Footbeds are a bit of a dark art in bootfitting. The thorey for footbeds comes from podietry and this is not somthing your average ski bum boot fitter knows much about. It takes years to learn and is pretty complex. Because of this your proberbly going to be best looking for an experienced boot fitter with at least 5+ years making custom footbeds.
So I wanted to answer some common questions about footbeds.
What do Footbeds do?
Footbeds help support the arches of the foot, keeping the foot in a neutral postion and helps with impact cushioning. But what does any of that mean. Well lets start with your feet. An interesting thing I once heard about feet is, every day each foot takes 1,000,000lbs of force just from walking around. With that sort of force every single day, our feet need to be able to cushion impact effeicently. This is what the arches do. They act like suspesion for the foot. But if these arches are left unsurported, they some begin to strech with that much force every day. This is when feet begin to flaten and pronate.
A good footbed will suport the arches of the foot, and help them cope with the great forces involved with skiing. If your foot is unsurpoted, it can feel like your foot streches underneath, and this can cause cramp. The foot will genrally get longer underforce, which could push the twos into the front of the boot.
So if you park ski, a footbed will help support your foot when landing.
What is a neutral postion?
Its best to think of your boots when thinking about this. Boots flex in a fowards motion but not at all side to side. This means for your foot and leg to fit the best they have to match this, ie straight.
When your arches begin to drop or flaten genrally what happens is your foot begins to lean to the inside. This can make your foot apear wider then it actually is. This is called a pronated stance. A neutral stance is simply when the leg is straight. A footbed helps acheive this by suporting your arches to help the foot maintain this neutral stance.
What footbed should I get?
Really the only person who can answer this is someone asses your feet and stance. Unfortunatly this means Bootfitter.
What are the differnces between footbeds?
There are 3 main types of footbeds, below I will list the 3 and the pros and cons:
Trim To Fit
These are your most basic footbeds. They have a predifined shape, and are designed to go stright into boots.
Pros:
Cheap
Easily available
Cons:
Not custom to your foot
Limited selection of shapes
Trim to fits should be thought of as a minimum. They will be better then the stock insole but thats about it. You will always be better off with a full custom footbed.
Example Brands:
Superfeet, Sidas, Sole
Custom Trim To fit
With these footbeds, a computer scans the pressures on the base of your foot, and selects a footbed shpae which best matches you from a data base. This shape is then sent to a milling machine, and a footbed is produced.
Pros:
Better the Trim to fits
Easily replacable. Your foot is kept on record so a new footbed can easily be made.
Cons:
Expensive
Often very firm
Still not totally custom.
These footbeds are great for carving. They support the mid tarsel joint (back of the foot) very well, but not so much the front of the medial arch. This means in practice they have less impact protection compared to other custom options.
Example Brands
Surefoot
Full Custom
These will be your best options. They are usally cheaper the custom Trim to fits but more then standard trim to fits. There are also 2 types Weighted and Unweighted. The differnce is in teh production preocess. For weighted footbeds the footbed is produced when you are standing up. Unweighted are made when sat with no weight on the foot. In my opion weighted are better, you stand when skiing so its better to make the footbed standing, rather then sitting.
Pros:
Fully Custom
Totally customisiable, different flexes, different volumes, custom heel lifts, canting. Pretty much anything you need.
Foot can be postioned for optimal fit
Cons:
More expensive then trim to fits
Need an experienced boot fitter to make them.
Overall if you can get a good weighted custom footbed, this will be your best bet. Get them when you get the boots fitted, it will give you the best fit from day one.
Example Brands:
Sidas, Aline, Superfeet (avoid the superfeet korks if you can)
So thats about it for now, im sure i have missed out allot of things but hopefully this sheds some light on footbeds.
