Alpine Ski Boot Fitting - Part 2, The Footbed.

Hi, this is Todd from Mountainside Ski Service in Warren, Vermont. We’ve done the assessment on the athlete to find a boot that’s going to work for them. Now we’re going to go ahead and build a footbed. We’re going to do the casting, we’re going to do the posting up, and we’re going to bring the material down to fit within the dimensions of the boot selection.

What we’re going to try to do is address that arch issue being a spring, and the evolution that produced – let me see your foot for a second – that produced this arch to act as a spring when you’re laden. I really want to stop that, because as the foot elongates, and your toes spread under athletic activity, I need to stop that so that the boot fits consistently under all loads – whether you’re sitting on a chairlift, or whether you pound it down from a mogul.

In order to do that, I’m going to create an impression of you on a rigid piece of material that’s going to suspend and stall that ability for that sprint to flex. How we’re going to do it, is we’re going to set a cast of your foot with the shape of your arch and the width of your forefoot. We’re going to use a thermoplastic blank – I’ll show you one that’s not been heated – a thermoplastic blank that I’m going to heat up, slip under your foot, put your foot back, and we’re going to make a reverse impression of your foot on laden.