A word about footbeds

rozboon

rozboon

Active member
Just thought I'd chuck this in here because I see quite a lot of threads about people with foot pain and when people suggest footbeds they're like "yeah, maybe I'll try some".

Pretty much everybody should get footbeds.

The reason for this is that most boots don't actually come with a proper insole. From my experience the higher-end the boot, the less of an insole it will come with. For those of you skiing decent boots without footbeds, go pull the insole out. I bet it's a flat piece of cardboardy fabric about 3mm thick. The manufacturers just chuck them in there so you have something to try the boot on with (if you don't take your footbeds to fittings). I guess they assume you'll get/have a proper insole anyway, if you're buying expensive boots.

The ones that come in the boots provide nil support for your arches so when you're putting pressure on your foot it becomes flatter, longer and wider. This is why your foot feels squashed from the sides or on the toes when you ski despite the fact that it felt great in the shop.

Likewise they have almost no heel cup so your foot can slop around in the back of the boot, reducing control and energy transfer.

In my opinion a good footbed is one of the best investments in your equipment you can make. You'll ski better and in more comfort. You may get away with some $10 replacement insoles from a shoe store but really you should be spending the money and getting a pair of custom molded ones. The difference is just unreal.

TL;DR: Get footbeds already.

 
this is absolutely true. i always just kind of put up with foot pain skiing because, well, theyre ski boots, theyre supposed to hurt right? this year i decided to invest in some custom foot beds (for about $120) and it has been the best thing ive invested in. just suck it up and buy them
 
If you plan on buying footbeds for your current boots, be prepared for a different fit as a support foot has less of a footprint then a non supported foot. I went down a full size after switching to a footbed as it didn't allow my foot to pancake out which made me think I needed bigger boots. If you are buying new boots, get a footbed first and don't even bother trying on boots without th because they really do make a difference.
 
This, I bought my footbeds after my FT's had packed out, just to take up space, which was a bad idea because my feet flattened out differently, and it just hurt everywhere.

I took out the footbeds and got Eliminators to take up the extra space:

eliminator_product.gif


Now my feet are great again. so get your footbeds FIRST. then get a boot, then when it packs out, if it does too much, get eliminators. it's the best route imo
 
Damnn.. That explains every part of the pain i get from skiing.. I need new boots/footbeds. Next season for sure.
 
Footbeds are a bit of a dark art in bootfitting. The thorey for footbeds comes from podietry and this is not somthing your average ski bum boot fitter knows much about. It takes years to learn and is pretty complex. Because of this your proberbly going to be best looking for an experienced boot fitter with at least 5+ years making custom footbeds.

So I wanted to answer some common questions about footbeds.

What do Footbeds do?

Footbeds help support the arches of the foot, keeping the foot in a neutral postion and helps with impact cushioning. But what does any of that mean. Well lets start with your feet. An interesting thing I once heard about feet is, every day each foot takes 1,000,000lbs of force just from walking around. With that sort of force every single day, our feet need to be able to cushion impact effeicently. This is what the arches do. They act like suspesion for the foot. But if these arches are left unsurported, they some begin to strech with that much force every day. This is when feet begin to flaten and pronate.

A good footbed will suport the arches of the foot, and help them cope with the great forces involved with skiing. If your foot is unsurpoted, it can feel like your foot streches underneath, and this can cause cramp. The foot will genrally get longer underforce, which could push the twos into the front of the boot.

So if you park ski, a footbed will help support your foot when landing.

What is a neutral postion?

Its best to think of your boots when thinking about this. Boots flex in a fowards motion but not at all side to side. This means for your foot and leg to fit the best they have to match this, ie straight.

When your arches begin to drop or flaten genrally what happens is your foot begins to lean to the inside. This can make your foot apear wider then it actually is. This is called a pronated stance. A neutral stance is simply when the leg is straight. A footbed helps acheive this by suporting your arches to help the foot maintain this neutral stance.

What footbed should I get?

Really the only person who can answer this is someone asses your feet and stance. Unfortunatly this means Bootfitter.

What are the differnces between footbeds?

There are 3 main types of footbeds, below I will list the 3 and the pros and cons:

Trim To Fit

These are your most basic footbeds. They have a predifined shape, and are designed to go stright into boots.

Pros:

Cheap

Easily available

Cons:

Not custom to your foot

Limited selection of shapes

Trim to fits should be thought of as a minimum. They will be better then the stock insole but thats about it. You will always be better off with a full custom footbed.

Example Brands:

Superfeet, Sidas, Sole

Custom Trim To fit

With these footbeds, a computer scans the pressures on the base of your foot, and selects a footbed shpae which best matches you from a data base. This shape is then sent to a milling machine, and a footbed is produced.

Pros:

Better the Trim to fits

Easily replacable. Your foot is kept on record so a new footbed can easily be made.

Cons:

Expensive

Often very firm

Still not totally custom.

These footbeds are great for carving. They support the mid tarsel joint (back of the foot) very well, but not so much the front of the medial arch. This means in practice they have less impact protection compared to other custom options.

Example Brands

Surefoot

Full Custom

These will be your best options. They are usally cheaper the custom Trim to fits but more then standard trim to fits. There are also 2 types Weighted and Unweighted. The differnce is in teh production preocess. For weighted footbeds the footbed is produced when you are standing up. Unweighted are made when sat with no weight on the foot. In my opion weighted are better, you stand when skiing so its better to make the footbed standing, rather then sitting.

Pros:

Fully Custom

Totally customisiable, different flexes, different volumes, custom heel lifts, canting. Pretty much anything you need.

Foot can be postioned for optimal fit

Cons:

More expensive then trim to fits

Need an experienced boot fitter to make them.

