 Poster: A snowHead
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Just wondering if I hire before I buy in resort in December? What are hired boots generally like these days?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Fine if you’ve got pretty normal feet and a decent shop with good quality kit. Nothing like the comfort of a decent properly fitted pair though
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I’ve hired all my life for the 1-2 weeks per year, including perhaps 9 weeks in the last 6 years. Never a problem.
I’m sure buying would be better but never taken the risk that they are imperfect and my holiday is spoiled/ need to return them later.
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My experience was (and I've heard it from others), is that hired boots are great, until one day, you buy a good pair of properly fitted boots from a good boot-fitter. Then you kick yourself, as it's so amazing, and your skiing improves so much, that you regret not doing it earlier.
So maybe, just stick with hired boots! 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| Poogle wrote: |
My experience was (and I've heard it from others), is that hired boots are great, until one day, you buy a good pair of properly fitted boots from a good boot-fitter. Then you kick yourself, as it's so amazing, and your skiing improves so much, that you regret not doing it earlier.
So maybe, just stick with hired boots! |
This. You can buy a perfectly good pair of boots for 250 euros -- if you go to a good bootfitter and spend another 50 euros or so for the right insole and maybe punching out the shell a bit -- it will transform the ski experience. You should be able to get anywhere from 12 to 36 weeks out of them, depending on how you ski, and you can even get a new inner if it packs in too much.
I'm not sure it makes economic sense to buy your own skis as a 1-2 week per year skier b/c as you progress or if conditions change skis can become obsolete; then there's sharpening/waxing, and ski transport is a good deal more expensive than just shoving your boots into your checked lluggage or even carry on...
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It all depends on the shape of your feet, if your foot happens to be a very good match for the last that the boot manufacturer used, then you’re very lucky.
As mentioned above, some are very happy with hire boots, others aren’t.
It also depends on whether you are hiring a brand new boot, or one that has been used for a couple of seasons. Any good shop will offer you a discount if you buy a pair of boots from them after renting from them.
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Last rented on a school trip in 1984. Bleeding shins meant I saved up and bought some second hand ones from ski rossendale. First proper ones in about 87. I realise that rentals and boots have improved in 30 years, but I’d either buy here, or be on the doorstep as the shop opens on your first day. All depends how much you ski etc.
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My daughter loved her ski boots, which were bought off eBay and were basically like having the same pair of hire boots every time. Only when I took her to Blues in Glasgow for her birthday and she emerged 90 minutes later with a pair of Fischer Trinity 110s (2 Mondo points smaller!) did she finally agree that she'd been skiing in buckets all along.
I would (if I were you):
1. Buy in the UK, from a good ski shop with proper boot fitters. If they aren't peering at your naked feet and asking you to try the boots on without the inners, whilst sticking various size wooden dowels down the boot around your foot, then they are taking short cuts.
2. Take your time...give them at least 20 minutes of clumping about the shop.
3 Don't fall for the first pair straight away.
4. Try them on a dry ski slope/indoor slope for a couple of hours after you've bought them and take them back to the shop for adjustment if they aren't right.
5. If you do buy in resort, I would NOT buy first thing: hire for a day (or a half day) then buy when the shop is quiet. They will be too busy and you are likely to rush yourself. This also has the advantage that your feet will have remembered skiing when you try boots on. Expect the same fitting experience as above. I have never, though, worked out how to tell which shops are good in a resort. 
Personally I love Fischer's Vacuum Fit* technology: fabulously mouldable boot shells.
tsgsh's rule of ski boots: the purpose of ski boots is to make you enjoy skiing.
* It's not vacuum; it's pressure but I forgive them.
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While acknowledging that you can get ski boots for €250 , I think that £300 + at least £50 for a footbed is closer to the mark.
I had my boots for many years ( I think 15 years) until they disintegrated on the first day in resort so I hired. The technology had moved on and the hire boots were far better than my old boots. I only do a week a year now and I can't justify the price of a new pair so I'm happy to hire. It also saves on luggage weight and volume.
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