Sizing down ski boots

[AtleB]

It's OK. We don't judge.

What I ment to say is that "a friend told me....."

 

[anders_nor]

I go a size down in ski boots, but thats because I have low volume feet. I wish I didnt, cause it takes a bit of work (grinding/punching) to get them to my foot's length.

this!

downsized performance boot = yay

only trouble is once you done it.. you tend to always do it

 

[Ivan]

I measure around 276-278mm, in street size 10 (i.e. 28) in pretty much everything. Size 9.5 (27.5) in my soccer shoes, and it's a very, very tight fit (they are leather, so supposed to stretch a bit, and there isn't a single mm of room inside). I'm in size 26.5 Lange World Cup boots; the shell fit is about 8-10mm. My feet are very narrow/low volume, so I didn't need any work done to the boots; in fact, I have BootDoc foam liners for the closest possible fit.

I've even been considering going down to 25.5, which would be fine volume-wise. But the shell fit length-wise is very tight, just a couple of mm, so that would require a lot of grinding/stretching. Probably not worth it, given that I don't really race at a serious level.

 

[ScottB]

Have you tried on a 25.5? It would be less volume, ie. Narrower. Might be too narrow and to short.

 

[Ivan]

Have you tried on a 25.5? It would be less volume, ie. Narrower. Might be too narrow and to short.

Yes, actually, I have a pair at home right now that I'm probably going to post for sale soon. Volume-wise, they are OK (would need some grinding, but shouldn't be too bad). Length-wise, it's really, really tight. There is literally just a couple of mm of room in the shell (without the liner), so they would need to do quite a lot of grinding to make them work. [I should probably note that when Lange introduced DualCore, they reduced the BSL by 3mm, from 306mm to 303mm in size 26.5, which probably doesn't help.]

I believe it can be done, and I understand this is how race boots often work, but it would be pretty extreme. I would probably stay in 26.5 with foam liners for now and see how that works, and then re-evaluate if needed.

 

[Tony S]

it would be pretty extreme

Yeah that's pretty much everything about ski boots.

 

[Ivan]

Yeah that's pretty much everything about ski boots.

Here is the quote from @onenerdykid (from the comments here):
"For example, Marcel Hirscher has a size 27.5cm foot (FYI- mondopoint = cm length) but wears a size 25.5 boot that is stretched & internally ground to about a size 26.5 and uses a size 26.5 liner."
Given that my foot is a bit longer than 27.5cm, squeezing into a 25.5 boot would mean an even tighter fit (length-wise) than what Hirscher had/has. Most probably doable, but the question is whether it would be worth it.

 

[cem]

i hate the term down sizing... it is more about right sizing, work with your fitter and see what is possible, AND what works for YOU each and every person has a tolerance to compression, for some people that tolerance is really good, for others its not. then consider how much ski time you are going to have is it 6 days or 60 in a season, most likely the 6 day skier is not going to tolerate or want the same compression as the 60 day skier, then consider that the jump in shell sizes is 10mm so if your foot in one size has a 15mm shell check then going down you get 5mm, fine for some not for others
with a note to what the top level athletes are doing remember that these guys have access to the factory for fitting, only a few shops have the same level of kit and know how to use it, next, if marcel gets a 25.5 shell and has the toe box punched out (common to do on race boots) then ground out (also common) and it doesn't work or he doesn't like it they just pick another pair of boots off the rack and do something different... if anyone has seen the pictures of the "lange" vandeer boot you will see in some shots the massive toe box punch which is then externally ground back to allow the boot to sit safely in the binding and still release, you can't pick that grind up down your local ski shop

back to "down sizing" pretty much anyone who wants a performance fit in their boots is technically "down sizing" as the boot you are in is most likely one down from where your feet measure on the brannock just to get something that isn't huge...... but length is only one dimension

i am sure that there a re a number of great skiers on this forum, but there aren't too many Marcels so why are people trying to get a tighter fit than he has????