By: The Mountain Nerd

Original Publication Date : @January 5, 2023

Last Updated: @January 26, 2023

TL;DR

This post is long, so here is the very concise version:

• Boots are the most important piece of a rider’s gear kit.
• Shop in-person . Every rider’s foot is unique and effective boot hunting requires trial-and-error with as many options as possible. If you must buy online, plan on a pain in the ass process with lots of packages and lots of return shipping.
• Measure your foot properly because your shoe size is probably wrong.
• Boots should fit comfortably snug, much tighter than you’re used to in casual footwear. When in doubt, go more snug.
• Feet are complicated, learn to assess and communicate fit.
• Consult with a boot fitter if at all possible pre-purchase to dial in fit and post-purchase to troubleshoot ongoing issues. If you can’t find a boot fitter, do it yourself.
• You may fuck up boot fit, especially on your first boot or two. You need to take a leap of faith and if you fuck up, learn from it and do better

Who Needs this Guide?

• New riders who’ve never bought boots before
• New-ish riders who messed up their first boot fit and want guidance
• Nerds

Introduction

Boots are the single most important component of a rider’s gear kit and fit is the single most important aspect of boot selection. Unfortunately, most new riders don’t give boots due attention and suffer the consequences later. This guide is part of a Boot Basics series to avoid or veer off that painful path.

Fit is by far most important element of boot selection. Prioritize great fit above everything, then flex and features— if boots don’t fit, the other two don’t matter.

This post solely focuses on fit. I’ll write a follow-up companion piece covering those other boot considerations in the future, but fit is by far the most critical element of boot selection and deserves special attention.

Table of Contents

• TL;DR
• Who Needs this Guide?
• Introduction
• Table of Contents
• Focus on Boots, Focus on Fit
• Boot Recommendations are Fucking Useless
• Shop In-Person!
• Anatomy of a Boot
• Consult a Boot Fitter (If You Can Find One)
• Get Measured Properly
• Trying on Boots
• Tips
• “Comfortably Snug”
• The Shell Test
• Lace Up, Be Patient!
• Assess Fit
• Boot Break-in
• Dimensions of Fit
• Heat Molding: Useful, Not Magic
• An Easy Upgrade: Aftermarket Insoles
• How are Men’s and Women’s Boots Different?
• The Sasquatch and Littlefoot Conundrums
• Big Foot Problems
• Little Foot Problems
• DIY Boot Fitting
• A Boot Fitting Case Study
• The Leap of Faith

Focus on Boots, Focus on Fit

Boots are the most important part of a rider’s kit. Boots directly contact the body and conduct rider movement into the rest of the snowboard setup. If you’re not comfortable or can’t efficiently control your board, not much else matters.

Every shop sees countless customers who care about having a sexy hyped board with nice bindings, then treat boots as a complete afterthought. Don’t be that customer, invest in boots first— don’t even think about board and bindings until boots are settled. If you’re on a budget and need to spend big on boots that fit well and settle for a used beater setup, drop the money on the boots. Don’t reflexively purchase the most expensive boots, but buy the boots that fit best and invest the necessary time and money to find them. A new rider should be spending at LEAST several hours trying on boots.

Boots can also heavily impact board and binding choice. Larger boots require wider boards, while smaller boots generally mandate narrower boards. Different bindings fit better or worse with particular boots, and a half-a-size difference can put you in or out of a binding’s size range. Swapping order of operations can result in a completely improperly sized setup, compromising comfort and board control. Boots first.

Boot Recommendations are Fucking Useless

Once more for those in the back: boot recommendations are fucking useless.

I see far too many people on the internet asking for blind boot recommendations, or variations of “Should I buy Boot A or Boot B?” or “Does this boot fit true to size?”

From the overview: “Prioritize great fit above everything, then flex and features— if boots don’t fit, the other two don’t matter.” Randos on the internet can only tell you about flex and features— they can’t meaningful assess fit. Every foot is shaped different, every boot model fits different.

Ignore recommendations, boot reviews, top 10 listicles, or whatever the hell else garbage content exists ignoring this reality. What fits your buddy, some snowboard pro, or some random schmuck on the internet is not relevant to your foot shape or your riding. Go try stuff on.

Shop In-Person!

