 Poster: A snowHead
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Last winter whilst in Courchevel there was an ongoing debate amongst people in our chalet as to the buying of boots.
Some claimed you need to buy them in a resort on day one and get them tweaked throughout your stay.
Others said don't buy them in the UK as you'd either end up being fitted by a glorified shop assistant who has no clue; and as there was no ability to tweak them.
Others said a couple of places in the UK are exceptional.
I have just read an interesting article in the Daily Mail Ski and Snowbaord magazine and it nominates some places in the UK that seem switched on.
What do you think?
If you know of good UK places let me know as well.
Thanks.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Peter Leuzzi, This has been done here a lot ! Profeet, Lockwoods etc good in UK. IMHO if you'll use them in the UK, and you are near enough to the shop to twaek them, then UK is best.
If not, then abroad, but, then you still need to find a good shop. In the past I've driven to Footworks (Chamonix) from Tignes just to sort a problem with Mrs Ski's boots........
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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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Lockwoods, in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire is supposed to be one of, if not THE, best places in the UK to get ski boots fitted-handy as i live 10 mins away. Apparently people come from all over the UK and even Europe to get boots fitted there.
I got a new pair of boots fitted there a few weeks ago, although i cannot comment on how the boots have felt/performed, as i haven't had the chance to use them yet....however they certainly did a very good and thorough job in there, and i would highly reccomend it.
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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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AT RESORT. NO ARGUMENTS. BUT, YOU MAY STRUGGLE TO FIND THE RIGHT GUY OR GAL QUICK ENOUGH. SO GO TO LOCKWOODS.
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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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As SMALLZOOKEEPER, said, in resort is best as you will need tweaks after a few days skiing. but try and get a recommendation. Footworks in Chamonix are great!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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I'll throw my hat into the Lockwoods ring. I travelled from Manchester on a weekday to get fitted there. Excellent service and the best fitting boots I've ever had.
Unfortunatley they we're stolen at Geneva last year.... 
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SMALLZOOKEEPER, it seems to me you could be a useful resource for snowHeads since you appear to run a ski shop and are presumably a native french speaker! I have a question and a suggestion:
(1) If you sell, for example, 20 pairs of ski boots to British skiers - how many would you expect to see back once within a week to sort out little problems? How many would be back twice?
(2) Maybe we should start a list of phrases useful in the purchase of ski boots (French, German or Italian)...
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Ian Hopkinson,
Top question (1)!
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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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markP, how do you get boots stolen? Skis I can see - they're just sitting there at lunch, maybe locked up with some crappy wire, just asking to be stolen. But boots??? Aren't they either on yout feet or in your home/appartment?
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Easy. You just need to put five pairs of skis and boots and eight suitcases in a minibus trailer covered with a tarpaulin. Then leave it unlocked and unattended for a short while next to said minibus in the carpark at Geneva Airport. Five minutes should do the trick.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Ian Hopkinson, SMALLZOOKEEPER doesn't seem to post like a native French speaker to me!
SMALLZOOKEEPER, PLEASE ENLIGHTEN US 
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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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ponder,
markP had his boots stolen at Geneva, which is a city in Switzerland - so I'm guessing it would have been at the airport.
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| Ian Hopkinson wrote: |
SMALLZOOKEEPER, it seems to me you could be a useful resource for snowHeads since you appear to run a ski shop and are presumably a native french speaker! I have a question and a suggestion:
(1) If you sell, for example, 20 pairs of ski boots to British skiers - how many would you expect to see back once within a week to sort out little problems? How many would be back twice?
(2) Maybe we should start a list of phrases useful in the purchase of ski boots (French, German or Italian)... |
We see 90% of all boots sold, back and most oftenley more than once.
