Mike T Posted March 27, 2005 Report Share Posted March 27, 2005 I've been using some Superfeet/Outlast cork footbeds for the past three seasons. They made a huge difference in comfort and foot stamina. Unfortunately they seem to be nearing the end of their life; the cork has softened and they are no longer retaining their shape as well as they used to. It's time for a new pair. I got about 120 riding days out of them. I would like something that will last a while longer, even if I have to pay more. What's the next step up? I don't have any serious anatomical issues... my arches are a bit forward for my foot size and my feet are bony but that's nothing out of the ordinary. Thanks in advance for any recommendations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wavechaser Posted March 27, 2005 Report Share Posted March 27, 2005 Mine were made at my local ski shop and say "Peterson Laboratories" on them - have had them for six years and they look like they'll last another six, with a little rubber cement to glue the foot-contact surface back down. Best $75 I ever spent! No pain, no foot movement within the boot, no fatigue - a perfect mold to the bottom of my foot. If I could afford it, I'd get a set for each pair of boots, bit for now I just move them from boot to boot. I basically stood on these things for 15 minutes on a heater at the shop, then they glued the forms to hard plastic with a shock absorbing material in between and shaped the plastic to fit in my boots...heaven! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kent Posted March 27, 2005 Report Share Posted March 27, 2005 That lifespan seems about right. There are many different materials for custom footbeds.....the most important being the "posting" materials on the bottom. Cork is a nice way to go, but not do durable over the long haul as once the posting turns soft, you need to re-make the entire footbed. Peterson are nice and what I use, but won't claim they are the shiz-nit. There are many different verisions...as the BioSkate being the most popular (The BioSki takes up too much room...if your boots are sized properly). Once again, the posting is most important. On the Peterson, you can replace the posting very easily, which can potentially expand the lifestyle with maintenance. I'd go with whatever you favorite fitter uses, but ask about replaceable posting since you're getting more days on snow than the average bear.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike T Posted March 27, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 27, 2005 Thanks Kent. If anyone has any good bootfiting experiences in Bend, Eugene or Portland, OR please tell me about them. The one and only bootfitting I've had was at Sam Bennett's in Portland and he's closed up shop - plus, they did an acceptable but bo no means great job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Randy S. Posted March 27, 2005 Report Share Posted March 27, 2005 Mike, I have to say that I've been very impressed and happy with my Surefoot footbeds. They have a great system and the resulting footbed is a one-piece rubber/foam thing that works great and doesn't seem to break down very quickly. I don't know if there's a Surefoot up in OR/WA. The system they use is actually made by Amfit (although Surefooot brands it as their own). I know there are other shops that use the Amfit system (Granite Chief in Truckee being one). Its not cheap, but its by far the best custom footbed I've ever had. You can find Surefoot at www.surefoot.com and Amfit at www.amfit.com. Randy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike T Posted March 27, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 27, 2005 Thanks Randy, I'll look into them. I conatcted AmFit to see if they can steer me towards someone locally. Their corporate HQ is in Vancouver WA which is half and hour from me at (for the next 5 weeks, anyway) so maybe it will work out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D-Sub Posted March 27, 2005 Report Share Posted March 27, 2005 Mike The Race Place has a bootfitter that seemed to know his stuff. dont know his name, and havent actually used him also...the head fitter at Bach is certified by some FitMasters or something like that? forgot the name, but I talked to him extensively... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike T Posted March 27, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 27, 2005 Originally posted by D-Sub Mike The Race Place has a bootfitter that seemed to know his stuff. dont know his name, and havent actually used him also...the head fitter at Bach is certified by some FitMasters or something like that? forgot the name, but I talked to him extensively... Excellent - I'll give 'em both a call before I do anything. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D-Sub Posted March 27, 2005 Report Share Posted March 27, 2005 holy **** I said something useful! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kipstar Posted March 28, 2005 Report Share Posted March 28, 2005 D-sub..... man, you should make posts like that more often! LOL I have a set of the green comfortmables or something that are mostly green with an area of black where your foot sits on the footbed. Have done a total of probably 500 days on these, and they are still great. The reasons they have lasted so long; they were heated and molded in a similar way to the surefoot I think it is that footloose uses in mammoth; the boot fitter molded the bed making sure that my foot was set up right without having weight pressure on my foot. The way this sole normally works is that the sole is stiff enough to support itself in the centre, with a heel cup wrapping around the outside of the heel. I think this method doesn't work, since with all the flexing forward, the arch support eventually collapses. She then spent a while making a piece of black hard foam that she glued onto the bottom of the foot bed and ground it so that the bottom of the footbed is flat (like the surefoot and the corks that I have seen) and supports the top of the sole so that it doesn't collapse. She then glued and taped the whole thing together so that none of the bits would come apart. I used to have all