A quick note: DO NOT Repeat my steps, Intuition does not recommend using the oven. They DM'ed me making it very clear they don't recommend this method. It worked for me, but there is a high chance of damaging the product, so they recommend microwaving rice with their kit. This way worked for me, but please don't damage your product mimicking me, and heat mold your liners at your own risk. Honestly if you want to be safe, I would recommend breaking in by wearing liners around the house over all. Cheers, -Elliott
Just got a pair of Zipfit GFT touring liners for my Tecnica Zero G Pro touring boots and I must say that they are amazing. A little heavy on the uphill of course and a little less range of motion but they make the boots so comfortable and on the downhill they are like resort boots. Maybe not worth the price but are awesome nonetheless.
The touring liners have a flex zone of softer material above the ankle on the back, some other changes too that I can't detail. Typically they are lighter weight too.
Pretty good video, you definitely "discovered" all the hidden issues with boot/liner fitting (and footbeds). Footbeds definitely effect volume inside the boot, and other things, so its important to consider that when choosing. They do come in thick and thin versions. I must have half a dozen of them after going through my fitting trials and tribulations. Using the Atomic heating ovens in a ski shop really helps the process. They heat for 5-15 minutes at lower temps with a blower to get the entire boot/liner up to temp. If you do your boots and liner together that helps the most and usually makes the on snow break in pretty minimal. Its still there, but you get much closer to the final fit with an instore heat molding. Your experience lines up with mine, although I didn't use my home oven, went to a shop and used their ovens. You can take the laces out of the Zipfits and leave them in your boots. Try it and I would be interested to hear back on how that works. I will say the skiers I hang with typically lace up the Zipfit, then insert into the boot lie you describe.
Thanks Scott! My boots got warrantied this summer for a weird cuff collision that warped it, this time around when I was installing my booster straps, I took your advice from last year with using a larger bit and going slower and it absolutely worked! thanks for the tip. Will feature this comment in my next video.
Just got some zipfits today, funny coincidence. I was blown away, they both significantly improved the overall tightness, and somehow they were even more comfortable than the big cushy BFC 130 liners they replaced. With the stock liners, I’d start the day being barely able to close the buckle, and end the day at the very end of the buckle with it still feeling a little swimmy. I don’t know how anybody can buy their own boots and not buy a custom footbed. It’s frankly mind blowing. I think my custom ones were $130? Everybodies foot is different, and a ski boot is a static application…it’s not a running shoe. Your foot doesn’t flex inside the boot like it does in a running shoe. The goal isn’t to have a strong foot and a proper gait like in running…the goal is to create a perfect mate between your foot and the bottom of the boot, so that you can rest completely flat footed at all times and feel totally comfortable and supported. The ideal footbed simply disappears. A good footbed makes a wide foot a little narrower, sometimes makes feet a little shorter as well. Maybe some people are lucky enough to use a premade footbed. I am admittedly a weird foot (which is how I ended up in the BFC). Regardless the advantages of a custom footbed, for the price, make it on the level of a booster strap in terms of “no brainer”.
Hey Elliot, Thank you for "reminding me" haha about footbeds. You reminded me to just buy some footbeds, so I did. Cheap eBay score. 6mm heel lift. I bought some boots online this year, and they fit, but are at the very edge of too big. The footbed has made the boot comfortable taking up some volume. Hoping it works out and I just have to go ski them. Thank you again.
For those learning about zip fit liners its important to store them upside down. Meaning when you are not skiing in them flip them and shove them into the shells. The liners are filled with pack that is designed to go down the boot to fill out you space to get as snug of a fit as possible. With buying this product used the pack has most likey traveled down the boot instead of evenly being distributed throughout. Zip fits are the best thing i have ever purchased for my skiing setup. But most people dont know how to use them correctly. When in doubt save money and go to a bootfitter. Nothing matters more than a properly fitted boot when it comes to skiing performance.
