New Ski Boots

smartski wrote:I hated my custom fitted insoles. Am I alone?

Ha ha, thought I was the only one... :lol: did exactly the same; binned off the insoles after one painful day and went back to the originals until the boots expired.

Me too - had some custom fits once ....
Didn't last long!
I use a £15 pair of sports insoles.

I rest my (heretic) case!!! :lol:

Apparently, wearing your custom insoles in your everyday shoes for a few days before your holiday should help.

I wouldn't wait until February, the boot fitting season in the UK starts in September, by the middle of December the good boot fitters will have already sold half their stock.

If you go to a good boot fitter you may well pay more than you would if you bought them elsewhere, but they should fit. If go down the try a few pairs on until you find a pair that are comfortable route you will most likely buy a pair that are too big. If they are too big you will need a new pair sooner than you will if you get a pair that are the right size. One pair of well fitting boots is a lot cheaper than 2 or more pairs of boots that don't fit.

If your custom footbeds cause pain then they haven't been made properly. Why didn't you take them back? They can be reheated and remoulded and if that doesn't work then they should just make you a new one. It's not always possible to get things right first time.

There are also a lot of people making these things that don't really know what they're doing, the better boot fitters mould them with the customer seated (semi-weighted) less skilled fitters mould footbeds with the customer standing (weighted) this is easier to do but the results aren't as good.

As SwingBeep said, it's better to visit a fitter early in the season or even before the start of the season as you want to have a wider selection of models and sizes. Bootfitter route is expensive but in my opinion it's a good investment of money. I am so happy with my current properly fitted boots I am dreading the day I need to retire them - they are on 170 ski days at the moment and I hope to make them last another two seasons. ZipFit liners made good difference too as they don't pack out for a very long time and then it's possible to have some material added if need be, so their cost is well justified. Until my current boots I had to change boots every 90 days on snow as they would become fairly unskiable due to liners packing out. Having said that, one of my friends who is a strong experienced skier after needing to rent a pair of boots ended up talking the shop into selling them to her for something like 60 francs - she absolutely loved the fit and how they skied.

Interesting that I'm not alone.

Jimbobilini wrote:Apparently, wearing your custom insoles in your everyday shoes for a few days before your holiday should help.

From a practical point I'm sure custom insoles would not fit in my high-heel shoes -) . Even if they did I would say much longer than a few days would be needed, so your feet get used to having the support.

SwingBeep wrote:If your custom footbeds cause pain then they haven't been made properly. Why didn't you take them back?

That presumes one knows what the problem is. It also presupposes (like the shop did, in order to sell them too me) that standard soles aren't any good, when in fact they are just fine (for me).

Although a more pricey option, I'm likely to buy new boots at the resort when the time comes. That way I'm hoping that they can be adjusted as necessary during the week.