Disappointing experience.
I've been skiing for 35 years. I went in there expecting some sort of personalization for boots. Not so much.
First you have to use their insoles, which is fine. But don't lecture me about the current custom insole I have being wrong size for my foot and then produce an insole that has the exact same dimensions. They also have lots of shells up on the wall, but that doesn't matter. I tried on exactly two. A Lange and a...wider Lange...(I have a wide foot). They just seemed determined to get me into that shell even though I said several times I like a softer boot than the 120 they kept handing me. "Don't worry, this has plenty of flex for you...", they assured me even though I stressed several times about the softer flex I prefer. Then the liner was made. When we finished the liner I told them that my forefoot was getting crushed. "It's fine....your foot is warm here in the shop. Once you get on the mountain, your foot will shrink a bit due to the cold and it'll be fine." I brought up how tight the boot was across my forefoot a couple more times, but they were basically pushing me out the door since it was getting close to closing time and telling me I can always bring them back to get adjusted. I would have preferred to get them adjusted correctly the first time.
Went and skied them...and, as expected, total disaster. Boot was way stiffer than I like and I literally could only make about two runs the pain in my forefoot was so bad from being crushed.
So the boot wasn't even close to what I wanted (softer boot) and wasn't even close to fitting correctly (crushing my forefoot). Two things that I brought up to them during the fitting, but they didn't seem to care about at the time. Now I don't know about you but there are a finite number of ski days I have in my life and I really don't want to spend them going back and forth to a boot shop. I figure the goal would be to get them right the first time and not spend day after day going back to get them fixed.
So when I went back in I told one of fitters there how disappointed I was in the boots. I'll be honest and say I was mad after driving back and forth, telling them what was wrong with the boots, spending all the money, wasting a day of skiing, and then driving back up for the exact things I told them previously I didn't like. I think the exact words I used were, "there aren't enough four letter words in the English language to describe how I feel about this experience so far." Apparently that was too much for his sensitivities... He said he wasn't there to be sworn at (even though I didn't swear at him...) and I think his words were, "we'll just send you walking on down the road". So they just gave me my money back. Which...based on how poorly they did the first time...might have been the best thing to do.
But what a waste of time and effort. They claim it is custom...but from what I saw it really wasn't. It was kind of like the old Ford car statement: "you can have any color as long as it is Black". For me, it was you can have any shell you want as long as it is this Lange shell. And you can have any fit you want as long as it is the fit we tell you. Maybe that shell and fit works for somebody, but certainly didn't work for me. read more