 Poster: A snowHead
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Opinions, personal experiences with Daleboots anyone? Drawing up a short list of possibilities for problem feet. So far the list includes CEM, Strolz, Daleboot and Apex?
Cheers,
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Been discussed before the search function should bring up a few useful threads.
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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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mally, ski4life is the UK daleboot dealer....
what you haven't done is told us what the problems are, all to often we see people who book in saying they have major problems etc etce tc and the biggest problem they actually have is the fact that they have been put into a boot 1or 2 or even 3 sizes too big
all boots can be modified, some more than other, but without a crystal ball right now i can't tell you if you need to go down this route or wheter a standard ski boot with some minor /or major modification is what you need
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Got new Daleboots fitted in Kitzbuehel this January. Excellent service and very good boots, a level of comfort that I did not think was possible in a ski boot. They are like carpet slippers and I can wear them all day with no problem, never need to loosen them at lunchtime etc. also very easy to get on and off. Proper fit and no pain also helped my skiing!
Considered Strolz but decided against because of the foam injection liner . A friend had them and said that whilst they did fit well they are very snug, he felt clamped into them and could not wear them all day. Maybe just him but if you like to be able to wiggle your toes in your boots then they may not be for you ? When I was being fitted I was speaking to an Austrian lady who had bought Strolz last season and was changing to Daleboot for the same reason
Will not buy off the shelf again. My feet just don't fit such boots - no matter how much they are adjusted.
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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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I really hope i don't end up having to fort out for some daleboots, though they are the next option.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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For CEM, I'll keep it brief as I have bored people here with it before but........wife has high arches and very high instep, she doesn't have big calves and doesn't totter round in high heels all day (shame that! Sorry, sidetracked there for a moment!). BUT, can't seem to find boots recently that don't have her shedding tears and ripping the boots off after 5-10 mins. Did have boots in the USA years ago (hire) that seemed ok (probably just too big/packed out) but since then we have had a few holidays that were disasters because of the boot problem. Symptoms are pressure over top of foot, numbing of toes/forefoot and cramping following by intense pain along outsides of feet (both). Tried surefoot, very expensive and higharch footbed, foam injection torture but still no use. They didn't seem to take the foot height into account. We're now Getting desperate. Tried lots of off-the shelf boots too. She has real problems even getting the boots on. The pressure on the top of the foot seems to be the problem as far as I can see but......She also get slight numbness on the running machine, short achillies, lack of flexation? She wants to go skiing again but we need to get it sorted before getting to resort otherwise it's back and forward to the shop all holiday, done that on two holidays now and the magic has worn off.
The reasoning behind Daleboot was the process seems to be more individual specific. And if I'm honest......we ain't tried them yet? As for Apex well, they look comfy don't they..........!"£$%^&. Advice greatly appreciated..
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mally, the dale will probably work pretty well and is the best of the "custom" boots (dale,strolz,Apex!!!!!) sounds like the calf tension issue has been ignored before, but probably as a result od the instep being high as well
whatever direction you take it will require a well made orthotic footbed and the ankle flexion (or lack there of) to be addressed with some lift under the heel to try and minimize the net forward lean of the boot
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Resurrecting an old post here but this one came up in a google search so thought I'd post my experiences for anyone else who stumbles across it.
"Symptoms are pressure over top of foot, numbing of toes/forefoot and cramping following by intense pain along outsides of feet (both)"
These symptoms are identical to mine, they ease after a few days of skiing but never comfortable.
I was told to get a decent boot fit done and was recommended to go to Edge and Wax so I did, £320 later I had a pair of new boots with custom foot beds, Tom there spent hours on my fit and off I went to the dry slope very excitedly to test them, they were as bad as anything else I wore, I was gutted - the guy at the dry slope had never seen anyone in as much foot pain as me and then recommended a podiatrist.
The podiatrist had some orthotics made for me as I pronate quite badly and I had them made with metatarsal support as he also diagnosed a neuroma (google it), they are not nice and sit there causing no problems at all until the foot is squashed, then it hurts!!
Off to the dry slope again with an optimistic grin but straight away, agony, so back to the podiatrist who injected the neuromas with anaesthetic, this was not pleasant at all and for the first time since I was a kid I screamed in pain (I'm 41 and thought I could handle anything) - he sent me to the dry slope to see if it worked and if it did he'd give me a cortisone injections in each one, as you'd imagine my feet were fine as they'd been numbed.
After a couple more pretty horrible cortisone injections I went off to the snow centre at Hemel, low and behold, agony and despair but I love my skiing so was not going to give up.
