Whitehouse: You see it more and more in rentals - “What’s your shoe size?” They tell me 10, I’ll give them a 28 boot, which is a size too big, being conservative because they’re rentals. Then it’s good to go and will hold that shape for a long time. Whitehouse: Maybe you’ve gotta ski it five days, and that liner breaks in. Wired: So how long until the correct boot is broken in and “feels good?” By the time you do that, you’ve shut down nerves and blood vessels. But the top of your foot has blood vessels and the arch underneath, and you’ll just keep tightening it down so your foot doesn’t move sideways. It really just compresses from the top down, so you have a situation where you have that liner and this boot feels comfortable. And when you start buckling the boot to bring it to your foot, they don’t shrink. And the day after that, it feels really loose. But the day after tomorrow, it feels a little loose. You put it on and you say, “Oh my God, this feels great!” Ski it tomorrow, and it feels great. So you start out with a boot that feels great. Now for the real test: What do they feel like on the mountain? We’ll be testing them next week as part of our Wired Winter Camp test package - check back soon for a full report. Using a powerful vacuum, the machine sucks all the air out and compresses the material around your foot.īut after eight minutes of pain and allowing the blood to circulate back into his feet, the custom-molded boots (base cost of $850) were placed on Jim’s foot and he was happy to report that they did feel great. It has two “tents,” each with its own protruding hose, that envelop the boots. (If you require any sort of orthopedic inserts, they can add those, too.) Then, you step onto a machine that looks like a very large treadmill from the ’90s. You put your feet inside your new ski boots, which have been pre-loaded with the appropriate liner material and pre-heated so that everything’s malleable.

Next comes eight terrible minutes of foot-crushing hell. The first part of the process involves 90 minutes of foot measuring and having a mold made. While at the California Ski Company, photo director Jim Merithew got custom-fitted for a pair of ski boots using the shop’s fancy $6,000 Fischer Vacuum Boot machine. Think of a sponge - when it’s not compressed at all, it’s really spongy, and when it’s halfway pushed down, it’s pretty dense.Ĭruel Shoes: The Fischer Vacuum-Fit Boots

The spongy material is going to compress, and when it compresses, the denser it gets. The one that’s correct is going to feel too tight. They have the same spongy liner inside with the same thickness, but one is bigger and one is smaller. Ski boots use a liner that’s designed to compress and mold to your foot. Wired: Is it because the correct boot size feels too tight?

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