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hollyberry

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Since this seems to be the bootfitting thread... anybody know of good bootfitters near Cincinnati?

Another question- anybody with extremely high arches and a ‘high volume foot’ (tall foot?) have problems with the tops of your feet feeling pinched or your feet falling asleep? I’m assuming that once your foot feels like it’s falling asleep that means the boot is simply too tight.

Here’s the situation: My first ski boots were K2 Spyres, 80 flex with a custom footbed to fit my huge arch. I think they were the right boot for me when I started, nice and cushy for a beginner, but within about a year, I started feeling like the flex was too soft and the lining packed out really quickly (in maybe 20-30 ski days) which makes me think they were sized pretty generously to begin with. I started feeling like I was swimming in them by the second year, even when they were buckled/strapped as tight as possible. For my second boot, (and with a new bootfitter,) I decided to go with a higher flex and tighter fit- Atomic Hawx 110’s. The only problem is that I only got to ski on them once last year (vs the typical 25-30 days I have skied the last three years since I started,) and of course, they felt really tight and my feet fell asleep. Does this just mean I need to break them in longer, or do I need to see a bootfitter for heat molding, etc? I did sit and walk around in my apartment with them strapped on for a couple hours per day for about a week before skiing on them, which was the ‘homework’ my bootfitter assigned.

Any ideas?
 

DanoT

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The only problem is that I only got to ski on them once last year (vs the typical 25-30 days I have skied the last three years since I started,) and of course, they felt really tight and my feet fell asleep.

One day of skiing isn't going to break in or compress anything and is too early to do any modifications other than obvious things at the initial fitting.

I do my own boot fitting and part of my own "homework" is wearing just the liners (and footbed) around the house just to see how tight the liners feel on their own.
 

Dave Marshak

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I have very high, bony arches. BEFORE I ever ski in a new boot, I cut away any hard material in the tongue above the cuneiform bump on top of my arch, and I bump out the shell over the navicular bone on the medial side of my foot. I need those two things to allow my foot to find a natural position, which usually cures the pressure point on my little toe. Still, new boots are uncomfortably tight for at least a few days, so I keep my old boots around for when I need to ski more than one or two days in a row. My feet don't go numb as much as I feel like they have poor circulation.
FWIW one year I noticed that my new boots had caused numbness on the tops of my feet that persisted until August. Those boots skied great but they were a costly mistake.
If you haven't moved to Ohio yet, Marc Stewart at Windham Mountain Sports Boot Lab is the best boot fitter in the Catskills, and worth a trip from NYC.

dm
 

Philpug

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Cincinnati isn't exactly the mecca of ski boot fitting. I would suggest getting your boot issues taken care of before you move or on a trip west.
 
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hollyberry

hollyberry

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One day of skiing isn't going to break in or compress anything and is too early to do any modifications other than obvious things at the initial fitting.

I do my own boot fitting and part of my own "homework" is wearing just the liners (and footbed) around the house just to see how tight the liners feel on their own.
My bootfitter asked me to wear them around the house (the entire boot & liner) buckled moderately tight, which I did for about 1-3 hours a day for about a week, week and a half. Even buckled at a looser setting they were still making my feet fall asleep and were pinching the tops of my feet a bit. Do you think they could simply be too small?
 
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hollyberry

hollyberry

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Cincinnati isn't exactly the mecca of ski boot fitting. I would suggest getting your boot issues taken care of before you move or on a trip west.
: ( That’s what I was afraid of. Maybe my husband and I need to make a drive up to Hunter before we move to Cincinnati. On the bright side, we can always make a hiking trip out of it!
 
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hollyberry

hollyberry

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I have very high, bony arches. BEFORE I ever ski in a new boot, I cut away any hard material in the tongue above the cuneiform bump on top of my arch, and I bump out the shell over the navicular bone on the medial side of my foot. I need those two things to allow my foot to find a natural position, which usually cures the pressure point on my little toe. Still, new boots are uncomfortably tight for at least a few days, so I keep my old boots around for when I need to ski more than one or two days in a row. My feet don't go numb as much as I feel like they have poor circulation.
FWIW one year I noticed that my new boots had caused numbness on the tops of my feet that persisted until August. Those boots skied great but they were a costly mistake.
If you haven't moved to Ohio yet, Marc Stewart at Windham Mountain Sports Boot Lab is the best boot fitter in the Catskills, and worth a trip from NYC.

dm
This is extremely helpful! Thank you! I’m not moving until mid June, so I have a little time.
 

surfandski

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I find breaking in performance boots at home is next to impossible. I went as far as screwing an extra pair of bindings to plywood and "skied" my new Langes in my living room for 25+hrs, really flexing hard and cranking on them in every direction possible. It didn't do much and after all that I could still only stay in them 10 minutes before my right foot was numb and tingly. A couple visits to a boot fitter and few days skiing made a huge difference and made me realize my time "breaking them in at home" was a waste of time in race fit boots with stiff liners. I do think you can break in lower-end liners at home which have less dense foam so it really depends upon the boot and fit.
 

