Originally Posted by PaulRivers

I do not own those pedals, but they should not be like that. I bought a pair of Crank Brothers Acid pedals and had trouble clipping in and out, but the shop I bought them from knew to install an additional shim on my shoes and now they're great/fine.

If you were wearing road shoes I'd suggest the Speedplay light actions. In mountain bike shoes nothing should be that tight, but my only specific suggestion is to go ask at the shop - sometimes there's a setting or adjustment that they can make.

Or, obviously, you could just buy a different system, though for expense reasons I would ask about it first.