Anybody knows a company or shoemaker who could make me fully rigid cross-country boots with a totally unusual profile?

Unlike downhill ski boots, XC boots are flexible: they’re designed to let you push off with your toes. The problem is, I don’t have any.

So without doing anything, the front of my boots isn’t supported at all: I have trouble controlling my skis, the boots fold and bite on my tender bits at each step and eventually collapse completely in short order, ruining a new pair of boots in a matter of miles.

Currently, my solution is the shortest boots I could find that fit me with stiffening steel bars bolted under the soles:

They work okay for classic XC skiing and they’re usable for a bit of skating, but they’re not ideal:

  • I have to use Rottefella bindings that grab the boots with two thin “hooks” instead of a full-width attachment so they can straddle the bars under my shoes. They work fine when they’re new but they quickly develop play. I hate the design of Rottefella bindings but I have to use them with my modified boots.

  • When skating, even with the stiffening bars, the boots are simply too floppy and I have difficulty controlling the skis and skiing efficiently.

  • The boots are too long, and since I have less force and almost no pushoff, they’re very tiring.

For me, the ideal XC boot would be a fully-rigid downhill-style boot with a NNN binding, very short and very wide at the front (think size 11 boots in width, size 7 in length and squared off at the front).

I could conceivably modify DH boots to adapt NNN attachments, but they wouldn’t fit me right if they were regular profile boots anyway.

So I’m looking for a ski boot maker who could take acrylic resin prints of my feet (I have those) and build custom-fitting boots around them, either fully rigid custom XC boots or custom DH boot that I could modify myself for XC. Like carbon fiber boots or something. Money is not too much of an object: the kids have been out of the house for quite some time 🙂

Anybody knows someone who might be able to help me?

  • @rwdf
    2•3 days ago

    I guess you’ve already tried carbon fiber insoles as well? That would probably stiffen the boot even further.

    • @[email protected]OP
      2•3 days ago

      Carbon fiber insoles don’t do much for me. And at least when I ski, I keep breaking them - and those things ain’t cheap. I guess there’s more effort on them.

      But mostly the reason why they don’t do much good is because they stiffen the boots in the long axis but it doesn’t prevent them from twisting. That’s the main reason why I can do the classic style okay but not skate: the front of the boots visibly twist and flatten the ski enough on the track that I lose control.

      • @rwdf
        2•3 days ago

        I see. What about backcountry skis and bindings? It’s not the same as regular xc, but the wider base and bindings make things more resistant to twisting at least.

        Anyway, I’m afraid I don’t know of any custom ski boot makers who could help, but I wish you luck!

        • @[email protected]OP
          2•3 days ago

          I’ve not looked into them. But my local store has them. Maybe I’ll swing by later today and try on a few pairs. Who knows… I might find something that works better.
          Good idea, thanks!

          • @[email protected]English
            2•3 days ago

            Though I don’t have the issues you do, my scarpa mastraels are so comfortable I can wear them for 8+ hours without concern.

  • @[email protected]
    2•3 days ago

    This is a super interesting problem. Unfortunately I don’t know of any custom ski boot makers. I have a slightly cheaper idea that might work though. You could try a plastic telemark boot and binding. I suspect you’d need to make some modifications to fit the binding on a normal xc ski but it should be doable. This would get you a nice rigid boot but allow your heel to lift normally. You might be able to 3d print some kind of custom toe shaped filler to put at the front of the boot. I’m less confident in this idea but it seems worth a try.

    • @[email protected]OP
      2•3 days ago

      Thanks!

      Well the stiffness of the boots is only part of the problem. I could modify DH boots and fit them onto NNN bindings also. But they’d still be too long and tiring.

      Unless I could find ultra-wide ski shoes: I can usually get by with shorter footwear provided it’s very wide. But ski boots are always as narrow as possible to maximize control, so I can never find anything that suits me that isn’t too long.

      As for toe fillers, I don’t even need to print them: I can cut bits of PU foam and stick some electrical tape around them. I’ve done it on occasions. It’s much cheaper than the stuff from the prosthetist and it works just as well. The problem is, they hurt me. And in the case of ski boots, I don’t need them because my ankles are strapped in the boots and prevent my feet sliding forward.