How Hard is Boot-fitting Really?

steve0

steve0

Active member
Background; I live in SoCal where ski boot knowledge is pretty limited. The closest "reputable" ski shops would be up in Mammoth or Tahoe, a 6+ hour drive.

I do however have a pretty good understanding of plastics, foams, physics and have tools available to punch out new boots, mold liners, make custom foot-beds, etc.

So asking all the legitimate boot-fitters, how hard is it really? Am I truly going to get a better fit in a single sitting with a good boot-fitter, or am I better off making tweaks and changes myself over time to get the fit I want.

I would honestly consider taking a boot fitting course to dial in my own fit, so recommendations there are welcome as well.
 
It’s definitely worth it, but 6 hours is a quite a hike. Maybe go to one and then ride one of the near by mountains to make it worth the trip?

Doing it urself is fine if u got the know how, but you gotta start w the right boot
 
Youtube has everything you need. the only way you could really fuck it up is if you overheat or overstretch your boot plastic. I would probably see if you could find a thrashed pair second hand to practice on but it's not rocket science
 
I did the heat shell in the oven/hot rice sock in the liner method of heat molding. Can't really screw it up if you pay close attention to the temperature.

I still would like to figure out how to punch for bunions because I don't think this heat mold made enough room for them. I'll know for sure if it made any changes to my boots the next time I ski
 
14443119:Chunder_Khat said:
"Bootfitters" are the biggest scam in the industry. Do it yourself.
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It's not rocket surgery, but if you think it's a scam or that it's easy then it just demonstrates that you don't know what a real boot fitter does and you've only dealt with "boot sellers". Boot fitting is a learnable craft that involves understanding biomechanically-related cause & effect patterns, having the proper tools to do the job and knowing how to use the proper tools. You need proper training in anatomy, biomechanics, footbeds, plastics, geometry, balance, and most importantly knowing when to apply a certain procedure and when not to. It's relatively easy to make someone's issue go from annoying to problematic because you did the wrong thing to the boot. It's not as simple or as straight-forward as "it hurts directly here so fix directly here".

Boot Fitters are like car mechanics or doctors in so far as their ability to solve the issue varies greatly. They aren't all alike and they aren't all a scam. Running into a few bad ones doesn't negate the proper solutions that legit ones offer.
 
14443142:onenerdykid said:
It's not rocket surgery, but if you think it's a scam or that it's easy then it just demonstrates that you don't know what a real boot fitter does and you've only dealt with "boot sellers". Boot fitting is a learnable craft that involves understanding biomechanically-related cause & effect patterns, having the proper tools to do the job and knowing how to use the proper tools. You need proper training in anatomy, biomechanics, footbeds, plastics, geometry, balance, and most importantly knowing when to apply a certain procedure and when not to. It's relatively easy to make someone's issue go from annoying to problematic because you did the wrong thing to the boot. It's not as simple or as straight-forward as "it hurts directly here so fix directly here".

Boot Fitters are like car mechanics or doctors in so far as their ability to solve the issue varies greatly. They aren't all alike and they aren't all a scam. Running into a few bad ones doesn't negate the proper solutions that legit ones offer.
Click to expand...

Ignoring the bootfitter conspiracy theorist, and agreeing with most of what you said about the knowledge required, I’m still undecided. Any thoughts on the best bootfitting courses?
 
topic:steve0 said:
I do however have a pretty good understanding of plastics, foams, physics and have tools available to punch out new boots, mold liners, make custom foot-beds, etc.

So asking all the legitimate boot-fitters, how hard is it really? Am I truly going to get a better fit in a single sitting with a good boot-fitter, or am I better off making tweaks and changes myself over time to get the fit I want.
Click to expand...
14443146:steve0 said:
Ignoring the bootfitter conspiracy theorist, and agreeing with most of what you said about the knowledge required, I’m still undecided. Any thoughts on the best bootfitting courses?
Click to expand...

You can check out Masterfit University. They have multiple levels of courses, running around $500 per course but they are usually only offered to retailers.

What tools are you using for stretching, grinding, making footbeds, and molding liners? The cheapest boot press I have ever come across is about $1,200 (many range between $2,000-4,000) and other punching tools for various areas of the boot are about the same (every boot fitter has between 2-4 different stretching devices). A boot spreader is about $400-600 (needed for opening up a shell to grind it) but a Dremel is pretty cheap for simple grinds. A Sidas vacuum molding area for footbeds is about $5,000 and other brands' devices are similarly priced. In order to sand off excess foam/other layers from the custom footbed, you will need a bench-mounted belt sander. Properly molding modern liners requires more than the "hot rice in a stocking" trick and those tools are $500-1,000. These are the just the basic tools, with lots of others that tend to be often used as well. And I'm sure if you know how to weld you could make some of them on your own, aside from the footbed making tools- those you can't replicate. But unless you are looking to open up your own shop, it's a lot of cost to do all of it on your own.
 
Boot fitted for about 7 years, and the dirty secret is, it's not that hard. And it's definitely not that complicated if you can think, even a little bit, like someone who works with their hands or with tools. Its like arts and crafts, there is a touch to a lot of things that you get better at with time and practice, but the meat and potatoes isn't that hard. You can go crazy with it with canting, dynamic punches and and all kinds of things, but I'd say 75% of the boot fitting comes down to getting the shell fit right and getting a well aligned footbed. If you have that, the boot is probably going to work pretty well. On my own boots, I literally don't do anything. By the time I purchase, I know that the shell works well for my foot, I've tried it on and its very tight, and I know that it will work. I put my footbed in, and I ski, no heat molding or anything. If I absolutely need to I might do a little tweak, but mostly I just let them break in to preserve the liners.

Honestly the hardest part of boot fitting is reading the customer. Let's say the brannock device has someone measuring out at a 27.5 on their right foot, and just past a 27.0 on their left. Most casual skiers would be fine in a 27.5, they might even say it feels tight out of the box. Someone who raced will definitely want the 26.5. Someone who is about to take their first year ski bumming 100+ days a year but never has before, they will want the 26.5, but they might not know it yet. A senior citizen who only has another couple a years of skiing left, and can barely get a boot on, they might want to go all the way to a 28.5. You'll get masochists with something to prove that insist on going all the way down to a 25.5, and you spend the rest of the season working on a boot that they insist is "almost perfect!" At the end of the day, everyone has their own idea of how they want their boot to feel and perform.
 
I don't have input except to say it sounds like with your interest and location, you might be able to start a small business fixing people's boots in your area if you figure out the boot fitting stuff well enough. Not sure about the liability and legal side of things though
 
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