Shopping online is problematic for snowboard boots— access to multiple boot options is necessary for an effective hunt, and the easiest access to multiple options is a well-stocked shop boot wall. The average snowboard consumer buying boots online is chucking darts drunk and blindfolded— might nail a bullseye, but only out of sheer dumb luck.

If at all possible, buy from a proper independent shop that focuses on board sports and employs core snowboarders. Those spots are the cornerstones of local shred communities and my experience at REI and other big box retailers usually goes something like this:

If you live far from a proper shop, buy from the big box store. If your big box stores don’t stock boots, wait for your next riding trip to shop. If you must buy online, be prepared for the hassle and cost of buying multiple models in multiple sizes and return shipping, and budget money for possibly consulting a boot fitter.

Don’t waste a shop’s time trying on everything on the boot wall then buying the best fitting boot you find online for cheaper. If you legitimately need more time to think or are still considering options the shop doesn’t stock, fine. But a shop provides you valuable service that e-commerce cannot possible replicate, and you’re shit out of luck if that shop goes out of business. If you are very price conscious at least give the shop a chance to price match.

Anatomy of a Boot

Nearly every modern snowboard boot has 3 separate, nested components out of the box:

1. Outer shell
2. Removable foam liner that sits between the shell and the foot
3. Removable insole that sits underneath the foot at the bottom of the liner

Boot construction and design is more complicated than that, but those basics are sufficient introduction for this discussion.

Consult a Boot Fitter (If You Can Find One)

Try to find the most competent professional boot fitter you can find while hunting for snowboard boots. “Boot fitters” are not any ole shop employee who can grab boots off the shelf and give basic advice— professional boot fitters are skilled technicians who assess and address your specific foot’s shape, anatomy, and biomechanics.

Boot fitters can advise on issues after purchases, but ideally get involved as early in the process as possible— I only found out boot fitters existed after 5 years of issues and wish I’d known to consult on the front-end.

Good boot fitters almost always live in mountain towns— I’ve had far better luck in Tahoe and Mammoth than San Francisco and Los Angeles. Ideally find someone you can access easily multiple times in the course of a season or trip; boot fitting is a time-consuming process that’s best done over a longer-term conversation and with incremental tweaks after multiple riding sessions.

Unfortunately, snowboarder boot fitting expertise is exceedingly rare. The most sophisticated advice I hear at most retailers— even specialty board shops —is “We can heat mold that for you!” (more on that later). Board shops without boot fitting services can still produce lots of happy customers, but if you happen to be one of the unlucky few with finicky, difficult-to-fit feet, you will need more sophisticated expertise. And I hate to say it, but I often find that more sophisticated expertise at skis shop.

If you can’t resolve fit issues at a board shop, try consulting a mountain town ski shop. If you can’t find a boot fitter period, do the best you can with whatever’s readily available. Like I said, many riders are perfectly happy with the typical board shop. And if you really struggle, you can can do your own research and go the DIY route discussed later.

Get Measured Properly

Do not blindly buy snowboard boots in your normal shoe size. New riders almost always buy their first pair of boots too big. In the first place, podiatric research suggests between 63-72% of people wear the incorrect shoe size compared to their actual measured foot— and on top of any baseline sizing mistakes, snowboard boots fit substantially different from everyday footwear.

Ideally get measured by an expert in a snowboard shop on a Brannock device or similar measuring device. Ideally you’ll have a Mondopoint (length in cm) measurement for the most precise fit, but US, EU, UK, etc. is close enough since manufacturer boot sizing isn’t consistent or precise in the first place. If you must, you can find your mondopoint foot size at home— but even with a perfect measurement, I highly recommend shopping in-person.

Make sure to measure both feet and generally size to the smaller foot. Humans are naturally slightly asymmetrical and one foot is almost always slightly bigger than the other. For most the difference is marginal, maybe a quarter size— but I’ve seen as much as a size-and-a-half. Keep this in mind if you try on different boots on each foot simultaneously.

Keep in mind even precise foot measurements are only a starting point. Sizing changes dramatically from brand to brand, and even subtly (sometimes not-so-subtly) from model to model within a particular brand’s line. But a proper foot measurement is a better starting point than “this is the shoe size I always buy.”

