So, I don't know about you, but I can give you my experience with purchasing Riedell skates online and breaking them in. I found a pair on ebay that caught my eye. I was concerned they would be too narrow (they were a 9.5A and I knew Riedell tends to run narrow). I wear a size 10 shoe. I measured my feet, not using the Riedell cut out thing, but using the directions on Kenzie's Closet and using the chart for Riedell sizing they had. Based on my foot measurements it certainly appeared that I was within a safe range to order the boots. They were the first upper level boots I had ever tried on, I was not sure what to expect. I had some really cheap skates before that were size 10 that I had to wear 2 pairs of socks with and still felt a bit loose so I knew that was not right.
When the skates arrived, I made the mistake of trying them on with regular socks and could barely get my foot in. Then I tried a nylon knee high and my foot went in. I remember they felt tight on the sides but I could still wiggle my big toe. I could walk in them but it was not plesant, they felt really tight, though it was not pain, hard to describe. Anyway, these were higher level skates (silver stars) and I had only paid $100 for them with blades, never worn, so I did not have the option of sending them back and not much to lose trying them. If you talked to me the very first time I put my skates on I would have told you that they either needed to be stretched or I needed a wider size. But I decided to persist with the break in process, these were older model leather skates, I also read as much as I could about breaking in skates.
So, I sat around the house the first day or two with them on forced myself to make it thirty minutes a day. I then started skating with them. I made it ten minutes the first time before I had to sit. I rested, did another ten and called it a day. That was how my first couple of skates went, I wore trouser socks instead of knee highs, more durable but still thin. So, for the first five skates I was fairly convinced I need them stretched, but I wanted to wait until I had really given them a chance before I had them messed with. By about the sixth skate, I knew I did not want them stretched. I was able to skate thirty minutes without stopping and my at-home wear time had increased to an hour. I got to where I forgot I even had them on at home. By ten skates I was up to an hour on the ice, my feet would be reddened all around the bottom from the pressure when I removed the skate, but it was an even pressure, no signs of specific pressure points, and no real pain, just tired and a little achey when I finished.
I have now had them a year, I can wear them as long as I need to, the comfort of my skates way outlasts my skating endurance, I take very good care of them, never leave them out in the car, I always made sure the leather was about at room temperature as much as I could. The real break in process took me about ten skates and about twice as many days off ice, so about a month. It is really hard for me to advise people about skates when they first put them on because mine felt so awful and now they feel so good. The only thing I can say is that length wise you should be able to wiggle your big toe but not have slipping in the heel, they should be quite snug but it should be an even snugness, check the pressure pattern after you take them off to see if there are points of increased redness at first. When I skate now there is no redness at all BTW, but that also took a few months. They should not be painful per say but they will be tight. I know everyone is different too, sometimes it helps to do forum searches on other folk's experiences breaking in skates. Also, if they are lower level skates they are not leather, which gives and molds to your foot over time, they will be synthetic and less predictable in that aspect, I should think they would feel a little better than the leather ones from the beginning.
