Boots are tough. I've been really lucky with my wife and 14 year old daughter, who tend to complain about discomfort. Both of them are in 2019 Lange SX 90's that they independently chose off the shelf, and both of them say that their boots are really comfortable, and neither ever complains about performance problems.
This surprises me because the Lange SX is moderately wide and they don't have particularly wide feet. My guess is that their boots have too loose of a fit, but since I never hear a complaint and they seem happy no way I'm pushing for tighter boots. That would be paying to hear complaints
Haha! Yes, I'll pay to
avoid complaints, not make them worse.
I ended up ordering the Tecnica Cochise Jr (supposed to be 99mm last), the Salomon S/Max 65 (supposed to be 'medium' last) and the K2 Reverb 103mm last mentioned above.
I'm at that fleeting moment in life when my feet are vaguely the same size as his, so I was able to try on the boots we ordered.
The Salomon was an immediate no. It's a very nicely constructed boot. But the instep feels really low. He complained that his foot fell asleep about 2 minutes after he put it on, and he hadn't even buckled it yet. I would have had problems too, had I left it on for more than 5 minutes, and I don't have a particularly high instep.
The Tecnica was a 'maybe'. The construction is a little more plasticky than the Salomon and the K2 and the liner doesn't feel as nice. It felt more like the Dalbello rental boot than a "real" boot. He still said it felt tight across the instep even with the second buckle unbuckled. I couldn't buckle this over my calf, but he could. I bet if he was an adult going to a boot fitter who could punch out the toes and mold the liner, this would have been a reasonable start, but he isn't.
But then the K2 arrived. IMO, it is a relatively wide last, but it's not truly 103mm wide. It's more that it's got volume vertically in the instep and above the toes. The buckles are nice and the liner is pretty cushy. But the heel feels pretty socked in. I could buckle up and go out and ski a day in these boots and still have a good day, even if they are quite soft for me. I'm dead sure this is a K2 beginner women's boot in a different color. But he said they were the best boots he's ever tried. He's also at an age where Mom saying that a less comfortable boot is going to improve his skiing is just met with eye rolls, so I didn't even go there. We're going to keep the K2s and return the Salomons and Tecnicas. As PP said, I'm not going to pay for complaints
For my DD, I got her the Tecnica Jt4. For her, they are fine. Then I found some Nordica Speedmachine J4 on sale, and she likes that color better, so I may send them back for the Nordicas. They have the power strap to help her cinch down in the calf, too, which the Tecnicas don't have.
