Purchasing a new ski boot might entail a bit of anxiety and as everyone who has skied for years knows, the main ingredient to the recipe for a good ski day is a boot that keeps your feet feeling good and allowing you to perform to your potential. Short of a race boot, which is inherently geared towards performance at the sacrifice of everything else, the following are a few tips to guide you when buying your next boot.

If I could, I'd recommend that everyone use a blindfold when shopping for boots. That way you would not be swayed by how cool looking or ugly a boot is, nor would price be the primary factor. Put on a boot, decide if it fits. Get it adjusted for your ski bindings and off you go. Sound too simple? Yes, that is. Your boot salesman should be patient with you and indulge your every question. If he's in a hurry, or the store is about to close, go home and come back when you or the store personnel have plenty of time. Do not purchase a boot the evening before you are getting on a plane to Vail. Prices here in Michigan are usually significantly better than out west so a local purchase is smart but give your salesman a chance to get the right boot on your foot. With luck, you might have entered the store minutes after your evil clone walked out with the one boot that would have been ideal for you. How do you know that? Well you don't. Often times the sales personnel are directed to "sell what you got" but if you tell them you aren't in a hurry and willing to spend time with them, they should be able to get you dialed in correctly. Here is how they should do it:

1. Your salesman should ask you whether you have any foot, ankle, knee or back troubles, what kind of boots you have currently and your performance and cost expectations. It is a cold world out there and reality hits and ski boots are expensive so let's make sure you are not just happy but thrilled with your purchase.
2. If you go into a store wearing open toed sandals anything on your foot will feel tight. Start by wearing only one pair of relatively thin socks. Don't start with thick socks and two sets of socks is a major no no. Thicker is not necessarily warmer. In fact it can be colder as they could be too tight and cut off the circulation or cause you to buy a boot too big and then performance is sacrificed. When people tell me they insist on wearing two pairs because it is warmer I will remind them the new boots are improved and it won’t be necessary to do that. Why not four pairs then?
3. I use four words that should be in the vocabulary of every decent boot fitter. The first three are "loose," "snug" and "tight." Two of them are bad and one is good. If the salesman says the boot is supposed to be tight, get up and leave. Tight is painful and your day on the slopes is going to be miserable. Loose is dangerous as you won't have control and snug is where you want to be. Now give the boot a chance. It takes several minutes to allow a boot to conform to your foot and the time of day you try them on can make a difference as your feet might be swollen if you were sitting at a desk all day. I drove up north one time and got into the room and tried on my new boots. I was shocked and said, "Who sold you those boots?" Well it was me and they were tight but they eased up after a few minutes and no doubt my feet were swollen. They were super comfortable and lasted several seasons.
4. The fourth word is "footbed," also known as an orthotic. Purchasing one, in my mind, is a must. Unless you are getting a boot to stand on a pair of skis so you can monitor the kids at the hill, the whole experience is diminished without the proper orientation of the foot. The list of comfort problems alleviated by footbeds is huge and that does not even touch on the performance benefits. In lieu of a custom orthotic, try a boot on one foot and put a generic footbed in the other and you will most likely immediately experience the benefit. They are such a priority that I'd generally recommend you purchase a custom footbed for your old boots before you purchase a new boot. They are transferable from boot to boot. Over the years and the hundreds of feet I've seen, only one person had a foot that would not have benefited from a custom footbed and he was a professional hockey player. The footbed will keep your foot secure in the boot and tend to keep your toes from splaying out thereby allowing you to get into a smaller (more snug) shell, as well as preventing pronation for most of you which will minimize the ankle bones from banging into the shell. They are probably the most important safety equipment you can buy as it will allow your foot to perform better, keep your alignment true and minimize stress on the joints, particularly the knee, and when you do need to release they will facilitate a more efficient snap out of the binding.
