Premium Ski Boot Fitting Services at Outside Sports

The thing that turns most people off about skiing is having to wear ski boots. Many a day on the slopes that could have been amazing has been ruined by sore feet – but it doesn’t have to be that way. Your feet can be comfortable all day long – even in high performance ski boots. What you need is an experienced professional boot fitter. 

At Outside Sports Queenstown and Wanaka stores we have New Zealand’s finest boot fitters. As well as working with many international ski athletes and national ski team members who depend on their boots for their results, we’re just as happy working to find the perfect fit for people new to skiing. 

In this article we'll cover:

• The ski boot fitting process
• Ski boot selection
• Fit
• Flex and stiffness
• Fine-tuning and customising Your Ski Boots 
• Ramp Angle and forward lean
• Sidas custom footbeds
• Heat moulding
• Stretching and punching
• Grinding
• Volume reduction

Professional ski boot fitting is a process that takes care and attention. It's not an 'in and out, one and done' kind of thing. At least that's the way we look at it at Outside Sports. So for that reason please make the time to spend with us – not rushing the process is vital to getting a satisfying result. Your initial visit can easily take an hour or more, and your boots might need to come back a couple of times for adjustments over the next few days of skiing until they’re perfectly dialled in. 

We need you to spend time with is to: 

1. Find exactly the right boot from all the brands we have in store 

2. To adjust your new boot for a perfect fit to your unique foot shape. 

At Outside Sports we have a lot of great options for you from the world’s top brands. That means we can usually get close to a good fit right out of the box. But everyone needs a little bit of work to get a perfect fit – and that’s where our professional boot fitters are so important. Your foot is an extremely complex part of the body, and it ltakes years to get the skill and experience necessary to do the job properly.

All our boot fitters have at least ten years' experience in boot fitting that they’vegained all the world – in Japan, North America, and Europe. 

If your boots don’t fit comfortably nothing else matters. That’s why we stock a big range of models and brands. From all those options we’re looking the boot that offers the most comfortable and snug fit out of the box - keeping in mind that a custom Sidas insole, heat moulding, and our other boot fitting techniques will make the fit that much better.  

Alongside basic fit, our boot fitters will also talk to you about flex and stiffness. Flex and stiffness are the same thing. You’ll often see flex numbers written on the side of boots, usually ranging from about 70 to 130. That’s the manufacturers stiffness rating for the boot. However, there is no international flex standard, so one brand’s 110 flex might actually be as stiff than another's 120 flex. 

• Your ability
• Your weight and height
• Your ankle’s range of motion (aka dorsiflex)
• Personal preference 

In general, stiffer boots suit larger, taller, and more aggressive skiers since they’re putting more pressure on their boots. But they can feel harsh and too rigid to smaller and less aggressive skiers. If you’ve used boots in the past that were very clearly too stiff or too soft for you, please let your boot fitter as it’s important information 

If you have a highly mobile or rigid ankle a stiffer boot with help with its extra support. And if you have a super mobile ankle a stiffer boot can help you too, by stopping over-flexing. 

Put simple the job of boot fitters are trying to match the shape of your foot to your boot as closely as possible. Usually the adjustments we need to make are very small – but they will make an absolutely massive difference to your comfort, and also your skiing performance 

The insole (aka footbed) helps to stabilise your foot inside the boot, keeping it in a more stable, consistent position, so you foot can relax, leading to less fatigue or cramping. Having a stable foot position also means your ankle joint isn’t rolling over your medial arch (pronating), or over your lateral arch (supinating). At Outside Sports we recommend Sidas, the world leaders in ski boot footbeds.  

We have the only Sidas Feetbox EVO foot scanner in New Zealand which lets our boot fitters get a clear image of your foot and how it bears your weight, allowing them to customise a footbed that will cradle your foot perfectly. 

A Sidas custom insole also prevents your foot from elongating inside the boot, keeping it in its shortest, narrowest, most stable configuration. 

Ramp Angle is the drop from heel to toe. Forward lean is the angle at the cuff of the boot. Most ramp angles of boots range from 4-7°, and forward lean angles typically range from 9-17° 

The difference between the Ramp and Forward Leanangles is the angle that your ankle joint needs to matchso you can stand balanced in your ski boot. If a boot has a 4° Ramp Angle and a 12° Forward Lean, this means your ankle joint requires a minimum 8° of motion to let youto stand upright in the boot. 

The aim of adjusting the Ramp and Forward Lean is to give you a balanced fore-aft position in your boots. Tweaking these two angles by just a couple of degree of ramp and can make a big difference to your skiing.

For example, if you find yourself leaning back and 'skiing in the back seat,' that's because you’re putting too much weight on your heels., A Ramp angle adjustment could help you bring your weight forward ono the balls of your feet and magically change the way you ski!

If you need a little extra room in your boots we might use heat moulding to create it – especially if you need it in the instep. We have a special oven that takes your boot shells up to the ideal temperature for moulding, with no risk of damaging the boot.

However if your best option is a Lange boot, they aren’t heat mouldable due the type of plastics they use, and in that case we’ll need to use another technique - more of which below..

Heat moulding your boot liners can help us give you get a little more room in the boot’s toe box, relieve little pressure points, accommodate bony lumps (see next section), or reshape your liner for a new custom insole. 

Stretching (aka punching) a ski boot shell in targeted areas is a longstanding method used to add a little extra volume to your boot – often in a particular place. For instance, if you have lumps or bunions on your feet. It can be used by itself or in conjunction with heat moulding. 

Grinding is a punching technique. It's typically performed with a Dremel tool, which we use to grind away plastic from inside the shell in small areas, such as the toe box, 1st and 5th metatarsal areas, navicular bones, etc. Grinding is the go-to technique for race boots (also known as plug boots) that have thick plastic walls. Grinding is great for making extra space in recreational boots too, especially for small bony lumps, protruding tendons, or prominent surgical screws. 

Making a boot have less space isn’t usually the way boot fitters like to go, but if for some good reason it’s your best option - for example you have a very slender foot -, we might need to do it.The simplest option is using the shim that many boots come in the box with that raises your foot a small amount inside the shell, giving you a snugger fit.

We can also use foam pads to take up volume in particular areas. These pads are also used when we’re trying to ease the pressure on a lump or your ankle joint. 

So that's a deep dive into boot fitting. If you’ve ever experienced discomfort in your feet when they’re in ski boots, or you want to improve your skiing performance, it's a great idea to see our awesome boot fitters at Outside Sports in Wanaka and Queenstown. A visit to them to get new ski boots can literally change your life as a skier. Having boots that fit properly and match your individual physiology and skiing style makes all the difference.

We'll help you find the best boots for you and we’ll work with you to get a perfect fit – guaranteed - no matter how long it takes.