Sibhusky

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I DON'T have high arches, so could be wrong.

Is it possible the boots are too big and you are overtightening the buckles? I know you haven't skied them yet and normally this is the symptom and ending result after you've been skiing them a while, but just wondered.
 
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hollyberry

hollyberry

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One day of skiing isn't going to break in or compress anything and is too early to do any modifications other than obvious things at the initial fitting.

I do my own boot fitting and part of my own "homework" is wearing just the liners (and footbed) around the house just to see how tight the liners feel on their own.
I’m curious- why liners and not the entire boot? What kind of a fit are you lookong for when wearing only the liners? How snug?
 
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hollyberry

hollyberry

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I DON'T have high arches, so could be wrong.

Is it possible the boots are too big and you are overtightening the buckles? I know you haven't skied them yet and normally this is the symptom and ending result after you've been skiing them a while, but just wondered.
My new bootfitter actually sized me DOWN a size from my first pair of boots. I forget the mondo whatever-it’s-called point #’s, but the new pair is slightly smaller/shorter.

Also, when I did my breaking in at home, I followed my bootfitters instructions and latched them loosely. In fact, I didn’t even do the middle buckle on the boots because even on the loosest setting it was creating some pinch on the top of my foot (above the tallest part of the arch)
 
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hollyberry

hollyberry

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I find breaking in performance boots at home is next to impossible. I went as far as screwing an extra pair of bindings to plywood and "skied" my new Langes in my living room for 25+hrs, really flexing hard and cranking on them in every direction possible. It didn't do much and after all that I could still only stay in them 10 minutes before my right foot was numb and tingly. A couple visits to a boot fitter and few days skiing made a huge difference and made me realize my time "breaking them in at home" was a waste of time in race fit boots with stiff liners. I do think you can break in lower-end liners at home which have less dense foam so it really depends upon the boot and fit.
Got it! My bootfitter did mention that the Atomic Hawx 110’s are more of a race-style boot, so maybe that’s why trying to break them in at home didn’t do anything?

Trust me- I WISH I could have skied more than 1 day last year. I was heartbroken to miss the season because of grad school applications. Not a fun trade off : (
 

DanoT

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I’m curious- why liners and not the entire boot? What kind of a fit are you lookong for when wearing only the liners? How snug?

I bought new boots this past winter and when I put them on for the first time my toes were numb within 20 minutes.

The next day I put just the liners on and my toes were numb within twenty minutes. This told me that punching the shell might not help my toe numbness, so I stretched the toe box by jamming a Snow Seal jar up the toe box and left the boots overnight. The next day there was no numbness and i went and skied them for the first time for a few hours with no problems. After 30 or 40 days, no problems and I never did need to get the shells punched.

Disclaimer: Kids, I am not a boot fitter, just a long time ski bum who does his own boot fitting.:D So what works for me might not work for you and is not really recommended as bootfitters have better more specific equipment for stretching liners and working on boots.
 

otto

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Hollyberry, What did your boot fitter do to the Atomic Hawx 110 to send you off to ski? Was the Liner heat molded? Was the shell modified in any way? Do you have custom footbed? If so, what type (brand), and was it modified to fit in a smaller sized boot?

Wearing either the liner or whole boot around the house is a zero sum game... Boot fitters love to give boot buyers this false advice to get you out of their shop. It's part of whats called an assumptive close, as in I assume that you need to buy this boot now and get the hell out of this shop, cause I am done with you... bye, bye. For Pugski members that offered the advice of hanging out in your boots because this method seems to have worked for them, I say good for you... And call me when you get back from that alternative universe you are hanging out in...

Wearing a boot around your house does not exert enough force into the liner to get any "break-in" accomplished. More often than not because you are not in a skiing position and walking around, you will have the impression that the boot is too short and because you are not moving, resisting gravity, the boots should be tight enough when brand new to put your foot to sleep. The solution is to get out there and ski. If the boot is on the edge of being too tight in the shop or at your house, 2 to 5 days on snow will "loosen" the padding material of the liner enough to feel skiable. In some cases you will need to undo the buckles while riding the lift and buckle back down tight when moving downhill. At the end of the first few days, if specific points of pain develop in the boney parts of your feet, or underneath the foot (arch), you will need to go back to see the fitter to have them adjust either the liner, shell, or footbed to redistribute the pressure on your sore spots so that your boots end up comfortable and snug.

