate shoes can be expensive and your shoes might even feel best when it's almost time to get new ones, this is because you need to break in the shoes before they fit your feet. Sometimes the damages are small, this means you can temporarily repair them with something like shoe goo.

Here are 12 signs your shoes are beyond repair.

1. Your Sole Lost its Grip

When your shoes has lost its grip, there is nothing you can do, usually you get ollie holes in your shoes before anything else, but if you like to cruise like me then you will have some shoes where the soles give out first.

You need grip if you want to stick to your board, but when you brake and push, your soles will wear out pretty quickly. The only things you can do to prevent this, is by getting quality shoes from a good brand, and learning to brake by powersliding.

If you have decent wheels you dont need to worry about flatspots, and if you are using a cruiser board, doing a powerslide can be more challenging in many situations.

2. The sole flaps

Sole flaps is really annoying, especially if they are on your push foot. Sole flaps are not only annoying but they can even make you get injuries. Having sole flaps makes your shoe unstable, you can glue them back on, but this is a very temporary fix. After a short amount of time, they will start flapping again so replacing them is the best option.

3. Holes in The Sole

The holes in your soles are caused by braking, moving your feets on the griptape, and pushing, if you have a low quality shoe these holes will appear faster than ollie holes, an exception is if you like to cruise alot.

If you are a skater that only cruise or hop scrubs, then you will have this issue a lot more than street skaters or if you like skating in a park. unfortunately there is no way to fix this, you can replace the insoles, but this will only be a waste of money, after minutes of skating another hole might appear.

4. Ripped stitches on the shoes

If your skate shoes has stitches near the toe area, you need to buy some shoe goo. If you ignore ripped stitches then you will son have unusable skate shoes, when you see that they are loose then you need to apply shoe goo immediately to prevent more damage.

I recomend getting skate shoes without stitches, this is usually a sign that it is a skate shoe of better quality.

5. To much wiggle room

If you can wiggle your feet from one side to the other, his might be a sign that your shoes have been stretched out from the inside.

Tightening the laces might work but not always. You can always use a bigger sock to fix the problem but this isn't wety comfortable. If your shoes has survived this long, then it is time to get a new pair of shoes.

6. Your Socks have holes in them

If your socks has holes in them it means that you need to immediately patch up your shoes with suede, rip care, and shoo goo. If your socks has holes patching the shoes might be too late, but its with a try.

7. You got More Goo Than Shoe

If this is your situation then it is time to get new shoes. when your shoes are basically held together by suede and shoo goo, it is not a shoe anymore. You should patch your shoes up sometimes, but after most of the shoe is gon, throw them away.

8. Impacts Hurt More Than Usual

If you only skate mini ramps, bowls ore cruise, you probably wont get holes from doing kickflip. the wear on your shoes arent always visible, but the shoes integrity can only last for a certain amount of time. in the end your shoes wont be able to support you anymore, and all the impact will go to your feet.

If you want to avoid long lasting foot injuries, then you should replace your shoes at least every 5-6 months. just like running shoes needs to be replaced, your skater shoes needs the same.

9. Abrasion on your foot

Abraison on your feet only happens if you like to ignore pain and continue to skate with holes in your shoes. this has only happened to me one time, but one time is enough. I was skating and learning how to kickflip, I though my feet only hurt from skating the entire day, but it turns out I gone through both my shoe and sock.

When I took of my shoe, my sock had a new red color.

10. You Have Patched your shoes with cardboard

This is a solution you only should do if you really dont have the money to patch your shoes or get a new pair. after a short time, you will have gone through the cardboard and need to replace it, this will prevent abrasion on your feet but riding with cardboard in your shoes is a strange feeling.

11. Youre Using Duct Tape

Duct tape is a temporary fix, if you have the choice between ending your session now or putting on some duct tape, I also would use duct tape. after they are patched, your shoes has less friction so flip tricks will be a lot harder.

If you have the equipment I highly recomend patching them with suede, rip care, and shoe goo instead.

12. Your Shoes Smell Really Bad

When you skate, you are going to end up with sweaty smelly shoes. If you wait long enough with replacing them, the smell will be unbearable. You can prevent the smell by washing your shoes but this wont remove all the smell.

An extra advice that I dont know if works or is only placebo is putting tea bags in your shoes.

When Should you Buy New Skate Shoes

If you have skated for a while, and your shoes dont show clear signs of wear, you should still replace you skate shoes every 5-6 months. Kicfklips and ollies isn't the only thing that ruins your shoes, just using them will eventually wear them down.

In the end they wont be able to protect you from the impact anymore, at this point you can either get new insoles to get some protection back, or you can do whats best and get a new pair of skate shoes.

Board Feel VS Durability

I have some friends that buy the most durable skate shoes ever, just to stop spending money on skate shoes, if this really dont affect you then go ahead, but personally I want to have a shoe where I can feelmy board.

A lot of technical skaters choose to use vulcanized shoes, they offer a better board feel, since they have a thinner and more flexible outer sole. it is harder to pull of tricks with shoes that feels like bricks but lightweight shoes wear out much more quickly.

It is up to you to choose what type of shoes that works best for you, but remember to try out both to find out what works best.

How long untill your shoes break in

Breaking in your shoes doesn't take that long, if you have a nice session it can be 2 hours up til a day. this is from what shoes I use, if you use thicker or thinner shoes your result might be different.

Conclusion

There is a lot of signs that you should replace your skate shoes, sometimes you can repair them with suede and shoo goo, but other times they are to far gone.

Dont let your feet get injured by having holes in your shoes, it sucks not being able to skate because your feet needs time to heal.

If you want to make your skate shoes last a long time, then you need to buy shoo goo. just so you remember it repeat with me, shoe goo, shoe goo, shoe goo.

If you dont get it yet, buy shoe goo and have a nice day.