High Instep... best boots

[skiwagon]

Good evening! I’ve been through several boot fittings recently and wasn’t able to pull the trigger on a boot. I was in a Tecnica Mach 1 120 last year that my bootfitter made several adjustments to. They felt great when flexed in skis, otherwise we could never get the balls of my feet to stop tingling and falling asleep. We finally gave up on those. I tried the larger volume Tecnica 10.2 HVL and experienced the same issue. As ski season is drawing near I was panicking and getting frustrated that I couldn’t find anything. I took a leap of faith and ordered the Nordica Sport Machine 120 based off of the description of more room in the instep and I’m very satisfied with the out of the box fit wearing them around the house for an hour. I think this is a new model for Nordica. I think they will need a little tweaking but I’m crossing my fingers I’ve finally found a boot for my foot.

 

[ted]

If you have limited ankle dorsiflexion or forefoot equinus that would contribute to forefoot numbness on the bottom. A heel lift is likely to help. If it is forefoot equinus a heel lift that ends just behind the metatarsals and follows their arc will help even more. Metpads can also be helpful. Given that you were in the Tecnica HV, which has lot of room, heel lifts will likely help.

 

[RuleMiHa]

Good evening! I’ve been through several boot fittings recently and wasn’t able to pull the trigger on a boot. I was in a Tecnica Mach 1 120 last year that my bootfitter made several adjustments to. They felt great when flexed in skis, otherwise we could never get the balls of my feet to stop tingling and falling asleep. We finally gave up on those. I tried the larger volume Tecnica 10.2 HVL and experienced the same issue. As ski season is drawing near I was panicking and getting frustrated that I couldn’t find anything. I took a leap of faith and ordered the Nordica Sport Machine 120 based off of the description of more room in the instep and I’m very satisfied with the out of the box fit wearing them around the house for an hour. I think this is a new model for Nordica. I think they will need a little tweaking but I’m crossing my fingers I’ve finally found a boot for my foot.

Could you detail the adjustments made to the Mach 120's?

 

[skiwagon]

Could you detail the adjustments made to the Mach 120's?

I had the outside area next to that small toe punched out. I also had custom footbeds made and some buckle adjustments.

 

[Marty McSly]

I tried the Tecnica 10.2 HVL and found the instep buckle too tight. Very disappointing after my old Tecnica Phoenix HVL which were a lovely fit until the liners broke down.

I found 2 Atomics, Live Fit 130 and Waymaker Carbon 110, were good fits over my high insteps out of the box. And seemed to flex about the same, but that's a whole nother thread...

But the boots I swear by for my wide forefeet, high insteps, narrow heels and thick calves are Fischer Vacuums. They may not be everyone's cup of tea, but those heat mouldable shells sure seem to work for me.

 

[Dave Marshak]

I tried the Fischer Vacuums and my feet wanted to jump out of them the minute I flexed them. I never got to the baking part.
I ended up with Lange RX120 with the wide last (100mm?). I had them punched over the navicular and I cut relief from the tongue over the cuniform. Every boot I ever had needed the shell punched there. Some Atomics used to come with relief cut in the tongue out of the box.

dm

 

[skiwagon]

Another update.... I went to a new bootfitter in the mountain town where I ski. He was a young guy, who is both a skiier and snowboarder. He looked at my barefoot for a minute and recommended trying the Salomon X Pro and the Atomic Hawx Prime. I liked both of them a lot and ended up going with the Atomics. Since then I’ve had the shell and liner molded and feel like I have the perfect boot. Still waiting on the slopes to open here in NC. Should be any day. I’ll report back.

 

[Michael V]

Where exactly is the numbness, and tingling? Could be a neuroma? Should have your feet looked out. I as dealing with issues for years, always thinking it was my boots, until I found out I have morton's neuroma. Went with a wider toe box for now, which has helped, but may need to get injection or surgery to fix it permanently.