Trying on Boots

Tips

Few starter tips for making a boot shopping more productive:

• Go during non-peak hours. You will get much more personalized attention when the shop isn’t busy and forced to juggle multiple customers. Alternatively, some shops take advanced appointments specifically for boot fitting.
• Fit boots late in the day or after exercise. Your feet naturally swell up over the course of the day out and about, even more so while riding. Fitting when your feet are naturally a bit swollen is best practice.
• Wear whatever socks you ride in. No overly thick socks, cotton socks, or multiple layered socks. You want a thinnish, tight-fitting sock that’s made of a moisture wicking material and reaches up to at least the top of the boot. You don’t need “snowboarding” socks per se, but a decent riding sock covers all those bases.
• Consider aftermarket insoles. More on that later, but quick version: stock insoles are crap and you want to replace them if you care about performance and support. If you’re going to buy them, best to buy them before or concurrently with boots.
• Tip your shop workers. Not boot specific per se, but if you build a longer-term relationship with a shop and specific employees, the occasional gift of beer for great service goes a long way towards standing out as a good customer.

“Comfortably Snug”

An important guiding principle: boot fit should be comfortably snug in every dimension like a firm handshake. The boot liner should ideally contact with every part of the foot, ankle, calf, and shin to the top of the boot. This will feel unsettlingly tight if you’re unused to snowboard footwear— get used to it. That’s how proper fitting snowboard boots are supposed to feel. When in doubt, go more snug than less.

You’re probably used to leaving at least a finger’s width of room in front of your toes when buying new shoes. Don’t— toe bang is no joke. Performance fit is much more important in snowboarding boots than everyday footwear. You need a tight fit because of how energy transfers into your gear: body-to-boot, boot-to-binding, binding-to-board. Any sloppiness body-to-boot means loss of energy transfer and increased risk of injury.

The Shell Test

As a quick boot fit sanity check, try the shell test. Refer to the video below.

Pull the liner out of the boot, insert your foot and press your toes up to lightly contact with the front of shell. See how many stacked fingers you can fit between your heel and the boot shell. Most riders should aim for around 1.5-2 fingers. More than that and the boot’s too large, less than that and the boot’s too small unless you are willing to go through some serious break-in pain for an aggressive performance fit.

The shell test won’t definitively identify boots that fit, but will help eliminate options that almost certainly won’t.

Lace Up, Be Patient!

Put the liner back into the shell and try the boots on. Brand new boots (especially traditional lace boots) are often difficult to get on, especially fresh out of the box— this is perfectly normal. Again: boots fit tighter than you expect.

Once you’re in the boot, kick your foot back to fully settle into the heel pocket of the boot. Fully lace up the inner liner and outer shell securely, but don’t overcrank anything— if you need to overcrank to feel secure, the boots are too big. If you don’t know how to operate a particular boot brand’s lacing system, consult with a shop employee or the boot manufacturer’s website / YouTube.

Stand up before you fully lace up. You won’t be seated on the mountain while riding and it changes the position of your foot within the boot.

Assess Fit

We’ll dig deeper on dimensions of fit later in this article, but a few important general points:

• Err towards slightly too snug over slightly too loose. Again: comfortably snug. You should feel firm but not painful contact with your foot in every dimension. Think of buying a new pair of jeans: jeans that fit perfect off the rack are sloppy after the denim fibers relax through a couple days of wear. Similarly, new boots break-in through riding and will never fit any tighter than when you first try them on. Plus creating space is easier than filling space for a good boot fitter. My personal rule of thumb: find the boot that feels perfectly comfortable, then buy a half-size smaller than that.
• Light pressure on your toes against the front of boot. When you bend your knees and flex your ankles, your toes should slightly draw back. Avoid any toe curling, you want to be right at that cusp.
• Do not size up if a boot is not wide enough. This is common and not a big deal in everyday shoes, but don’t mess with it in snowboard boots. Comfortably snug in all dimensions. Just find a wider boot or see if a boot fitter can modify the liner or shell to accommodate.
• A few brands have dedicated wide boot models. Offhand, Burton, Thirtytwo, K2, Salomon, and Ride have at least one wide model. Consider them if you measure over 2E foot width.
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Click here: Wide boots and duck feet

Move around and test how the boot secures your foot. Assume an athletic snowboarding stance, drive the boot sole into the ground to keep it in place, and flex around to feel out any excess space. Flex forward and try to lift your heel, try to pivot your foot around inside the boot, roll it from side to side, twist it while lifting, etc. You want as little play as possible in all directions. In particular, make sure your heel and ankle are anchored when you flex forward and when you shift side-to-side. You may not be able to fully eliminate heel lift, but aim for no more than about a quarter inch (~6 mm).