Hollyberry, because you have a self described "high instep" The pressure that you feel on the top of your foot is real and you need to make some room in the tongue, or a combination of the tongue, and the stack of bootboard, footbed, and the thickness of the liner bottom below your feet. This spot is important to understand because the blood flow to the front half of the foot and the nerves that talk to the front half of the foot run through the the mid foot bones that make up your instep. Compression of this "bump" puts your toes to sleep and cuts off the blood flow needed for warm. Important to understand that if you have a high instep, a pocket needs to be opened up in that specific area of your boot. pressure there is not a good reason to purchase either a longer or higher volume boot. From your description of the boot you bought, it sounds to me like it is pretty close fitting all over, but too tight over your instep bump.
 
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hollyberry

hollyberry

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Hollyberry, What did your boot fitter do to the Atomic Hawx 110 to send you off to ski? Was the Liner heat molded? Was the shell modified in any way? Do you have custom footbed? If so, what type (brand), and was it modified to fit in a smaller sized boot?

Wearing either the liner or whole boot around the house is a zero sum game... Boot fitters love to give boot buyers this false advice to get you out of their shop. It's part of whats called an assumptive close, as in I assume that you need to buy this boot now and get the hell out of this shop, cause I am done with you... bye, bye. For Pugski members that offered the advice of hanging out in your boots because this method seems to have worked for them, I say good for you... And call me when you get back from that alternative universe you are hanging out in...

Wearing a boot around your house does not exert enough force into the liner to get any "break-in" accomplished. More often than not because you are not in a skiing position and walking around, you will have the impression that the boot is too short and because you are not moving, resisting gravity, the boots should be tight enough when brand new to put your foot to sleep. The solution is to get out there and ski. If the boot is on the edge of being too tight in the shop or at your house, 2 to 5 daysn on snow will "loosen" the padding material of the liner enough to feel skiable. In some cases you will need to undo the buckles while riding the lift and buckle back down tight when moving downhill. At the end of the first few days, if specific points of pain develop in the boney parts of your feet, or underneath the foot (arch), you will need to go back to see the fitter to have them adjust either the liner, shell, or footbed to redistribute the pressure on your sore spots so that your boots end up comfortable and snug.

Hollyberry, because you have a self described "high instep" The pressure that you feel on the top of your foot is real and you need to make some room in the tongue, or a combination of the tongue, and the stack of bootboard, footbed, and the thickness of the liner bottom below your feet. This spot is important to understand because the blood flow to the front half of the foot and the nerves that talk to the front half of the foot run through the the mid foot bones that make up your instep. Compression of this "bump" puts your toes to sleep and cuts off the blood flow needed for warm. Important to understand that if you have a high instep, a pocket needs to be opened up in that specific area of your boot. pressure there is not a good reason to purchase either a longer or higher volume boot. From your description of the boot you bought, it sounds to me like it is pretty close fitting all over, but too tight over your instep bump.
Thank you! This post was very informative! I’m still pretty much a skiing newbie (4 years) so I’m still in the dark about buying/breaking in boots.

To answer your questions:

I have a custom footbed (Inst2 Print) from my first pair of boots. I plan to use them in the new boots.

Liner of the new boot heat molded? -No
Shell modified? -No
Hollyberry, What did your boot fitter do to the Atomic Hawx 110 to send you off to ski? Was the Liner heat molded? Was the shell modified in any way? Do you have custom footbed? If so, what type (brand), and was it modified to fit in a smaller sized boot?

Wearing either the liner or whole boot around the house is a zero sum game... Boot fitters love to give boot buyers this false advice to get you out of their shop. It's part of whats called an assumptive close, as in I assume that you need to buy this boot now and get the hell out of this shop, cause I am done with you... bye, bye. For Pugski members that offered the advice of hanging out in your boots because this method seems to have worked for them, I say good for you... And call me when you get back from that alternative universe you are hanging out in...

Wearing a boot around your house does not exert enough force into the liner to get any "break-in" accomplished. More often than not because you are not in a skiing position and walking around, you will have the impression that the boot is too short and because you are not moving, resisting gravity, the boots should be tight enough when brand new to put your foot to sleep. The solution is to get out there and ski. If the boot is on the edge of being too tight in the shop or at your house, 2 to 5 days on snow will "loosen" the padding material of the liner enough to feel skiable. In some cases you will need to undo the buckles while riding the lift and buckle back down tight when moving downhill. At the end of the first few days, if specific points of pain develop in the boney parts of your feet, or underneath the foot (arch), you will need to go back to see the fitter to have them adjust either the liner, shell, or footbed to redistribute the pressure on your sore spots so that your boots end up comfortable and snug.

Hollyberry, because you have a self described "high instep" The pressure that you feel on the top of your foot is real and you need to make some room in the tongue, or a combination of the tongue, and the stack of bootboard, footbed, and the thickness of the liner bottom below your feet. This spot is important to understand because the blood flow to the front half of the foot and the nerves that talk to the front half of the foot run through the the mid foot bones that make up your instep. Compression of this "bump" puts your toes to sleep and cuts off the blood flow needed for warm. Important to understand that if you have a high instep, a pocket needs to be opened up in that specific area of your boot. pressure there is not a good reason to purchase either a longer or higher volume boot. From your description of the boot you bought, it sounds to me like it is pretty close fitting all over, but too tight over your instep bump.
Thank you so much for writing this detailed response!! This is why I love ski forums!