5. Once you realize that a boot fits better with a footbed, put a footbed in the next boot you wish to compare it to. Then with one boot on the left and another model on the right, pick the one which has the snuggest fit and is still comfortable. Eliminate the poorly fitting boot and try on another model. This is a simple process of elimination. This way you won't be confused and you might try on four or five boots. Boot fitters might hate me for this but so what? It might take more of their time but service is what they are there for so long as you aren't spending a huge amount of their time on a Saturday afternoon when the immediate world is in the store. Now, when you get the last one on both feet, you are entirely confident that the boot is the best one for you and most likely to keep you happy on the slopes. This works so long as your feet are similar in length. Those of you with dissimilar sized feet will have to work a little harder but usually with a footbed the old problems are eliminated and the right boot is there waiting for you. Often times the first boot on the foot might be the only one good for the skier as the foot might be particular due to width issues for example.
6. The heat conformable liners that are in even moderately priced boots these days will enhance comfort. Warmth in boots is enhanced by good circulation as well as good moisture transfer. The liners are universally better in this regard than in the past and as a result most people are blown away by how much more comfortable the new boots are. The heat conformable feature of the boot should not be at the expense of a footbed/orthotic however. If you jump up into the air and land, where do you interface with the planet? Right, at the bottom of your feet. That is where the action is and that is why you need a footbed to control the fit into the boot and gain control of the boot into the binding and subsequently the binding into the ski. The liner fit is secondary to that.
7. Your salesman should be able to line you up with a boot in your performance window. The old edict of purchasing a better boot still holds especially if you are on the upswing of your learning curve. Now a days boots aren't as stiff into the forward flex as they used to be because of the way shape skis are built but they can be stiffer side to side to withstand the forces applied at speed. Generally, widen your stance and roll side to side. Many salesmen will instruct you to flex forward into the boot but to me that is secondary to the side to side action you will be performing on the hill to get the ski on edge.
8. If there is a wedge in the back of the liner or from the back of the shell, take it out. Unless you have Wilt Chamberlain's skinny calves, these force you forward and despite what you've heard over the years about getting forward, is fundamentally wrong. Your salesman might disagree with me, and so be it, but if you now put a heel lift into your boot and put that strap on snug, you should be able to "engage" forward now and having your heel lifted, while for some enhancing the fit, will enhance performance dramatically. Try it. Heel lifts are cheap. Consider the ramp angle of the boot and the cuff orientation fore and aft. Little is spoken of these aspects. I always recommend a boot with more ramping, a higher heel, and less forward lean. Dalbello makes a number of boots that have adjustable internal ramping that is simple to use and modify on the hill if need be. Getting the heel up is inherently more athletic as long as the boot fits comfortably and this is a key to better skiing.
9. Buckle the boots snugly while in the store. NOT TO TIGHT and certainly NOT TO LOOSE. Start by pulling up on the back of the liner and tapping the heel on the floor. Then buckle the top two buckles, stand and flex the boots and then buckle the bottom two buckles snugly. When heading to the hill, wait until you are at the chair or even the top of the lift before making your adjustments to keep your circulation flowing and to minimize packing out the liner. Women, in particular, are notorious for not putting a boot on snug enough. This is potentially dangerous and boots should be snug in the shop so they can be snug on the hill. For that rare event when you need to snap out of the bindings, the resulting force of the foot into the boot will transfer more efficiently to the binding and a quick release will result.
10. Despite the fact many boots have a walk feature, they really are not made for walking. Should you buy a pair of boots with that feature? As a boot fitter I'm not so concerned with how well you walk in your boots. I'm focused in on how well you ski in them. Purchase an inexpensive set of Cat Tracks which dramatically ease walking and prevent undue wear on the soles.

Be patient, purchase a footbed, try on the boots and shop at a time when the store is not busy and you will maximize your experience when you hit the slopes. Boots have numerous technical features that can be attuned to your foot and time should be taken to accommodate you. These include ramp angle, cuff alignment, shaft angle, and canting. Many of these elements are dynamic, so as you improve, your boots can be modified to improve with you.

E.J. Levy is a Master Bootfitter and can be reached at EJ@SkiersPeak.com.