Figure Skating Competition Checklist

Last updated: 28 October 2026

The night before

Pack the bag before the morning of, in this order — dress last so it goes in flat, on top. Print the checklist or keep it on your phone; the list below is everything that has actually rescued a competition in our customers' reports.

The dress bag

• The dress on a hanger, in a garment bag — not folded in a suitcase. Crystals survive travel badly when crushed.
• Spare tights. One pair is one fall away from being useless; two spares is the number experienced skate parents carry.
• A spare pair of gloves and spare hair ties, bobby pins and a hair net. Hair gear is the most-borrowed item at every rink in the country.
• A small repair kit: a few safety pins, a needle with thread matching the dress, and a couple of loose crystals if you have them. A strap that pops is a two-minute fix if you have the kit and a lost final if you do not.

Rink bag

• Skates, blade guards and soakers — guards for walking, soakers for the bag.
• Water and plain snacks. Rink cafés run out at exactly the wrong time; something with slow sugar (a banana, a cereal bar) beats candy before a programme.
• A warm layer for off-ice waiting — rinks run cold and muscles that wait 40 minutes get cold. A jacket you can zip over the dress without pulling it over your head protects hair and makeup.
• Music: most organisers play from your uploaded file, but bring a backup copy on your phone if the event asked for one.

Paperwork people forget

• Membership card or the printout/PDF of it — check-in desks at qualifying events do ask.
• The event schedule with your flight time and the official practice ice time, which is the one people miss.
• Coach's contact saved in your phone, and the rink's address — the event name is not the rink name, and Saturday morning GPS has sent more than one family to a school with a similar name.

One quiet extra

Put the dress on, once, at home, two days before — full dress, tights, hair done as it will be. Not to admire it: to find out now that a strap needs a stitch or the tights show a run. If the fit is genuinely wrong, that is what the 30-day alteration window and our email are for — and if you are still choosing the dress itself, the virtual try-on shows any design on a photo before you commit. Preparing a new one for a later competition? Order early and tell us the date — the earlier we know, the more we can do about it.