Sail And Ski Ltd Guide to Ski Boots

Buying Guide - Ski Boots

Getting the right ski boots is always a daunting task as getting the perfect pair will make your skiing experience more enjoyable and will allow you to perform to the best of your capabilities where as getting the wrong pair can, in the worst of cases ruin an entire trip.

At Sail and Ski we have a team of fully trained boot fitters with years of experience behind them both on and off the mountain to try and ensure that your feet find their perfect match!

There have been huge changes in ski boots over the past few years including boot liners becoming heat mouldable, custom made insoles being readily available and now even ski boots that have shells that adjust to the width of your foot. All of these technologies have led to the need for more machinery in order to fit your ski boots properly and we have made sure that we have cut no corners by having our stores kitted out with the very latest equipment to ensure that all of our ski boots are fitted perfectly

How much skiing have you done?

After determining which shape of ski boot will be the best possible match for you we then need you to talk honestly to us about your ski ability as this will help us select the ski boots that will offer you the performance that you need. A beginner's ski boot will be forgiving and easy to initiate turns suited to lower speeds whereas an advanced level boot will be stiff and hard to turn at slow speeds but offer a much more responsive feel at higher speeds. Most people are somewhere in the middle of this range and there are ski boots appropriate to everyone's level of ability. Remember at this point that what you tell us will be the only information we have to go on in terms of selling you a ski boot so make sure you tell us accurately about your skiing. Telling us you're an expert if you have only done 3 weeks will not help but also telling us that you're fairly average when you have skied for 30 years is equally as bad. We do try and ask the right questions in order to build ourselves a mental picture of your skiing

The type of skiing you do can also effect the choice of ski boots, for example Salomon and Atomic both now produce Alpine ski boots that can also be used for ski touring and then there are also specific ski boots for freestyle skiing and freeride skiing and our staff can help steer you towards the most suitable boot for you type of skiing.

The fitting process

All of our fitting services are free of charge so it is only the price of the ski boots that you will pay for and a pair of insoles should you choose to add them to the boot.

After trying on the desired amount of ski boots and finding the one that you would like to buy we can start the fitting process for your ski boots. This will definitely involve heat moulding the inner liner of the ski boot for it to customise to the shape of your foot and takes between 20 and 30 minutes depending on the brand of boot you choose. Some models of Salomon ski boots have heat mouldable outer shells and these will also take 30 minutes.

The other major part of the fitting process that we offer is custom made insoles to add support within the ski boot. Most ski boot manufacturers confess that the insoles supplied as standard inside their ski boots are not very good for supporting the foot and they actively encourage us as a retailer to encourage our customers to invest in a custom made set of insoles for their ski boots. During the period that we analyse your foot we will also look at and discuss with you the benefits to you of adding an insole to the boot. Priced at around £40 they are a huge benefit to everyone especially for people who pronate (foot rolls in towards the arch) which is in fact a huge proportion of the population to varying degrees.

We also offer very specific boot fitting techniques such as ski boot shell stretching and grinding that we can discuss if the need arises

click here for more info on footbeds