jacksonrisucciHello friends,
Finally got in my B&Es in the mail, and the 25.5 seems muuch tighter than I had anticipated originally, as I had tried on drop kicks and the only noticeable pressure points are in the outsides of the foot, and B&E obviously has a wider last. This is my first time ever going a size down in boots, and Im worried the discomfort is going to be too much to handle. My toes go the very end of the liner, but arent particularly jammed, they just fit snugly. I am wondering weather or not these boots will be comfortable enough to ski in after getting the intuition liner molded and skiing a few days, or if im better off going a size up. In other words, how much room can you gain within this liner during the molding process, provided the shop does it properly, and If I cant get much room, do i have any other options to optimize comfort while staying one size down?
You need to explain what you mean by “going a size down.” Do you mean that you’re normally a 26.5 mondo and that you decided to buy a 25.5 mondo?
If your toes aren’t being squished together or curled up because the boot is so short, the heat mold and breaking them in will fix it. You shouldn’t have bought a boot online after trying on a completely different boot in a store but that’s just my $0.02. Go to a fitter and get them heat molded.
For the record, “going a size down” means little because of the lack of standardization in sizing. Fitters go off of BSL (boot sole length) rather than mondo, because a 26.5 mondo boot can be 306mm, 307mm, even 300mm. 1 millimeter doesn’t seem like a lot but it’s a mile where ski boots are concerned. So, if you are typically a “26.5,” let’s say you owned a Nordica Speedmachine. In a 26.5, that boot is 305mm long. Now, you’ve stepped down to a 25.5 Full Tilt. Because Full Tilt loves to be different, their BSL measurements are radically different. A 26.5 Full Tilt boot measures 301mm, which is closer to a 25.5 in most other boots. A 25.5 Full Tilt Shell measures in at 293mm long, which is closer to a 24.5 by most other companies standards. So to summarize, the boot feels tighter than you expected because of the way that Full Tilt measures their boots, and also because you tried one boot on and bought a completely different one on. No harm done, but this information should help you in the future. For the record, I’m a boot fitter and I’ve been skiing Full Tilts for years. I am a 26.5 in 95% of the boots that I’ve tried on and sell, with Full Tilt being the exception. I wear a 27.5 (310mm) because I like a comfort fit where FT is concerned. I could size down to a 26.5 (301mm) for a performance fit if I wanted to. My other boot is a K2 Mindbender (307mm) which is a performance fit for my foot. Hope this helps, and I’m always more than happy to answer any questions you may have. Others here like
@onenerdykid and
@tomPietrowski could certainly help more than myself too. Cheers!
