A ghetto bootfit solution that worked for me, maybe it will help someone else.

Posts: 966 - Karma: 2,296

Apr 7 2015 3:47PM

I got some new intuition power wrap liners a couple months ago to replace my stock liners. I love how much space the intuitions take up in the heel and ankle, the only problem is my old plug liners were very thin in the toe box so now my intuitions, because of how thick they are, are crushing my toes. I've seen several boot fitters and done several sessions of boot punching and grinding, but my toes are still pissed.

A couple of nights ago I had an epiphany; I was thinking about how dumb it is to get all this grinding and punching done when my toes were fine with the old liner. So really the liner is the problem. I need to pack it out, specifically in the toe area. What could I use to pack out the liner? We have lots of C-clamps in the garage for doing ski repairs, why not try those? The more burly ones can put up to 9,000lb of pressure, if anything can pack out the liner why not a c-clamp? Of course I could end up just wrecking my liner, and or my fit. It's a gamble but I decided to try it.

I C-clamped the crap out of my liner in the toe area and right away I noticed it was much thinner and yielding then the unclamped liner. Liner seemed otherwise unharmed and structurally intact. Decided to use the scientific method and ski with only the one liner packed out with the c-clamp (toe area only). The clamped liner foot was so much happier. I skied the whole day wishing I had done both liners. Didn't seem to effect the rest of my boot fit, gave me more space exactly where I needed it. Since I did the work myself I could be really precise with the area I chose to compact.

Just to see exactly how much more effective the clamp was compared to naturally packing out the liner, I grabbed one of my old intuition liners that had 200+ days on it to contrast. The C-clamp made the liner much thinner then natural pack out did, even with a huge number of days on a the liner.

TLDR; I C-clamped my liner to make more space, it ended up being super effective.

(I am not a boot fitter, don't blame me if you wreck your liners doing this.)

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TheWeaz

Posts: 803 - Karma: 1,903

Apr 7 2015 6:03PM

CyanicenineTLDR; I C-clamped my liner to make more space, it ended up being super effective.

that's pretty smart, did you put anything between the c clamp and the liner or just clamp straight onto the liner?

**This post was edited on Apr 10th 2015 at 6:31:44pm

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Cyanicenine

Posts: 966 - Karma: 2,296

Apr 7 2015 7:29PM

TheWeazBut actually that's pretty smart, did you put anything between the c clamp and the liner or just clamp straight onto the liner?

I just clamped straight onto the liner. I used a larger clamp that has about an inch wide contact surface, and then did it in sections.

This is the badass clamp that I used: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003ES5T5Q/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

**This post was edited on Apr 10th 2015 at 6:32:10pm

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rozboon

Posts: 1642 - Karma: 868

Apr 7 2015 10:17PM

Good work, but I have to ask, did you use a toe cap when you heat-molded the liners? If you used a thick enough toe cap when you cooked the liner it should have made enough room anyway.

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Cyanicenine

Posts: 966 - Karma: 2,296

Apr 7 2015 10:33PM

rozboonGood work, but I have to ask, did you use a toe cap when you heat-molded the liners?

Yup, used the thickest ones available at my local boot shop. I'm sure it helped, but it still didn't put enough pressure on the cooked liner to really flatten the toebox.

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Poikenz

Posts: 1407 - Karma: 3,131

Apr 8 2015 9:38AM

I'm a bit surprised that your shop didn't stretch out your liner after punching your boot, but maybe that's just me.

I find that dollar store rubber balls can help stretch a toebox vertically if you leave them in your boots overnight. Good idea with the clamps though, I never really thought about using them in that way.

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Cyanicenine

Posts: 966 - Karma: 2,296

Apr 8 2015 8:54PM

PoikenzI'm a bit surprised that your shop didn't stretch out your liner after punching your boot, but maybe that's just me.

I find that dollar store rubber balls can help stretch a toebox vertically if you leave them in your boots overnight. Good idea with the clamps though, I never really thought about using them in that way.

The amount of contradictory advice, general apathy, and outright ignorance I encounter in the bootfitter world makes me wonder how they are held to such a high standard on this website. It could just be my location though, I know the bootfitters in my area are not paid well and that isn't exactly motivation to attract skilled workers to a field that undoubtedly requires a lot of technical knowledge.

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