To answer your questions:

Was the Liner heat molded? - No, he recommended skiing on it first before heat molding so I could keep a snug fit.

Was the shell modified in any way? - NO

Do you have customfootbed? If so, what type (brand), and was it modified to fit in a smaller sized boot?- YES, I have a custom footbed from my old boots, Inst2 Print, but it was NOT modified to fit the new boot. That’s an interesting point, and not one I had even considered.

Given what you wrote, is it even worth trying to see a bootfitter in NY (Hunter, Windham) before I move to Cincinnati, IE before I get a chance to really ski on the boots? Should I just wait until ski season, ski a couple days at Perfect North, and then try to find a bootfitter out there who can work on my boots?

I have at least two big ski trips out West planned for this coming year and want to get my boots sorted out beforehand.

Obviously, the timing/ situation is less than ideal!
 

otto

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If Mark at Wyndham is still doing boot work into the spring, it would be worth your time to get in to see him.

I would have him do the following:

1. Assess your foot/ankle/lower leg, as well as your story as to the when, where, how many, and where you want to go with your skiing

2. Confirm boot model you have is a good match based on above assessment and your skiing goals.

3. Validate the Instaprint footbed matches the bottom of your foot, and have him adapt the footbed to the new boot.

4. Have him make accommodation for your instep bump.

5. Heat mold the liner. Using protection over the top of your instep to build in a comfort pocket for your instep. Use toe caps to help force your heel into the back of the boot.

6. Leave the shop with the boot being very snug, but no longer putting your toes to sleep. It should feel like a very firm handshake.

7. Go skiing, a lot! Take an occasional lesson.
 

Ken_R

Living the Dream
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Lots of great info posted already!

Most stock liners do not require heat molding since they indeed mold to the foot under normal use / break in. Some liners that use a higher density foam NEED to be heat molded before use. Some intuition liners are like that.

If your foot is snug in the boot while skiing but you don't feel the hard plastic pressing your foot anywhere then you know the shell/liner fit is perfect. It's best to get the shell fit as close as possible to your foot shape and size to start with. Only way to do that is trying on shells recommended by a fitter.

When is your next ski trip and where?
 
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hollyberry

hollyberry

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Lots of great info posted already!

Most stock liners do not require heat molding since they indeed mold to the foot under normal use / break in. Some liners that use a higher density foam NEED to be heat molded before use. Some intuition liners are like that.

If your foot is snug in the boot while skiing but you don't feel the hard plastic pressing your foot anywhere then you know the shell/liner fit is perfect. It's best to get the shell fit as close as possible to your foot shape and size to start with. Only way to do that is trying on shells recommended by a fitter.

When is your next ski trip and where?
2 trips on the books:

Jan 3-12, Alta/Snowbird/Snowbasin

March 16-24 Jackson Hole/Big Sky/ maybe GT BB

Hopefully a two or three day trip to Sugarbush VT when I visit my family in the NE for the holidays, plus maybe a side trip to Taos if I visit other relatives in TX? I’m hoping to get some mileage out of the 18/19 MCP I bought!!

Other than that, I guess I’ll be skiing whenever Perfect North (IN) opens, since I’m moving to the Midwest for grad school in July.
 

Eric267

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A couple tips
• when your first trying to break in new boots/liners use thin men's dress socks or pantyhose socks when wearing around the house. As you pack them out a bit switch to thin ski socks then thicker as needed

• warmth is your friend. Much easier to break in new boots spring skiing than in January cold. Put your boots an a warmer than room temp spot (not hot) in your house for at least a few hours before trying to put them on to break in.

• get a 2x4 or wooden rod. Put the boots on loosely and walk around the room stopping at the rod/2x4 ever so often and placing the toe of your boot up and flexing into it 10-20 times. Tighten your boots more as needed and continue the process.

Breaking in new boots or even just replacement liners is a process that kind of sucks! Best way to do it is just to ski a few 2-3 hour blue groomer days and deal with the discomfort while they break in. The heat your feet push out is a key factor. If after a few days they still are a little uncomftrouble you can always do the rice trick before you go to the bootfitters. That is if you don't think it's actually the shell causing the discomfort.

Rice trick
 
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hollyberry

hollyberry

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Anybody know anything about Viking Ski Shop in Chicago or Sun and Ski in Ann Arbor, MI? It seems lile those are my only two options anywhere near Cincinnati, according to bootfitters.com, if I want to ski a few days and then go to a bootfitter.
 

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