Overall if you can get a good weighted custom footbed, this will be your best bet. Get them when you get the boots fitted, it will give you the best fit from day one.

Example Brands:

Sidas, Aline, Superfeet (avoid the superfeet korks if you can)

So thats about it for now, im sure i have missed out allot of things but hopefully this sheds some light on footbeds.



 
I've bought custom footbeds after only a week in my boots, and while the difference isn't massive, you definately feel like your foot is locked in place better.

However, the footbeds were without "support". Let me try to explain: when they were made, I had to stand on some kind of rubber-y matrass which slowly set itself to the shape of my foot. In the mean time, the bootfitter put the material in some kind of oven underneath where it got heated. He then took the footbeds out and put them on top of the rubber, and I put my feet back on them to get them into shape even better. After a couple minutes he put them back in the oven if I can remember.

He then took these footbeds and put them in a hard plastic shape that formed the bottom part. I suppose this is so that they don't deform. The issue here is that because this plastic is slippery and round, your foot will never be in the same angle as your boot is because it's not locked in place. This resulted in my shins hurting like mad, often removing the hair on my legs after a week or so.

I figured this was normal, until I went to a different bootfitter in Tignes who explained this to me. He affixed supports to the footbeds, and then grinded them to perfectly fit the boot. The result is a fully flattened out bottom of the footbed, so it is completely locked in place and won't slide around. My shins stopped hurting instantly, it's a dream!
 
What a lot of people don't understand is that the footbeds you have made in a ski shop are completely different from the orthotics that are made by a doctor.

Footbeds from a ski shop are made to simply support your foot and optimize energy transfer from your foot to the boot. This is done by locking your foot in place and limiting pronation (foot flatening out) while the footbed remains fairly flexible right behind your forefoot. A somewhat flexible footbed also helps eliminate forefoot cramping

Orthotics are made by a dcotor and are not really meant to go into a ski boot. They are hard, cold and are meant to correct improper alignment of the foot and lower leg. If you put those into a ski boot, you are not allowing for the finite articulation of your forefoot and you'll experiance a fair bit of cramping in your foot. This is why a lot of people don't like beds made by Surefoot. If they're not done correctly they'll do more harm than good.

Personally, I'm a fan of the Sidas footbeds mainly because they are done in a weighted position and give your foot the maximum allowable arch when your weight is on your foot as opposed to the Superfeet beds which are made while your foot is suspended.

Just my $0.2 hopefully it helps...
 
Could you (or anyone else) expand on that?

I paid a lot of money for a paid of these 3 years ago. I'll probably replace them soon and just interested to see why i shouldn't get another paid of the same.
 
this guy knows exactly whats up, bought some full tilts for myself a month ago and they were BRUTAL without footbeds...went and got some moldable footbeds and threw em in the boots and they are golden now.
 
people say to avoid cork for the fact it doesnt compress/cusion at all. Most footbeds have a bit of give to them which your feet love, cork ones...not so much.
 
i would say super feet are the most basic, these you can heat mold with your liner, and i am sure a most people here arent gunna pay $100+ for custom insoles, though they are worth every penny
 
Ya that makes sense. I was advised and fitted by an ex-racer and current race coach so it also makes sense that he would think the cork ones are best.

So i'll probably be just as happy with the regular reds or greens?
 
With barely a penny to my name atm i am unable to buy new boots or footbeds. I have been in the same pair of spks for 3 seasons now and so they are completely packed out and worn in and i have been feeling that they are becomng sloppy after what was a golden fit to begin with. so i have replaced the bullshit almost completely flat spk "footbeds" (if you want to call that piece of material a footbed) with the footbeds from my high end rollerblade liners which if anything are made to absorb more pressure (reduced area of landing) and here is the photo comparison (spk on the bottom of the pic)View attachment 428540

as you can see the other has far more shape and has some rigidity to it and with them in my boots i am feeling alot more held than before, just waiting to do some skiing to see if it makes a difference.
 
just wanted to throw this out in regards to full custom footbeds. instaprint beds get pretty similar results to conformable/sidas beds, in my experience. also, Alines are not full custom, at all. they're a drop in with a preformed medial and transverse arch built into them. if that arch doesn't work for you, (in my case, the bed is too wide and the medial arch extends almost the entire way across the width of my foot), then you're out of luck. you can tweak the angle of them with tabs on the heel, and grind out the bottom to get a better fit inside a boot, but they're not truly custom like sidas/comformable or instaprint.
 
I have not had allot of experience witrh Aline. I added them in as I know Onenerdy uses them.

Instaprint, do come out alot like superfeet korks. Solid mid tarsal suport but little if any medial arech support, which make them less then ideal for freestyle use.

Regarding why not to use Korks, as was mentioned before they are very hard. This is not because of teh Kork but in fact the production process. They are an unweighted footbed, and are formed under a vacum. They are designed to support the foot in its maxium pronation and stop teh foot overpronating. Becuase of this there is little to no flex. There are very uncomfy for freestyle use. Your better going for a weighted option, where the foot begins in a neutral stance and is allowed to pronate to its maxium pronation. Its this flex which helps with impact cushioning. Korks also tend to be very high volume. The new Kork Pro's are really to be honest worse. They have gone to far the other way. They are using a soft upper sole similar to teh hot red. The kork is then formed the same way as the Korks, but the footbeds come out with barley any lateral arch, and are stupidly soft. I can see anyone who sells the Kork Pro's next year will have to do alot of DD blocking.
 
Come to think of it, knuckling jumps became a whole lot worse after i changed to these footbeds.Cheers for the great thread guys.
 
Try a Sidas Custom Ski, with either a stiff stabiliser or a DD block next time. You will be amazed how much better they feel.
 
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