Report on buying my new ski boots

Report on buying my new ski boots


I bought my new ski boots from Profeet in London on 31st March 2010. They were the first ski boots I'd ever bought. Previously, I'd always hired boots in resort and been quite satisfied with them, but after I injured one of my toes whilst ski-ing I decided to buy new boots. I chose Profeet because it was recommended to me by someone on J2ski.com and I visit the London area occasionally. It cost £150 for the specialist fitting (including the cost of the special insoles), plus the cost of the boots, but the comfort guarantee lasts for the life of the boot and they do a 'best shop price' guarantee on the boots as well.

Location of the Profeet shop
It's number 867 Fulham Road in London. It's at the Fulham Palace road end of Fulham road, and the nearest tube station is Parsons Green on the District Line Wimbledon branch (a 5 minute walk).

The shop
It's quite posh – rather like a private dentist's place, with arty furniture, fancy magazines, and free hot chocolate etc. They also sell and fit running shoes and climbing boots, so there is lots of very interesting-looking apparatus like stones and rocks to walk on, a running treadmill, and a ski-ing machine.

Fitting by appointment
You need an appointment to get ski boots fitted – phone number 0207 7360046. My appointment was 2 hours long, but I'd allowed extra time for it, which was just as well because it actually took 3 hours from the time I walked in the door to the time I walked out, complete with new ski boots.

The Procedure
1. I filled out a form with the usual details of my name and address etc. plus my ski-ing level (upper intermediate/advanced), previous ski boots, and past ski-ing experience (2 weeks as a child, and 6 ½ weeks as an adult including 4 weeks of lessons as an adult), and then answered a lot of very detailed health questions on past fractures etc.
2. You have to put on shorts or roll-up trousers (I picked trousers but quite a few of the other customers were wearing shorts), take off your socks and sit in a special chair on a platform while the technician looks at your feet and legs up to and including your knee joint and answer a lot of questions about your ski-ing and injuries etc.
3. You have to stand on a special foot scanner in your normal relaxed stance, which measures and records the differential pressure on your feet. My scan revealed the fact that I usually stand with my right foot turned slightly outwards and 57% of my weight on my right foot as compared with 43% on my left. Furthermore, 62% of the weight on my right foot is on my forefoot and only 38% on my heel. My left foot was better balanced, with 54% of the weight on my forefoot and 46% on my heel.
4. The technician then corrected my stance, by turning my right foot inwards (it didn't feel right at all like that) and re-scanned my feet. There was a big improvement as regards the balance between my right and left feet. The weight on my right foot was reduced to 49% and the weight on my left foot increased to 51%. However, the distribution of the weight on my right foot was still imbalanced – 62% on the forefoot and 38% on the heel, and my left foot had worsened to 63% and 37%. Presumably there is meant to be an even weight distribution – or at least there is in the example they provide in their literature.
5. He examined my feet and said I had a high arch, a narrow foot, and a tight FHL under the foot (apparently it's not supposed to hurt when he prodded this bit on the sole of my feet). However, I said I never get any pain in my feet and I can walk okay and he didn't seem too bothered about it. He also said my feet are slightly pronated.
6. The next step was to take a mould of my feet in order to make a special insole for the ski boot. I was expecting to get my feet covered in wax or something, but actually the mould box is covered in plastic so that your feet don't touch the wax.
7. The technician made the insole from the mould.
8. He measured my feet and decided which make and model of ski boot he thought would best fit the shape of my foot. He didn't have a suitable boot in the correct size (size 8 or 27) in a woman's model but I don't mind having a man's boot.
9. He gave me two different boots to try on (I've forgotten what the other one was) and I had to try them first without the liners in to make sure they were the right size inside all around my foot. Then he put the liners back in, and after a long time of walking about the shop and trying different ski-ing stance positions etc. I decided that I liked the Atomic Hawx 90 best. They were very comfy boots and I was especially pleased because I could walk up and down steps in them really easily, and even jog wearing them! He had to adjust the buckles on them, and also right at the end of the fitting he adjusted the cuff on the right boot (presumably to try to correct the way my right foot turns outwards). He said a flex of 90 would be fine for me, and I accepted what he said (I don't know anything about ski boots).
10. Finally, he put the special orthotic insoles in the boots and I tried them like that. They felt awful – just like I had slightly squishy pebbles under the soles of my feet. After quite a while of walking about the shop like that, ski-ing on their special machine, and walking backwards up a ramp with skis on, they didn't feel quite so bad. He did give me the original insoles as well, presumably in case I totally give up with his special ones and decide to use the normal ones!


The bill
Analysis = £40
Sidas/proski insole = £109-95
Atomic Hawx 90 27 = £265-00

Total = £414-95

I also decided to buy one of their lovely trolley boot bags with the Profeet logo on. It takes 2 pairs of boots and has a separate section for other things, and trolleys along very nicely (ideal for the underground and train etc. I thought) and cost me £50.