 

[markojp]

One piece missing in the OP's post is info about the height of the instep vs. the length of his foot. Did the fitter(s) measure this? If they didn't use a brannock scale and soft tape measure, Its likely been overlooked. For some, this can be more important in determining shell size than the length. We fit a gentleman a couple of weeks ago in an Atomic Hawx Magna 26.5 even though his foot measured 25. His instep measure was 28.5! The Magna has a high volume instep (as does the prime!), so one shell size up accommodated the volume of his instep nicely, and we still had some 5th met work to do along the entire length of the fifth met! Many other boots would still have been problematic even in a 26.5. Another possibility is the ankle bones are not naturally aligned with the ankle bone pockets in the liner. The right pressure in the wrong spot directly behing the ankle bone (lateral malleolus) on the nerve bundle can also create tingling and numbness even if everything else is working well. Anyhow, hope the boot chosen in round two gets everything sorted!

 

[JohnnyG]

Revival: Are insteps heights published anywhere?

 

[markojp]

No. Not that I know of.

 

[DanoT]

We fit a gentleman a couple of weeks ago in an Atomic Hawx Magna 26.5 even though his foot measured 25. His instep measure was 28.5! The Magna has a high volume instep (as does the prime!), so one shell size up accommodated the volume of his instep nicely, and we still had some 5th met work to do along the entire length of the fifth met!

I have feet measuring 25cm and a 25.5cm with a high instep (26cm,I think) and a 100mm wide forefoot. My old boots were size 26 Technica Cochise Pro 130 (100mm wide) and I had a great fit after getting the shells punched at the baby toe. With my high instep I needed buckle extenders to get the 3rd buckle done up, but after the first day there was enough liner compaction to no longer need extenders.

Boot manufacturers are starting to offer stiff boots that are also wide, so last season I bought Head Advant Edge 125, 100mm wide in size 25. These are heat moldable shell and liner and I was told that this process tends to slightly increase the volume. Since I had a tight fit I went for the heat mold and the fit is so perfect that this is the first pair of boots in years that I have not had to punch or do any tweaks.

Nordica also offers a stiff wide boot, I am not sure about other makes.

 

[markojp]

FWIW, head measures their last dimension in the 27/27.5 shell for men's boots. Everyone else does it in a 26/26.5 (men's).

 

[David]

I have wide feet with high arch and very high instep. I found Daleboot and have never been happier! The way the clog is made there is plenty of room for the instep but the boot is extremely responsive. I can't explain it correctly except to say they are the first boot with complete comfort and responsiveness at the same time. Worth a look at least.

 

[markojp]

...and revisiting the Mach series, the new 120 HV has a high instep... really good boot IMHO.

 

[jmeb]

...and revisiting the Mach series, the new 120 HV has a high instep... really good boot IMHO.

Literally every instructor at Masterfit this year was raving about this boot for aggressive skiers with a high instep.

 

[markojp]

I've fitted two instructors in them. Both high volume, both need canting. I opened up the cuff for both... very easy with a hot water tank . Putting it on myself, it honestly seemed to flex more evenly/progressively than the mach 120 lv and mv. If I had a wide, high volume foot...

 

[Tony]

I've fitted two instructors in them. Both high volume, both need chanting...

Not sure that I can participate in the chanting, but sounds like I should be checking these out. My Lange 130 HVs have way over 200 days and are on their 2nd set of liners and will soon need 3rd set of toes and heels. I bought 27.5s with Intuition liners and have a couple of years on Palau liners that are packing out. I tried to down-size to 26.5, but suffered for over a week including having to go into lodge to remove boots a couple of times to get circulation on a 27" powder day at Alpine (before owned by Squaw). I have high arch and instep and my width is about 110 or even more late in day. I wear 9 1/2 or 10 D to E street shoes.

 

[Philpug]

Where many brands will lower the liner quality when they get into HV boots, Tecnica's CAS liner is one of the best.

 

[Dwight]

So does high volume = high arch?