Level up your skiing.
Custom footbeds for ski boots can feel like an upsell during your boot fit. After all, the boot feels alright in the shop, what more can a fancy insole do? Turns out, a lot.
Custom insoles aren’t just for experts serious about skiing. Of course, for advanced riders, they’re essential to get a performance fit and maximize your capabilities on snow. But, they’re just as necessary for casual skiers looking to feel comfortable through the whole day. We dive into the mechanics of why a supportive insole is so fundamental in a ski boot, how they differ from stock footbeds, and what that will mean when you take them to snow.
Providing Stability to Your Foot
Most people have what we call an “unstable foot”. As you walk, hike, run, and ski, your foot typically collapses inward (pronation), and sometimes outward (supination) as you apply weight. This is all normal. But, that movement inside a ski boot can cause problems and pain. You might feel inconsistent hotspots from your foot impacting the boot as it moves, or cramps from your foot trying hard to stabilize itself. Or both! Providing stability holds your foot in the right place in the boot, relieving pain, and increasing performance.
Increasing Comfort
A footbed addresses several comfort complaints. Let’s start with hot spots.
Custom footbeds greatly reduce toe pressure and other hot spots that come from your foot moving around. By holding the foot in its proper place, they provide consistency to your foot’s position in the boot and support it in its relaxed, natural position. If the foot is free to move about the cabin, it bumps into that rigid plastic. Imagine how often you weight/unweight the foot throughout the day while skiing. That adds up to lots of opportunities for different parts of your feet to impact the boot. These hot spots are often misconstrued as the boot being too small. In reality, the boot might be the right size, but your foot is constantly taking impacts.
A common misconception about footbeds is that they take up additional space in boots that are already very snug. A well-made footbed doesn’t add additional space; it fills up the open spaces that exist naturally. Our feet host multiple arches and gaps, and a well-built custom footbed will support all those spaces. By supporting your foot and preventing all of that unwanted movement, a well-made footbed will prevent your foot from stretching out, seemingly pulling your toes back, relieving pressure from the front of the boot.
As for the “cramping” sensation, this is where custom footbeds really shine for folks with flexible feet. When your foot moves around in the boot, it naturally tries to stabilize itself. If you ever get the feeling your toes are “grabbing” at the bottom of the boot or flexing, your foot is straining to find some stability. Our small feet muscles can only do that so long, and get overworked trying to find grip. In that tight space, it is difficult for the foot to recover, and that cramping and aching sensation can linger.
For the folks who like natural pronation in their hiking shoes or while running, that’s totally valid. Our bodies do that on purpose for suspension. But the mechanics in ski boots are different. In skiing, you’re trying to gain maximum power transfer to engage the skis beneath you. Having a stable and sturdy foundation beneath you is essential to that. As we mentioned above, the rigid plastic of the ski boot is more unforgiving than the thinner, more pliable fabric of your running and hiking shoes.
Increasing Performance
We know that having a less painful—but still supportive—fit will make you feel more comfortable for long days on the hill. A comfortable skier is a happy skier, and a happy skier skis better.
But it goes beyond just feeling more comfortable in your boot. A stable foundation in your ski boot allows you to have better power transfer and stability. A good footbed increases responsiveness and lets you get that ski over on the edge more quickly. Without micromovements happening before you finally get the boot to engage, you have faster engagement and ultimately feel more confident when you need to take quick turns.
You’ll find another confidence boost in the overall strength and increased power you get. With a stable foundation, you can maintain power through challenging snow conditions or when you’re skiing faster. Again, faster responsiveness also helps increase your power transfer and keeps that ski engaged properly.
Why Custom?
We’ve talked about why arch support is so important. But why make it custom support? The reality is, that while any arch support will help your foot, our feet all come in unique shapes and sizes. Custom footbeds will provide the most precise support. Generic insoles may not give you all the support you need, or they can overcorrect you. Occasionally, we find overcorrection creates more problems.
Most folks also have different foot shapes. Some are more similar than others, but you might have pretty different arch shapes. Stock footbeds can’t address two different foot shapes as the pair is identical. Custom footbeds fit the contours of each specific foot. Your boot fitter makes a footbed individually for each foot, giving them the attention they deserve.
It might seem obvious from the name, but custom insoles also give your bootfitter the opportunity to make them more custom! For folks who have extreme foot flexibility (like myself), rigidity, high transverse arches, or a myriad of other reasons, your boot fitter can make specific adjustments that help support your foot like a best friend.