There are two main reasons for this;
A, it is important for our clients to understand that we can take problems away. If at point of sale we think we will have to deform the shell, we dont. We tell the client that there is maybe 90% chance there will need to be further work done. We have the client go skiing. He/she will then come back. And this is where buying in resort comes into its own. We then deform the boot or deal with whichever problem has arrived. the client goes skiing again. Now imagine this. I'm poking you in the eye,ouchh! However, at the same time, i'm pinching your arm. You're not too bothered by me pinching your arm because i have my finger in your eye. So when i take my finger from your eye(Take away the pain from your ski boots), you start to feel happier however, you start to feel my pinching your arm. So i stop pinching you.(Take away the second problem), however, you would come back to let me solve it because you know i delt with original problem. Client confidence. When our clients see we can remove problems, they don't mind coming back. We are open late so it doesn't eat into ski time and for those whom are worried about missing apres ski, well thats where we excel, we got ourselves a free bar!
B, I don't care how often this question is raised, the answer is always going to be"Buy in Resort". I have worked in both resort and outside, and know that now, inside resort, i am able to be so much more precise than before. Bringing the shell size right down in both width and length. We have an accelarated learning curve, we have so many more opportuinties to correct the problem with the problem, both in front of us, but also while it's fresh in your mind. Therefore are more likely to be familiar with the problem and getting to it more quickly. So many times when i worked outside resort, my client would; buy, try, fly then come back and cry wishing that, well i would just die. All because of a minor problem that didn't occur until he/she skied in the liner. A simple job is given no patience because, well the holiday is over.
In my very humble opinion, if your skiing in boots that haven't been modified, they are too big!!!!!!!!!
I can say this without any doubt in my mind. The 10% of clients who pass by whom don't come back for work are;
A, Sadists
B, Customers who choose against our advice and buy too big.
C, One of the lucky, say, 80 odd people out of 4.2billion who's foot is exactly the same as the last the boot was made on.
Interestingly enough, we sell around 1200pairs of boots each winter. 90% are modified. An average in the last 5 years of 3.2 pairs refunded each winter. With those statisics, i'm happy. I'm sure we have more than that, whom, would maybe like to return them but have flown home. I have no way to research this. However for those U.K. based, buy boots from me and Lockwoods will modifiy and work on the boots for free. Likewise if you buy there, i'll modifiy for free. No, refunds or exchanges will be made by either shop.
2, What kind of things would you like to know, i could write for hours???!!!!!??$?^?&^? 
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You know it makes sense.
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SMALLZOOKEEPER, that's really interesting! I originally thought your return rate would be much lower, in fact, I'd guessed at 10-25% level. I can see why that makes buying in resort so much better an idea. Can you send young ski technicans off on a bootfitting course at the local college?
The free bar sounds good too!
2. Did I guess right about you being native french speaking? In which case your English is v. good...in terms of vocabulary - I think we should probably start with "Stop poking me in the eye!"
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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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You can send your young technicians to me. We'll intimidate them, ski them to death, work them to death, beat them, tickle them and turn the're blood into wine. Then i'll send them back to you, sales machines.
"Enleves ton doigt de mon oeil" 
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Poster: A snowHead
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SMALLZOOKEEPER, I see, ski-ing and drinking wine are an important part of the learning process - that sounds terrible
1. You mentioned elsewhere that we can't expect our feet to be pain free because we generally spend only a couple of weeks on skis. Is it clear what pain can be fixed by modifying boots and what pain must be fixed by exercise.
2. Are you mainly reliant on what we tell you in terms of identifying problems? I notice some ski shops have foot pressure mapping devices - and if I look at my feet after ski-ing I can see where the sock pattern is imprinted on my foot more or less.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| SMALLZOOKEEPER wrote: |
We see 90% of all boots sold, back and most oftenley more than once. ...
...In my very humble opinion, if your skiing in boots that haven't been modified, they are too big!!!!!!!!!
I can say this without any doubt in my mind. The 10% of clients who pass by whom don't come back for work are;
A, Sadists
B, Customers who choose against our advice and buy too big.
C, One of the lucky, say, 80 odd people out of 4.2billion who's foot is exactly the same as the last the boot was made on.