Here’s an example of movement to evaluate fit. This video is also worth reviewing in full.

Boot Break-in

Keep in mind that your boots will break in over time and are likely to feel uncomfortable the first few days out of the box on snow. I expect an uncomfortable first day out in boots, around 3-5 days of total break-in, with the boots usually ending up about a quarter size bigger at the end of that process. You can take some of the edge off boot break-in by wearings your boots around the house before your first day, or by heat molding them at a shop.

Dimensions of Fit

Most people never think too hard about their foot shape, beyond “I’m usually X size” and maybe some vague sense they have a wide foot. The human foot has enormous variation across the population, and understanding the dimensions of fit is useful for choosing snowboard boots.

You don’t need to overstudy study this section and have a mental three-dimensional model of your foot— but be aware of these dimensions so you can assess and communicate how a boot fits. This information is crucial for shop employees and boot fitters to assess next steps.

Click the triangles below to expand each section.

Again, don’t overstudy these, just be aware so you can assess and articulate WHY something doesn’t feel right, rather than settling on the vague sense that the boots don’t feel good.

Shoutout to barefootuniverse.com for writing up this guide, the best foot shape resource I’ve ever seen for laypeople. The guide is focused on minimalist “barefoot” shoes, but contains generally useful guidelines for assessing foot shape.

Heat Molding: Useful, Not Magic

Heat molding is the process of lightly customizing a liner to a rider’s foot shape. It involves removing and heating up liners up to soften and expand the foam, inserting the liners back into the shell, and having the rider wear the boots in a riding stance with the toes elevated. As the foam cools, the liner foam sets and molds to the rider’s foot. Any half-decent shop should have specialized ovens or heat stacks for heat molding, and in a pinch you can do it at home by using microwaved rice.

Heat molding is prone to a lot of marketing hype from industry folks— I’ve heard a lot of board shop employees say some version of “Don’t worry if the boot’s tight, we can custom heat mold it!” Don’t buy into that hype and be aware of heat molding’s limitations.

Heat molding is a useful tool. You can create additional space for particular trouble spots with extra padding, or use toe caps for a roomier toe box. Heat molding will also take some of the edge off discomfort while breaking in new boots. But heat molding will not magically fix fundamentally poor fit.

Should you heat mold? Depends. My bias as an active weekend warrior who rode ~30 days a year was not heat molding new boots. A few different industry folks tell me heat molding knocks a few days off the life of liners. When I rode 30+ days a season, I preferred developing “natural” mold by riding the boots. I would occasionally relent after a few days riding and finding hot spots I didn’t think would resolve on their own— but my bias was always towards not heat molding.

However, as a new father who’ll be riding far less often, I plan on heat molding any new boots. I won’t have enough on-hill days to spare dealing with new boot discomfort. Any days I lose off the backend of a boot’s lifespan are many seasons away.

An Easy Upgrade: Aftermarket Insoles

Insoles are supposed to support the foot and cushion against impact— but bluntly put, stock insoles are crap. The vast majority of riders who care about performance and especially those a history of foot issues or pain in snowboard boots should upgrade to aftermarket insoles.

Broadly 3 different types of insoles exist, from least to most supportive (and increasing price):

1. Stock footbeds. These come “free” with new boots. They’re useless placeholder foam, even on high-end $300+ boots. I throw them in a parts box and never touch them again except to take pictures for random blog posts.
1. “Nice” stock. Some higher end boots have slightly better footbeds, but frankly even the “good” ones are crap.
2. Trim-to-fit. These typically retail $30-60 USD and are usually have some sort of stiff molded support frame integrated with supportive foam. They come in generic templates across different foot sizes and are trimmed-to-fit based on the outline of a stock insole. I’ll provide a more comprehensive list of insole options in the future, but Remind Insoles has a good reputation, is snowboarder-owned, and has multiple arch heights and thickness. I wear a set in my skate shoes and am happy with them.
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Click here: Don’t buy drugstore insoles
3. Full custom. These are built by a boot fitter or podiatrist custom to your specific foot. I would expect to pay at least $200, give or take. Pricy, but remember a professional is applying years of skill, technique, and expertise specifically to your foot. Full custom insoles also last forever. The Superfeet Custom Carbon Winters pictured still look near-new after 4 seasons and 100+ days on snow. I have an older set of custom Superfeet Winter Korks that still useable, are only now reaching end of life after after 15 years and 300+ days on snow.