manner of footpain, but her beds really sorted me; a bit of a way to go though - Marie in National Park, New Zealand; was the former NZ slalom/GS champ for skiiing. Honestly, 500 days and 10 years; I don't think that they normally would last this long, but also other than that, the other things I've done include: - not drying my boots out in hot drying rooms or next to fires with a lot of high temperature - not taking the liners out all the time and bending the foot bed - not swapping the footbeds around from boot to boot I think that these things can really kill the foot bed. Plus I am a relative lightweight, so I don't think the beds have that much stress on them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike T Posted March 28, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2005 I remove my liners to dry them quite often, and move the footbeds betwwen my hard and soft boots. I'll just stick the ones I have now in my soft boots and be done with it once I get some replacements for my hard boots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kipstar Posted March 28, 2005 Report Share Posted March 28, 2005 the soft boots may chew them up a bit more, since the boot flexes a bit as you walk around the carpark and skate the board around and so on. Not much you can do about it, other than get ride of your soft boots and just ride plates all the time :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike T Posted March 28, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2005 Originally posted by kipstar the soft boots may chew them up a bit more, since the boot flexes a bit as you walk around the carpark and skate the board around and so on. Not much you can do about it, other than get ride of your soft boots and just ride plates all the time :-) Like I said in the original post, they are near the end of their life already. Good enough for my soft boots but not my hard boots ;) I ride plates 90% of the time, but will probably never completely abandon my soft boots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason_watkins Posted March 29, 2005 Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 Just a thought, but you might want to look for someone with experience fitting AT/Tele boots, since their flex is more similar to hardboots. I think next season I'm going to have to get some real footbeds... the off the shelf ones I've got right now have a bit to much arch for my foot. I was planning to go to OMC since they seem to be the place to go for alpineism types. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Donnelly Posted March 29, 2005 Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 Jason, I wear off the shelf SuperFeet in my every day shoes. What my boot-fitter showed me was how to get the right size. My street shoe size is 10, but the right size SuperFeet for my foot is 11-13. The trick is to size it to your foot; specifically from the bottom of your heel to your arch then trim the excess off the toe area. If you buy off the shelf based on your shoe size you may wind up with a mis-aligned arch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike T Posted October 24, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 24, 2005 Has anyone heard of these guys? http://www.footform.com/ I called, the fellow is a board=-certyified podiatrist and skier who really seems to know his stuff but he wants over $300 for a set of orthotics and liner molding. seems expensive, no? My other option is Race Place (http://www.ski-racing.com/), the fellow there also seems to know his stuff, not a podiatrist, and is going to run more like $175. If anyone's used either of these guys for a fitting, please let me know how it went. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Randy S. Posted October 24, 2005 Report Share Posted October 24, 2005 Wow! Footform is expensive. I thought $190 from Surefoot was a lot. They are local to you though, that's a plus. I think you now have an excuse to make a road trip to Tahoe to go to Surefoot Mike. Let me know if you need a place to stay. The ski house opens on 12/1. Randy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted October 24, 2005 Report Share Posted October 24, 2005 I would suggest either the podiatrist you mentioned, or you could go to your family Dr. and ask if they will prescribe custom orthotics. At that point, they will refer you to either a Podiatrist, a Pedorthist, or an Orthotist - any of which should be able to fit you with the best medical custom orthotics available for hardbooting. The best part? If Doc prescribes it, your insurance should pay for it. Otherwise, your quote for $300 would be spot on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike T Posted October 24, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 24, 2005 The best part? If Doc prescribes it, your insurance should pay for it. Otherwise, your quote for $300 would be spot on. I'll certainly give that a try. Randy, I might come down later, but not till after the 1st of year... need footbeds sooner than that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobdea Posted October 25, 2005 Report Share Posted October 25, 2005 the footbeds that are molded with heat can have issues with thermoflex liners if you are not careful, in my case this worked out perfectly, I was considering gettinhg a new pair untill I fit some thermos with them and they expanded a bit and remolded. that worked out really well cosidering that they were getting flat and compressed, now its like a footbed. other than cork and its short life span, I think meterials are way less important than the tech doing your footbeds and whoever does it being somewhat close so you can have them tweaked if needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galen Posted October 25, 2005 Report Share Posted October 25, 2005 I got Sole Ultra heat molded footbeds I'm pretty happy with. They heated them, then had me stand on them on a flat vibrating "pillow" filled with plastic beads. Dont know what the process is called, but they are way comfy. Cost about 100 for that and molding my liners, full boot fitting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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