My podiatrist introduced me to his mate Gavin and met up with me at Filarinskis in Chichester where I also met Steve, I spent most of a day there and learnt a huge amount about boot fitting and what effects your feet when in ski boots. It turned out my foot was being squashed and was not sitting flat on the footbed hence it was being pushed up slightly and was hitting the top of the boot causing more problems. I also had issues with my calves restricting the blood to my feet causing numbness in my toes. They then heated areas of the inner boot and moulded them by hand, stuck my boots in the oven and put pads on the areas of my feet that had gone red where they were under too much pressure then put the boots back on as tight as possible, sold me an expensive pair of socks and sent me on my way.
So my boots have been completely custom moulded to my feet so why am I looking as Strolz or Dale boots I hear you ask, well my brother has had all the same issues as me and had off the shelf boots moulded in the same way I have but he still had problems, this year he bough pair of custom boots in Austria and has had a pain killer free ski holiday for the first time in ten years, he goes twice a year ever year, plus I'm still dubious about mine, I've been wearing them quite a bit and although they are better I'm not convinced I'm sorted.
I should point out I have very wide feet for my size, that coupled with my neuromas, narrow heels and large calves makes me a bit of a problem case, Edge and Wax did provide an excellent fitting and I was told my footbeds they made were excellent, they do offer a comfort guarantee and were happy to keep spending time sorting me out, though I chose to work with my podiatrist and use his contacts as it made it easier as everyone knew each other.
I hope my experience can point someone who has similar issues in the right direction, skiing is great but the agony of problem feet causes misery and ruins what should be a great holiday.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| ThomasS wrote: |
| So my boots have been completely custom moulded to my feet so why am I looking as Strolz or Dale boots I hear you ask, well my brother has had all the same issues as me and had off the shelf boots moulded in the same way I have but he still had problems, this year he bough pair of custom boots in Austria and has had a pain killer free ski holiday for the first time in ten years, he goes twice a year ever year, plus I'm still dubious about mine, I've been wearing them quite a bit and although they are better I'm not convinced I'm sorted. |
Do you mean the boots have been moulded or just the boot liners?
Maybe these would be something for you .......
http://www.fischersports.com/en/Alpine/Technologies/Highlights/VACUUM-FIT
Last edited by You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net. on Fri 23-03-12 12:34; edited 1 time in total
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| ThomasS wrote: |
I was told to get a decent boot fit done and was recommended to go to Edge and Wax so I did, £320 later I had a pair of new boots with custom foot beds, Tom there spent hours on my fit and off I went to the dry slope very excitedly to test them, they were as bad as anything else I wore, I was gutted - the guy at the dry slope had never seen anyone in as much foot pain as me and then recommended a podiatrist.
The podiatrist had some orthotics made for me as I pronate quite badly and I had them made with metatarsal support as he also diagnosed a neuroma (google it), they are not nice and sit there causing no problems at all until the foot is squashed, then it hurts!!
Off to the dry slope again with an optimistic grin but straight away, agony, so back to the podiatrist who injected the neuromas with anaesthetic, this was not pleasant at all and for the first time since I was a kid I screamed in pain (I'm 41 and thought I could handle anything) - he sent me to the dry slope to see if it worked and if it did he'd give me a cortisone injections in each one, as you'd imagine my feet were fine as they'd been numbed.
After a couple more pretty horrible cortisone injections I went off to the snow centre at Hemel, low and behold, agony and despair but I love my skiing so was not going to give up. |
Hello, I do feel as my business is being mentioned the need to comment. You called us to explain your issues, and actually spoke to myself. My advice was to book you in to come back so we could see for ourselves, so we could look through the detailed notes we also take, and that it sounded likely we needed to do some work to the liner to resolve this, as the shell check was spot on. You advised you would be in touch. Next contact from you was to advise you had gone elsewhere. That is of course your choice, but we have a custom fit gaurantee, had offered for you to come back in for a refit, and that is where we had left it. So I would just like put that out there, as we do pride ourselves on our bootfitting, are BSBA trained, Tom being particularly handy, and were somewhat surprised that you then called Tom to say you had gone somewhere else to do ultimately exactly what we would have done for you, for free as part of your boot fit with us. So thank you for your kind comments about our involvement!