To visually demonstrate the differences in support, below are comparisons of each of the 3 types of insoles, from left to right: stock, trim-to-fit, and custom. The top photo of each set is unweighted, the bottom photo lightly weighted through the arch very scientifically with my knuckles.

Notice across the top set of unweighted photos, the insoles all look relatively similar with a bit of natural arch contour. Very different story once the insoles are weighted and you can see the gradient of support. Both stock insole arches completely flatten with minimal weight— the contour is basically for show and won’t provide any meaningful foot support. Both the aftermarket insoles hold up much better: the trim-to-fit option gives but maintains structure, while the right the custom insole barely flexes at all.

Not everyone needs the support of full customs, but in my opinion any rider who cares about snowboarding performance— especially anyone with a history of foot issues —should at least try trim-to-fits. They will dramatically outperform any stock insole, can last hundreds of days in snowboard boots, and are often backed by money-back guarantees.

Try to buy aftermarkets before or while buying new boots. You can buy them afterwards, but insoles can affect boot sizing. A supportive insole might allow a rider to fit a smaller boot by preventing arch collapse (foot doesn’t lengthen as much) and minimizing metatarsal splay (doesn’t widen as much). Deeper heel cups can drive a foot a little more securely in the heel pocket than otherwise. And looking at the Remind Medics above, you can see they are dramatically thicker than the stock boots (or the Custom Superfeet)… so they are going to change the amount of available volume and make the boot fit a bit snugger. You might get lucky with an insole that fits perfectly in an existing boot, but if possible you want to account for those factors before committing to boots, not after.

If you heat molded boots in stock insoles prior to buying aftermarkets, you’ll want to re-heat mold as your foot position will change. Another reason to ideally buy aftermarket insoles before boots.

How are Men’s and Women’s Boots Different?

Above all, buy the boot that fits. But I recommend men and women at least start with trying on their respective gendered boots because of a few key differences:

• Different stiffness. Women weigh less than men and have less physical strength even at the same weight, so their boots are built softer.
• Different anatomical shaping. Women’s lower extremities are not just scaled down version of men’s, but have different proportional anatomy.
• Different sizing runs. Women are physically smaller than men, have correspondingly smaller feet, and need correspondingly smaller boots.

Keep in mind these are generalizations across populations. Some individual women will be able to fit into men’s boots and some men will be able to fit into women’s boots without issue. Smaller footed men (<6 USM) and larger footed women (>11 USW) likely have no choice but to buy the opposite gendered boot. Buy whatever fits, regardless of marketing, but be aware of the differences.

The Sasquatch and Littlefoot Conundrums

Big Foot Problems

If you’re larger than a size 12 US men’s (30 mondo), you will have limited boot options and face logistical hurdles even finding boots. Most boot companies stop making half sizes above size 12 US, very few make boots bigger than a size 13, and the rare ones that do stop at 15 (33 mondo) and only extend their size run for a few select boots models. Beyond the limited number of sasquatch boots even manufactured, retailers very rarely stock above size 13, so you’ll likely need to special order them. Only real advice I can give is get as close as you can and do your damnedest to find a good boot fitter.

If you’re bigger than a size 15 US men’s (33 mondo)… gods help you. Maybe you were meant to be a skier.

Little Foot Problems

Riders on the opposite end of the sizing spectrum face similar issues: challenging fit and the need to special order boots. For smaller foot men, sizing isn’t too problematic because they can always fall back on trying women’s boots. But smaller foot women (<4 USW) essentially MUST find a good boot fitter, unless they’re willing to gamble on lower quality children’s boots.

I’m told adaptive alpine centers are a great resource for boot fitting for smaller footed riders with high performance needs.

DIY Boot Fitting

If at all possible, troubleshoot any fit issues with with a professional boot fitter, ideally at the shop you bought the boots from. But snowboard boot fitters are admittedly rare and boot fitting services at ski shops don’t come cheap.

