• Forums
  • Gear Talk
  • How tight should ski boots be at forefoot? Should I sacrifice comfort for performance, or can I achieve both?

Member of the Month

abjectwoe
May, 2025

Online

Welcome to the Newschoolers forums! You may read the forums as a guest, however you must be a registered member to post. Register to become a member today!

How tight should ski boots be at forefoot? Should I sacrifice comfort for performance, or can I achieve both?

profile picture
aravel4569
Posts: 1 - Karma: 11
Hi everyone, could use some advice on boot fitting.

How tight should the boots feel width-wise in the forefoot?

I just bought a LAST 100 (Lange RX120) boots, they they feel quite tight widthwise (heat molded), my last set of boots (Head) had a LAST of 104. I visited 3 boot-fitters and each gave me a different width of boot (100, 102 and 104). I would sacrifice a bit of comfort for performance, but is this the usual tradeoff? Do you find narrower boots give you more control, or is it much more important for your calves and mid-foot to be tight?

A bit more info about me: Willing to spend up to $600 USD. I am an off-piste skier, and spend most of my time in trees, and doing bumps (low speed). My foot width is 10.09-10.1cm

Thanks a lot!! Just want to be sure b/c they are so expensive and I am a student!!
3 years ago
1 0
profile picture
ADtheHoodlum
Posts: 68 - Karma: 714
3 years ago
11 0
profile picture
asparagus
Posts: 2500 - Karma: 28,453
idk would you wear them 6h/day for several days a week?
3 years ago
0 0
profile picture
BradFiAusNzCoCa
Posts: 7529 - Karma: 66,950
Forefoot isn’t as important as heel and shins/calves. You don’t want a painful forefoot
3 years ago
2 0
profile picture
NotEnoughSkiing
Posts: 94 - Karma: 467
If it's a 120 flex boot that's far from a race plug stiffness so I wouldn't put up with any pain if I were you.

If you are skiing NON comp moguls, trees, etc, you probably understand that versatility is more important than a race fit and one part of versatility is comfort to not have to constantly stop and unbuckle or have to ski so fast so you can finally unbuckle at the bottom each time.

I have RX130 Wide Race which is a 100 last too and even that feels quite soft compared to my old Dalbello Krypton.

So that said make 'em comfortable, it doesn't have to hurt to get "good" performance.

I had the outside forefoot "punched" out a bit. The shop did a good job on it not to overdo it. I had quite a bit of shinbang vs. the intuition liner so I did some work there too. I got a simple / cheap shinbang fix in case you want to try it.

**This post was edited on Mar 7th 2022 at 3:44:19pm
3 years ago
1 0
profile picture
aravel4569
Posts: 1 - Karma: 11
Hey thanks everyone for your replies. Maybe I'll return it and try a different boot. You're right it should be more comfortable than that.
3 years ago
0 0
profile picture
animator
Posts: 4576 - Karma: 26,428
ADtheHoodlum


A man of science
3 years ago
1 0
profile picture
animator
Posts: 4576 - Karma: 26,428
aravel4569Hey thanks everyone for your replies. Maybe I'll return it and try a different boot. You're right it should be more comfortable than that.


Comfort and performance used to be something that you had to choose between but that’s certainly not the case anymore. A good fitter should be able to get you in a boot that’s comfortable and that can perform to your liking.
3 years ago
0 0
profile picture
PimpChimpin
Posts: 1287 - Karma: 12,582
ADtheHoodlum


Time to phase out this meme bro they don’t make full tilts anymore
3 years ago
2 0
profile picture
switchlip2
Posts: 2142 - Karma: 25,179
tight is right
3 years ago
0 0
All times are Eastern (-4); Currently it's 11:42PM