Great video. Very informative. Boot selection and fitting can be annoying. I just went through the same process you did back in October. Since I did not want to spend $800 or more on new boots, footbeds, and custom fitting, I ended up just going with a K2 BFC 130 boot. In my opinion, K2 has the best fit right out of the box. And I found the new K2 boot with Boa for $400. I played around with the more expensive footbeds from REI (I live in San Diego so not a lot of choices for ski shops) but found the Dr. Scholls or even the generic footbeds from Target to be just as good. After trying them out on the mountain for a day, I just went back to the footbed that came with boot. Since I am not a ski racer or professional skier, I want comfort first and performance second. The K2 Mindbender 130 and Recon 130 boots felt decent as well, but I found out that I am just not comfortable with a medium amount of pressure surrounding my feet. I kept them on for an hour in my house to see how they would feel. Then I returned them to my local REI.
Adding footbeds is always an issue with raising the foot higher in the liner. Mostly not a good thing. Side note; I use Soles in all my shoes. I love the full cork, which is similar to the OG Superfeet, but they have too much arch volume for me so each pair get the arch area ground down till it's comfortable.. They are definitely to thick to run in my ski boots.
Elliott, the Zips will get better as you wear them. I have more than 80 days on my pair. Around day 30 (the shop warned me) my heel may started lifting and that I would need to massage some of the filling material back down to the ankle area ... this occurred exactly as they predicted. Are the Atomic boots you purchase high volume or low volume shells? This makes a difference in which Zip Fit you purchase.
Did you actually trim any of the footbeds to fit, before putting them into the liner? Just out of the box and in there, they don't fit. A ski boot liner is way narrower than any footbed out of the box, so you need to at least trim the forefoot. And usually the arch support will be one step higher from what it states on the box, as there's sideways push onto the footbed. Like, putting in a low arch footbed will actually be medium, unless trimmed to fit, which might be tricky for the arch support.
Hi Elliot, I know every foot is different but could you talk about whether you've tried sizing down in ski boots for a "performance" fit? All the higher-level skiers and instructors I know advocate for that and wanted your thoughts. For example, my foot measures 27cm long and I could fit either a 26/26.5 boot shell or a 27/27.5 boot shell.
I just got the GFT, but the tongue arrived crooked on one of the liners. Wondering if I should return them or just try heat molding. This doesn’t inspire confidence tbh.
Anyone try the Patriot Footbeds? I bought Atomic Hawx Manga's 3 years ago and fitted them with a Patriot Footbed as well as their Power Strap. I never tried the stock Atomic footbed as I pulled it right away. Love the overall fit and performance.
A quick note: DO NOT Repeat my steps, Intuition does not recommend using the oven. They DM'ed me making it very clear they don't recommend this method. It worked for me, but there is a high chance of damaging the product, so they recommend microwaving rice with their kit. This way worked for me, but please don't damage your product mimicking me, and heat mold your liners at your own risk.
Honestly if you want to be safe, I would recommend breaking in by wearing liners around the house over all.
Cheers,
-Elliott
Just got a pair of Zipfit GFT touring liners for my Tecnica Zero G Pro touring boots and I must say that they are amazing. A little heavy on the uphill of course and a little less range of motion but they make the boots so comfortable and on the downhill they are like resort boots. Maybe not worth the price but are awesome nonetheless.
Oh interesting with touring is there no velcro strap across the shin?
@@RicketySkiReviews Still a strap but not sure I need it.
The touring liners have a flex zone of softer material above the ankle on the back, some other changes too that I can't detail. Typically they are lighter weight too.
Pretty good video, you definitely "discovered" all the hidden issues with boot/liner fitting (and footbeds). Footbeds definitely effect volume inside the boot, and other things, so its important to consider that when choosing. They do come in thick and thin versions. I must have half a dozen of them after going through my fitting trials and tribulations. Using the Atomic heating ovens in a ski shop really helps the process. They heat for 5-15 minutes at lower temps with a blower to get the entire boot/liner up to temp. If you do your boots and liner together that helps the most and usually makes the on snow break in pretty minimal. Its still there, but you get much closer to the final fit with an instore heat molding. Your experience lines up with mine, although I didn't use my home oven, went to a shop and used their ovens.
You can take the laces out of the Zipfits and leave them in your boots. Try it and I would be interested to hear back on how that works. I will say the skiers I hang with typically lace up the Zipfit, then insert into the boot lie you describe.
Thanks Scott! My boots got warrantied this summer for a weird cuff collision that warped it, this time around when I was installing my booster straps, I took your advice from last year with using a larger bit and going slower and it absolutely worked! thanks for the tip. Will feature this comment in my next video.
The official Elliott home reveal was unexpected but welcomed
haha, the 2x4 in the living room was a temporary fixture
Entertainer’s layout!