If you lack better options and have a tolerance for trial-and-error, consider the do-it-yourself approach before giving up on boots.

A few useful resources for guidance:

• Angry Snowboarder’s Boot Fitting 101 YouTube Series
• Tognar’s Boot Fit Guide
• Tognar’s Boot Fit Supplies Page

A Boot Fitting Case Study

I’m not a boot fitter and haven’t studied foot anatomy or snowboard biomechanics in-depth, so I’m not going to even attempt to provide a comprehensive guide— but I can share some modified boots I own as a case study. The main point to highlight: incremental tweaks and experimentation. Start out as good as fit as you can find. Then go ride, assess, make some more changes, and repeat until you’re happy or give up on the boots.

I own a set of K2 Aspects for splitboard boots that I purchased from Tahoe Sports Hub. Out of box they fit me about 85% well with some older custom insoles, but are naturally a bit tight in the forefoot and a bit loose in the ankle + heel and in the shin + calf. (I should caveat here I ignored my own “Prioritize fit above everything” advice here… but I know boot fit well enough to know what’s workably “good enough” and had a very specific niche use case here. When you get to that point, you can pick and choose the tradeoffs you’re willing to make.)

I wanted a splitboard-specific set of boots and options were relatively limited, so I opted for the imperfect Aspects and using Sport Hub’s boot fitting services. I had several sessions with John Lauer at Sports Hub and made a few minor mods of my own. Important note: the janky duct tape sheaths are my own shoddy additions, not John’s.

After a couple days riding, John studied how the liner fit on my foot, took my feedback, marked a few positions, and placed an adhesive-backed foam ankle wrap on in the rear of the liner to lock down my heels a little better. You can see its outline under my duct tape handiwork.

After a couple days riding, I still had too much movement and specifically had too much volume in the shin. John contact-cemented some boot fitting foam into the tongue of the liner to subtly suck up some space. His initial instinct was to also build up foam on the calf-side, but that wasn’t an option due to the design of the shell’s calf section (more on that later).

After a few more days the forefoot was still tighter than I preferred, so John selectively heat molded a few persistent hot spots in the liner with a heat gun. We didn’t heat mold the entire liner because I prefer “naturally” breaking in boots as much as possible. Afterwards we also manipulated the shell a bit to get me a few extra millimeters of space in the forefoot and toebox (less visually obvious than the other mods).

After all that, I still have some issues with some shin and calf sloppiness. Because these are splitboard boots , the shells have a stretchy elastic calf section to allow greater stride length ascending uphill. Unfortunately K2’s design doesn’t secure this section at all, so I was feeling some sloppiness, especially driving into heelside turns.

To address the issue, I decided to wrap a Voile strap around the top of the boot and thread it through a pull tab on the stretchy section. I only thought of this during the most recent off-season and haven’t had a chance to field test this mod yet, but they feel much less sloppy experimenting at home. The strap might create some weird wear, but I’ll take that trade-off if the boots ride better. And I need to carry Voile straps while splitboarding anyway.

Separately, a boot fitter buddy had a client with Aspects who complained about the same issue. He ended up installing a permanent ski booster strap modification, which accomplishes the same thing more aggressively.

Most of the work above I could conceivably have done myself. I wouldn’t personally mess with manipulating the shell, but even that I could conceivably do myself if I was comfortable with a heat gun and had a boot stretcher at home.

I had access to a boot fitter (and I paid for those services by buying the boots from his shop), so I utilized them. You may not have such a luxury. Do with that information what you will.

The Leap of Faith

Unfortunately every boot purchase is ultimately a leap of faith. Even after close to two decades of trying on and purchasing boots and access to competent boot fitters, I still occasionally misjudge boots. I’m right more often than not, but I never really know how boot will feel after a few days on snow. Break-in and pack out are not scientifically predictable— I’ve had boots pack too much within 15 days, others that packed out too little after 30, and some that were only starting to break in after 12.

Ultimately you have accept you might choose poorly and take the leap. If you screw up, try to salvage it boot fitting, sell the boots cheap, learn, and do better next time. Your alternative is being afraid of making a mistake and getting stuck in an eternal cycle of analysis paralysis.