Our garauntee still stands, so suggest you get in touch with Tom, who is a professional ski boot fitter, so we can look at other options. Tom is a full time ski boot fitter so might be able to offer some additional advice or input based on our experiences of fitting people every day on-site, and of course some of the stuff we learn from Snowheads users experiences 
We have a lot of happy customers, and deal with quite technical issues. There are many solutions, which is why we have over £20K of tools and equipment in our boot fitting centre. Putting whole boots in the oven to fix hot spots or specific volume issues is not something we do here as a rule (Boots also need significant time to cool after heat stretching) and other fitters can chime in as to why/why not, but boot fitting is, for those who acknowledge they have had problems in the past not always a 1st-time-perfect thing. 95% of the time yes, but for the other 5% we have the garauntee to re-assure the customer that we are in this together, to get the same result - Good fitting, well peforming ski boots 
And as we always warn when fitting, dryslopes and indoor slopes are not always ideal test places for brand new ski boots. For sure they give an indication, but hitting button lifts every 45 seconds or skiing on synthetic surfaces on a boot that has not fully 'broken in' before hitting the mountain for full day skiing can give very different results! I speak from personal experience
Scott
Owner - Edge & Wax
PS - By the way, DON'T GIVE UP - There is always a solution but you do have specific bio-mechanical and physical conditions causing these issues, and ski technique can be factored in, but there will be a solution!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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completely off topic but to respond to scottydog's comment about heating shells and having padding on feet.... for specific lumps bumps etc it is worse than useless but for some feet in some shells it works well just to give that little extra space all over, it can for example be an effective way of easing race shells prior to doing the point stretches and grinds..... i was in discussions with the boss of the race dept of one of the large boot makers last week and they had started doing this with a few testers as they were interested in what effect it would have (initially due to the salomon custom shell and the fisher vac boots being out there) all the comments back were very positive and whilst they saw no notable shell deformation / change in shape, all the testers commented that the boots were more comfortable.
the usual caveats apply of course, the shell needs to be heated in the correct oven to a temperature and then allowed to cool to as close to room temperature as is possible, the boot should also remain on a flat hard surface during the cooling to prevent any warping of the soles (this is something we discussed with Salomon regarding the custom shell boots and they are in agreement with)
many ways to skin a cat or indeed cook a boot all are pretty successful for different things, just a case of using the correct method for the correct problem...up sizing the boot is never normally the answer
back on track we refer a few people to get Dale boot, i prefer it to all the others especially for that foot with the wide forefoot and a rigid cavus structure and zero ankle flexion....the 3 part shell and the upright cuff allow it to accommodate where other boots just don't have quite enough adjustment
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| CEM wrote: |
back on track we refer a few people to get Dale boot, i prefer it to all the others especially for that foot with the wide forefoot and a rigid cavus structure and zero ankle flexion....the 3 part shell and the upright cuff allow it to accommodate where other boots just don't have quite enough adjustment |
Aye Colin, the Dales are VERY good for extremely problematic feet requiring multiple adjustments in the shell AND liner. Think you can only go to one place currently, but we have always been fans of the Dale setup when used in the right situations, usually the more extreme ones!
And thanks for the comments on ovens, agree, and done badly they can warp the sole (Ref: Lange Race Department), we only use it when we need FULL volume gain, and cooling is critical, so many shops heat, customer tries on for 5 minutes, and then told they are done! Needs a bit longer than that to cool as you know 
Got to say we tested a new Salomon Custom 360 prototype this morning. They worked very, well, far better than we were expecting (Sorry Salomon!), will be very good addition to the boot-fitters arsenal, again though in certain situations!
But Dales may well be a good option for you Thomas if all else fails!
ScottyDog
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scottydog, i managed to get to ski the X max in kuhtai, vast improvement on the previous fit and (as you say) better than i expected it would feel
wasn't lange RD that i was talking about but it is very interesting to see who is doing what with all their race shells
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You know it makes sense.
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I am due to have my fitting with James of Outdoor Traders next weekend.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Scottyodg, I was trying to complement you and Tom, I thought I received a great service. I didn't go elsewhere because I wasn't happy, I chose to work closely with my podiatric surgeon and the people he works with purely to make life easier for me and to get the best possible result as I have problem feet, I think anyone would do the same. Tom is indeed a very good boot fitter but he is not a foot surgeon which as it turned out was what I needed.
The only comment I would make was that when I came back a second time and saw another fitter more enthuses should have been made fitting the liner properly.
One final thought, do you work with a podiatrist when you get problem customers? knowing what i know now I would have sent me to a specialist before fitting a boot.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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scottydog, This Salomon Custom 360 you mentioned is not the same as their "Black Project", I guessed. It appears that Salomon's Black Project is in a black hole.
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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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black project is a sidas product...it is an option of 2 salomon and one head shell (impact, X3 and head vector) with a foam liner and a footbed packaged together, the custom shell 360 is a new product from salomon for next season, the next generation of custom shell
none of the salmons on the black project have custom shell, they all have screwed on hardware and removable cuffs to allow a fitter to work on them more easily
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I just had a fitting and picked up my Daleboots from James earlier this week. It is by far the most comfortable ski boots I ever tried on. Many thanks to Rob and James.
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FAQ
