Boot fitter recommendation for south SF Bay area

[Prosper]

I thought there was a previous thread about Bay area boot fitters but couldn’t find it when I searched. Asking for my brother in law who lives in Saratoga. He’s 6’4”, wears a size 14 but says his feet are normally shaped and doesn’t have a hard time finding finding shoes that fit. Thanks!

 

[Dougb]

Not in the South Bay but up in Berkeley California Ski Company is great.

 

[Philpug]

Not in the South Bay but up in Berkeley California Ski Company is great.

Yes, Cal Ski Co. in Berkley @Greg Whitehouse @Winks

 

[murphysf]

Thirding California Ski Company.

Tell your brother in law its well worth the 1 hour drive, I would even drive 2 or more hours.

Also, I believe for boot-fitting they are by appointment only, call or check their website.

I also recommend doing this earlier in the day and plan to spend around 2 hours there. Don't show up an hour before closing.

Foot length is one of the many parts to boot-fitting. Equally if not more important is width and volume.

 

[Prosper]

CA Ski Co looks like a really high quality B&M shop. Not sure I’ll be able to convince him to drive up there though. I’ll give it a try. @Plai @DocGKR @raytseng any recs?

 

[Plai]

CA Ski Co looks like a really high quality B&M shop. Not sure I’ll be able to convince him to drive up there though. I’ll give it a try. @Plai @DocGKR @raytseng any recs?

@Prosper I visit our own @Philpug and @Tricia while in North Lake Tahoe. They operate out of BlueZone in Truckee.

It's a little out of the way, from the view of residing in the SF Bay Area.

But, from a skiing perspective, visiting them at the beginning of a multi-day trip and getting adjustments during the trip makes for better adjustments/feedback mechanism. This works for my family during our school holiday trips. [Yeah, we're part of the crowd.]

On the similar note, Start Haus (also in Truckee) also has a great reputation.

Don't have any experience with CA Ski Co. [That said, the list of places in the south of where NOT to go doesn't need to be listed ;-]

 

[raytseng]

CA Ski Co looks like a really high quality B&M shop. Not sure I’ll be able to convince him to drive up there though. I’ll give it a try. @Plai @DocGKR @raytseng any recs?

call first and spend a couple min on the phone and get an appointment especially with a large size and covid.l

 

[Philpug]

Not sure I’ll be able to convince him to drive up there though. I’ll give it a try.

It's roughly an hour? Figuring that any other shop is going to be at least a half hour...What is his time worth and if it IS worth that much, he cannot afford NOT to go to a shop that knows what they are doing? If he is not willing to commit that extra bit of time to deal with the best in the area...he might consider bowling or other winter activities as an alternative.

 

[raytseng]

If your brother-in-law can't be bothered even for an extra 1hr detour, he's going to be buying his comfort boots from the internet, and then cramping up after a half-day and sitting in the lodge.
I think you have given your fair warning; and then save your advice for after that first trip experience.

 

[Dougb]

call first and spend a couple min on the phone and get an appointment especially with a large size and covid.l

You can book appointments online. I purchased boots from California Ski Company and couldn’t be any happier. It took a few hours to be fitted but it revolutionized my ski experience. Well worth the time and investment IMO.

 

[Prosper]

Thanks to all for your input. All good info which I’m well aware of. I’m not the one who needs to be convinced. I’ve driven 1.5+ hours each way in the past for a good boot fitter. I’ll send him a link to this thread. It’s very persuasive and entertaining.

 

[Tony]

I agree with others who said get it done close to ski area where you usually go as I have a hard to fit foot that usually needs many adjustments and it's easier to get it done closer to skiing. I've used Olympic Bootworks at both their Squaw Valley and new location in So. Tahoe.

I asked friend who is a long-time manager at Sports Basement (many locations) and he gave me Sarah Holmes who works at their Campbell location Tues-Fri. That is where I bought my last pair of boots and they seemed to have a range of expertise in bootfitters. I ended up getting new footbeds at Olympic's So. Tahoe location to go with new boots.

Your brother-in-law may want to call about size 14 availability wherever he goes. Or go to @Philpug who will fit him into size 12 (edit to add or 29.5).

 

[murphysf]

A couple of things about sizes.

I wear a street shoe size 13 and a ski boot 29.5, you wouldn't come to that based on all the ski boot size charts.

About 4 years ago when I went boot shopping in the bay area, I didn't find any store that had more than 2 options in a 29.5, most had just a single random boot in that size. All were too narrow for my foot. I found a Tecnica (I believe) that was close.

Your brother in law might be a 30.5, just a guess. And I am guessing the available selection might be slim.

I ended up going to the following shops:
California Ski Company
Sports Basement SF
REI San Carlos
Helm of Sun Valley San Mateo
Any Mountain Redwood City
Demo Sport San Rafael

Found nothing that fit well, came here for some advice and I did a bunch of reading and ended up buying a pair of Dalbellos online from Level 9. I am not condoning buying online, but after all the research I did I was confident they would work, and they did and I never looked back. I did purchase a pair of SuperFeet Carbon inserts.

Looking back I should have made a video documentary about this experience. I went way down the rabbit hole. Now when anyone asks me about buying their first pair of ski boots I give them an information dump.