I checked boot prices on the internet after I came home, and it seems I paid a pretty fair price for the boots (although not a sale price). Snow and Rock don't have the 90 flex for sale, but they are selling the 100 for £231, and the 80 for £160- (reduced from £229-). Ellis Brigham isn't selling the 90's either. If anyone sees the 90's on sale in an actual physical British shop in the next few days please let me know and then I can get a rebate on my boots.

Testing the boots
The next day I went to the snow dome at Milton Keynes for a 2 hour coaching session in the Thursday Ladies Morning (cost £27 including tea and biscuits at half-time and ski hire).

I was really shocked at how strange my skis and boots felt, once I tried ski-ing on them. Partly, of course, it was bound to be due to different skis and the feeling of the artificial snow as compared with the snow at Courchevel 6 weeks before. But I do think it was mainly due to the boots, and especially the orthotic insoles.

Luckily, the Ladies Morning is for all standards of lady skiers once you can link turns and safely ski down the main slope, so it didn't matter much that I was practically reduced to a snow-plough the first time I went down it. My Mum was watching me, and she said it was amazing how much I improved in 20 minutes! At the end of the 2 hour session I was somewhere about back to the standard I'd been 6 weeks before in my hired boots. I am hoping that after some more ski-ing practice the new boots will actually help me to ski better than I was before.

I did have a bit of a laugh ski-ing, with the lady Milton Keynes ski coaches. They hadn't seen me ski before, and they started by saying things to me like 'when you start pole planting you'll do it like this' (and I've been pole planting for a couple of years now), because I was ski-ing so badly, but by the end of the session I'd improved a lot and I explained to them that I was 'breaking in' new boots and I had plums under my feet and my right leg turned inwards.

I'd advise anyone with new boots and an orthotic insole to ski very carefully for quite a while. It would have been a total disaster if I'd been out on the mountain somewhere and I'd tried to ski down a black run.

Well done Ally, with about 10 to 12 hours of skiing your new boots should be bedded in. Don't worry about the initial tightness, most liners settle, and you don't want to have a sloppy fit. From now on, your feet/boots/skis are all one :D

I hope the fitter taught you how to fasten the boot correctly?

Thanks Bandit,
He did tell me how to do up my boot properly, and store it etc. but I was a bit tired by that time (I had to get up at 6 a.m. to catch a train to London at 7-15 etc. etc.).

I rather think he said to start at the top and work my way down, and only to do up the two bottom buckles very lightly. And, in fact, he didn't tighten the top ones nearly as tightly as I used to do with my hired boots. Maybe you could remind me :?: :D

I am a bit worried because my new boots don't feel too tight, and I thought they are supposed to feel too tight at first. My feet measured just over 26.5 and those 27 boots I tried on at the Edge to Edge Camp at Tignes were much tighter (in fact they hurt and I asked them for the next size up). My new Atomic ones are 27 but seem to be very comfy. The only problem I had with them on the snow dome was that I got slight cramp in a couple of my toes when we stopped for a tea break. But I undid the boot and wriggled my toes and they were fine when we went out again. I haven't had cramp before in a hired boot.

He wants me to e-mail him and let him know how I got on. He was very nice to me, and didn't seem at all disgusted with my nail-less big toe (which didn't hurt at all in the new boots - I didn't even bother putting a plaster on it).

Ally

The custom foot bed, and maybe some heel lift will effectively shorten your foot in the boot, compared to the flimsy foot bed that comes with the boot.

Ally, yes start with the top 2 buckles, once they are done up, push your shin forward, which pulls your heel into the back of the boot, then you can do up the two bottom buckles. None of them should be really tight, snug is good. Did you get thinner socks, or a recommendation from the fitter?
Don't worry about sizing, brands do differ in their internal volume, and your toe clips can be just lightly fastened. You should have toe wiggle room?

Thanks Trencher,
So - you mean I don't have to worry about the fact that my boots don't hurt?

I was very good, and I didn't argue with the boot-fitting technician. I just did what he told me to, and accepted what he said. I don't know anything about boot fitting, and he clearly knew a lot :D

Ally

bandit wrote:Ally, yes start with the top 2 buckles, once they are done up, push your shin forward, which pulls your heel into the back of the boot, then you can do up the two bottom buckles. None of them should be really tight, snug is good. Did you get thinner socks, or a recommendation from the fitter?
Don't worry about sizing, brands do differ in their internal volume, and your toe clips can be just lightly fastened. You should have toe wiggle room?

Bandit,
I brought my Salomon ski socks and asked the technician about them, and he said they were fine and I didn't need to buy any thinner ones. I can move my toes, and my heel can move up and down a bit, but not a lot. I don't feel that the boot is too tight anywhere. I looked up the reviews of the boot after I got home, and it seems that it is known for allowing lots of free movement (like being able to walk up and down stairs without turning my boot sideways).

Ally

Thanks for the detailed report.

I'm not sure how much you should be able to lift your heel :lol:

Anyway, I did a little searching and found these: http://www.twoseasons.co.uk/mall/productpage.cfm/TwoSeasons/_57081

Might be worth looking in to or phoning the store to find out about pricing availability, might get you £40 back. Can't believe you paid £50 for a wheely boot bag though :lol: