When measuring your feet we will size you when you are sitting down and standing up to assess your feet lengths, arches, insteps and much more.
Ski/Snowboard boots are comprised of 2 basic components: The liner and the shell. The shell governs how the boot will fit. We will remove the liner from the boot and get you to step in the shell so we able to get an accurate measurement of the volume of the shell to make sure there is the correct volume in the boots around 4 main areas. The length, ankle width, forefoot width and the instep height. (If a bootfitter fails to do this you should walk out of the store)
Don’t pre judge a boot before having it done up and having a few flexes in it, as your foot has not yet settled into the correct position in the boot.
Don’t push to try on every boot in the store, as this will just confuse you. Your boot fitter will recommend the correct boots to suit your feet and this would generally be 2-3 pairs.
Don’t over tighten the buckles, the top two buckles you want to be firmly grasping the leg/ankle. Micro adjusters are key to this. They are in almost all buckles and they just twist in and out to give a precise amount of pressure. Over the top of the foot we want the buckles loose just to see how the boot is holding your foot without warping the shape of the boot with the lower buckles. (Blood vessels run across the top of your feet and clamping down will stop blood flow, resulting in numb cold toes, which can lead to frostbite in severe circumstances.
Ignore stiffness ratings on boots; there is no standard measurement. The boots will stiffen up when you get into the cold but our bootfitter will make sure your not over flexing or unable to flex the boot.
Footbeds that come inside boots generally offer little to no support (just ask we will show you), our bootfitters will offer a solution based on your foot and arch profile.
Although there are a lot of boots which offer custom moulded shells such as Salomon’s Custom Shell and Atomic’s Memory Fit which work well, in some cases we may need to customisation the boot on a press. For this we need to keep the boot for a period of time and get you to return once the adjustments have been done, which may be a day or two.
If you suffer from bad circulation or other medical conditions that keep you from having warm feet no matter what you have tried… Consider boot warmers. We sell Therm-ic who are the premier brand in boot heaters. They have a heating element, which is imbedded into the footbed and allows a battery back to be attached outside the boot and they keep your toes toasty all day.
Ski and snowboard boots have forward lean built into them and they are NOT made for standing up straight. So when you flex forward in the boot it will allow your heel to move back into the in heel pocket. You will need to simulate your ski and board stance with your legs parallel shoulder width apart. You then need to simulate angling movement that you would when riding. See the images below. These represent what is happening in a boot with incorrect position and even if the boot is 3 sizes to big you can still touch the front. The toe position is represented by the left red lines.
Call to book a no obligation boot fit session now 9526 2566