Everything Ski Boots | Master Boot Fitter - Tom Gellie chats with Brent Amsbury 

Brilliant. Cheers for that. Excellent information to anyone serious about their skiing. Have a wicked season!

This interview was great! As a boot fitter l learned a lot from this.

I don't know how this video found me, but incredible stuff. Grew up a hockey player, wore skates with zero room in them but were comfortable - but have struggled for the 5 years finding boots & skis that fit me. I've figured out I like narrow underfoot race skis so I now have Racetiger SLs & cheater Blizzard 17m radius GS skis, but now I need to find a warm, very snug fitting boot. Thought I had it in a Tecnica 120 Mach 1 that I spent days fitting but was way too soft. Now on to a 99 last Grilamid Nordica Speed Machine Elite (that Brent doesn't like - funny, I myself can feel that harshness when it is cold and icy). Just looked up Intuition Liners - thank you. Now for a real 96/97 last ski boot. Thank you so much for this content.

Tom, excellent stuff on-ramp and lean ratios - visuals and conversation - and possible implications. Shared it with my coaches. Thanks for posting and thanks Brent!

Awesome! Just finished, 3am, couldn’t stop watching. I need to take a look at those Fischer Curv GT’s and see if Brent thinks it will suit me.

Thank you Tom and Brent, really informative. I learnt a lot 😁

Great detail and passion, thanks much!

I listened to every minute of it !! Great interview! Can def. See the passion in Brent and his time and experience in the industry and business. Ski industry needs to be more progressive toward future tech and love the sustainability direction of ski boots. Definitely need to be more mindful of the impact on the environment.

Thanks for doing this! Excellent discussion! Just passing this on. Was in Mammoth this spring. Shins were killing me. Couldn't come forward too painful. 200 days on liners. They were shot. Buddy had some pipe insulation foam you can get at any hardware store. Cut a section put it between my shin and tongue of the boot. Unbelievable difference. Am convinced that the only way to get puts right is to keep experimenting. Really would help if we could ball park what works for various leg lengths, body lengths, weight distributions, femoral length vs tib/fib etc. To have a starting point for experimentation. Thanks again Tom!!

Big fan of the Intuition liners, I ended up removing the whole sewed in piece that is on the back/sides to get the fit right. It is extremely hard to find a great boot fitter. I think most are just interested in the passing tourist on vacation or a half-baked job to make a fast boot sale.

Thanks Tom and Brent, great discussion, great questions, ... great answers.

In regards to the environment friendliness; a good pair of boots should last a decade easily. Meanwhile, notice how much recycling from groceries alone is accumulated over a span of just one week. Skis and boots are a very long term investment. And even then, it can be sold on a secondary market, and it won't see a landfill anytime soon. I wouldn't worry too much about recyclability of the skiing products in particular.

Exvellent video!

Great stuff. I live in Park City and have wondered about Park City Ski Boot. I might just have to make a visit to Brent…

Thanks for that, really useful stuff, I find double sided tape work well for holding stuff in place and it’s really simple to pull off and reposition.

Great video. I would love to hear more about what it should actually feel like when boots fit well enough to “blow your mind”. There is sufficient info around about achy spots and getting parts of the boot punched out for oddly shaped feet, but what about those of us who have very narrow and shallow feet and already wear a low volume boot with a last of 97mm and are still swimming around inside it!!

Fantastic!

For any other gear enthusiast who is enough into boots to listen more than 1 hour of this things, i suggest to complement this video with Blister review' series of podcast on boots

In the late 70's Nordica made boots from plants. It was called Rilsan (sp?) it was in the Typhoon, Tempest, Breeze boots

Great discussion points. 💯% w.r.t. “PU” and grilamid. That is why I like my carbon spine in my Nordica Carbon Speedmachine with a cork liner....hmmmm ( reasonable feedback and solid power transfer). In the end- the skier is the variable. Good job fellows, Otis

This is great! I need stiffer boots. Finally out of dad mode and ready to get back into laying some railroad tracks! Any recommendations? Thanks!

Just awesome.

Good intel. Would like hearing Bret's thoughts on the dynamics and optimum boot flex selection variables as well as off the shelf boots for DIY canting.

Can’t believe you didn’t talk footbeds with him! He’s obviously pro footbeds so it would have been interesting to see the two of you have a discussion about them.

Wow my new Technicas will not last a season! What should I do then? Augment or change liner? Often wonder if I should buy men's cause I have long skinny legs.

So I'm using the flimsy stock insoles but also bought some Sidas drop-in insoles with a little more shape. Where would one get something more rigid and flat like you? I can't seem to find anything commercially available or should I go to a bootfitter and asked them to make me a "minimal" footbeds? Or get the Barr carbon fiber overlay with the stock insoles?

Hi Brent!

Do you have advice on finding a pair of boots that can fit 84mm width feet?

Liners are different. I had one that had a triangular shaped toe box never worked for me. Had others with rounded worked great.

Yeah I don’t like how the tongue feels on the Dalbello feels either, it’s weird like a concrete wall yet it still has a good flex overall? Mine are Dalbello Krypton 120 but I have not used them because I bought a 25/25.5 but should have bought 24.5. So I’m suffering using some to soft Tecnica Mach 1 95 woman’s boot which I now hate after they have broken in - way too soft and not near narrow enough. I now also realize I need men’s boots not woman’s as my calf is high up and I’m tall and then boned vs shorter and more muscular or heavy stature in the legs

I worked at Mogul Mouse Ski Shop in 1988 / 89 /90 and we had custom CORK bed liners that cost around $100. They baked the cork then placed on your feet - then wrapped a plastic vacuum bag around your whole fit to remove all air and get a PERFECT MOLD of your foot. It was NIGHT AND DAY DIFFERENCE in how my boots and skis performed (race). Eventually my liners got all gross and mold on them and I stupidly threw them away! NOW I can no longer find them anywhere! Help! I don’t want any play at all like with most liners - I loved that cast of my foot and need them again as my boots now suck and I’m looking to replace those too. I have a 24.5 size narrow size, unfortunately and I’m tall and thin expert woman skier. It’s SO hard to find a good set up for me and I now officially hate woman’s boots. My old boots for first Gen TNT custom Tecnica and even those were not perfect but I used for 10 yrs or so. I order the Nordica Pro Machine and pray they will be narrow enough for me but still really want my old food beds. Know who may make them these days? It was only a customer foot bed like a cork cast of arch and bottom of foot. Even cracks between feet were in place which was just phenomenal performance wise!

A carbon fiber boot would be very light, but miserable otherwise. Carbon fiber only bends well in one axis, and is brittle in other axis’s. Plus it would be so hard and chattery!

He's very clear about getting a 96 or 98 last boot for performance - but what about those of us with wide feet? I currently have a 102 boot and if I put in my foot on the footbed into the shell (no liner), my foot is still touching both sides of the boot. A narrower boot results in nerve impingement. Do you have recommendations for wider high performance boots? (I'm not so happy with the performance of my Dalbello Pantera's for a few reasons).

If my feet are 110 wide, you would still recommend I get narrow boots and push out the pressure spots?

I love when stuff is made more sustainable but really the plastic waste from ski boots is in no comparison to the fuel burnt by car and gas in a person's life eben if you swap every year which I don't think most people do.

I didn’t know this was a carbon footprint class

Oil is renewable.

Fossil Fuel is a ridiculous term to use.

This is an excellent discussion!! Good information for PSIA certification. I'm located in Central Wisconsin and I'm looking for a bootfitter in the Midwest that can provide the expertise similar to this video. Thank you in advance. ⛷