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You're obviously aiming for a different kind of fit from most boot sellers! I wonder what percentage of boots back most other resort boot shops are happy to get. In spite of your didactic stance, you've certainly changed my concept of what boot fitting should entail. I can see that as you're aiming for a very close shell fit, some tweaking would be inevitable to make it comfortable. However I know that if I overtighten my boots (and I would guess that if I had a very close shell fit that would necessarily be the case), my lower legs and feet get easily starved of blood unless I'm really well warmed up already, though I don't get any pressure points. Any comments?
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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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Can anyone suggest a good bootfitter in Tignes?
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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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SMALLZOOKEEPER, thank you for such good and informative posts, whilst in general I'd totally agree with you on getting boots in resort there are exceptions, last year I got a pair of boots fitted at a ski show of all places which I'd normally class as the worst possible place to get them done, but the staff on the stand of Ski Bartlett took the time and effort to get a perfectly fitted boot (about 2 hours) very unusually for me they didn't have to alter the shell of the boot but that may be due to them being the Rossignol Soft1 boots, I'm happy to repport that after skiing on them for 3 weeks last season they were perfect I didn't have to get them tweaked at all and the increase in control that I got from having such well fitting boots made a definate improvement in my skiing, so there are people in the UK other than at Lockwoods who know how to fit ski boots, it's just that they are very rare
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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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| slikedges wrote: |
| SMALLZOOKEEPER wrote: |
We see 90% of all boots sold, back and most oftenley more than once. ...
...In my very humble opinion, if your skiing in boots that haven't been modified, they are too big!!!!!!!!!
I can say this without any doubt in my mind. The 10% of clients who pass by whom don't come back for work are;
A, Sadists
B, Customers who choose against our advice and buy too big.
C, One of the lucky, say, 80 odd people out of 4.2billion who's foot is exactly the same as the last the boot was made on.
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You're obviously aiming for a different kind of fit from most boot sellers! I wonder what percentage of boots back most other resort boot shops are happy to get. In spite of your didactic stance, you've certainly changed my concept of what boot fitting should entail. I can see that as you're aiming for a very close shell fit, some tweaking would be inevitable to make it comfortable. However I know that if I overtighten my boots (and I would guess that if I had a very close shell fit that would necessarily be the case), my lower legs and feet get easily starved of blood unless I'm really well warmed up already, though I don't get any pressure points. Any comments? |
The shell would appear to be to large. When you then tighten the shell it will deform causing in-equal distribution of preasure, thus shutting the foot down. Yes the shell is very important, however there are liners that can fill the space better than the stock one, thus reducing the need to tighten the shell.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| D G Orf wrote: |
| SMALLZOOKEEPER, thank you for such good and informative posts, whilst in general I'd totally agree with you on getting boots in resort there are exceptions, last year I got a pair of boots fitted at a ski show of all places which I'd normally class as the worst possible place to get them done, but the staff on the stand of Ski Bartlett took the time and effort to get a perfectly fitted boot (about 2 hours) very unusually for me they didn't have to alter the shell of the boot but that may be due to them being the Rossignol Soft1 boots, I'm happy to repport that after skiing on them for 3 weeks last season they were perfect I didn't have to get them tweaked at all and the increase in control that I got from having such well fitting boots made a definate improvement in my skiing, so there are people in the UK other than at Lockwoods who know how to fit ski boots, it's just that they are very rare |
There are people fitting boots correctly everywhere. Bootfitting is a resonably new job description and is currently hamperd by poor pay, therefore a fast turnover of staff, therefore reluctance to train the staff therefore a shortage of experience. It is also important to stress that a ski-boot sales require many skills, Psyhcology being as important as product knowledge. You guys seem to swallow marketing hype like it is fresh oysters. My faith in Lockwoods is based on the owners investment in his staff. They are all trained correctly, nurtured, payed correctly and have an approach, that in 90% of cases will guarentee sucsess. We have similar sales-return ratios, so i am confident that when i sell a boot and there is a problem, Lockwoods can put it right with the smallest amount of disruption to the customer.
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FAQ