Just got some zipfits today, funny coincidence. I was blown away, they both significantly improved the overall tightness, and somehow they were even more comfortable than the big cushy BFC 130 liners they replaced. With the stock liners, I’d start the day being barely able to close the buckle, and end the day at the very end of the buckle with it still feeling a little swimmy.
I don’t know how anybody can buy their own boots and not buy a custom footbed. It’s frankly mind blowing. I think my custom ones were $130?
Everybodies foot is different, and a ski boot is a static application…it’s not a running shoe. Your foot doesn’t flex inside the boot like it does in a running shoe.
The goal isn’t to have a strong foot and a proper gait like in running…the goal is to create a perfect mate between your foot and the bottom of the boot, so that you can rest completely flat footed at all times and feel totally comfortable and supported. The ideal footbed simply disappears.
A good footbed makes a wide foot a little narrower, sometimes makes feet a little shorter as well.
Maybe some people are lucky enough to use a premade footbed. I am admittedly a weird foot (which is how I ended up in the BFC). Regardless the advantages of a custom footbed, for the price, make it on the level of a booster strap in terms of “no brainer”.
Hey Elliot, Thank you for "reminding me" haha about footbeds. You reminded me to just buy some footbeds, so I did. Cheap eBay score. 6mm heel lift. I bought some boots online this year, and they fit, but are at the very edge of too big. The footbed has made the boot comfortable taking up some volume. Hoping it works out and I just have to go ski them. Thank you again.
For those learning about zip fit liners its important to store them upside down. Meaning when you are not skiing in them flip them and shove them into the shells. The liners are filled with pack that is designed to go down the boot to fill out you space to get as snug of a fit as possible. With buying this product used the pack has most likey traveled down the boot instead of evenly being distributed throughout.
Zip fits are the best thing i have ever purchased for my skiing setup. But most people dont know how to use them correctly. When in doubt save money and go to a bootfitter. Nothing matters more than a properly fitted boot when it comes to skiing performance.
The new zipfits come with velcro for spoilers i believe.
Merry Christmas 🎄 from 🇨🇦
Great video. Very informative. Boot selection and fitting can be annoying. I just went through the same process you did back in October. Since I did not want to spend $800 or more on new boots, footbeds, and custom fitting, I ended up just going with a K2 BFC 130 boot. In my opinion, K2 has the best fit right out of the box. And I found the new K2 boot with Boa for $400. I played around with the more expensive footbeds from REI (I live in San Diego so not a lot of choices for ski shops) but found the Dr. Scholls or even the generic footbeds from Target to be just as good. After trying them out on the mountain for a day, I just went back to the footbed that came with boot. Since I am not a ski racer or professional skier, I want comfort first and performance second. The K2 Mindbender 130 and Recon 130 boots felt decent as well, but I found out that I am just not comfortable with a medium amount of pressure surrounding my feet. I kept them on for an hour in my house to see how they would feel. Then I returned them to my local REI.
Matt at FootDynamics is the shit
Adding footbeds is always an issue with raising the foot higher in the liner. Mostly not a good thing.
Side note; I use Soles in all my shoes. I love the full cork, which is similar to the OG Superfeet, but they have too much arch volume for me so each pair get the arch area ground down till it's comfortable..
They are definitely to thick to run in my ski boots.
Elliott, the Zips will get better as you wear them. I have more than 80 days on my pair. Around day 30 (the shop warned me) my heel may started lifting and that I would need to massage some of the filling material back down to the ankle area ... this occurred exactly as they predicted. Are the Atomic boots you purchase high volume or low volume shells? This makes a difference in which Zip Fit you purchase.
High volume, thanks for the tip!
You know of a good boot fitter in around denver or frisco area?
Did you actually trim any of the footbeds to fit, before putting them into the liner? Just out of the box and in there, they don't fit.
A ski boot liner is way narrower than any footbed out of the box, so you need to at least trim the forefoot. And usually the arch support will be one step higher from what it states on the box, as there's sideways push onto the footbed. Like, putting in a low arch footbed will actually be medium, unless trimmed to fit, which might be tricky for the arch support.
Hi Elliot, I know every foot is different but could you talk about whether you've tried sizing down in ski boots for a "performance" fit? All the higher-level skiers and instructors I know advocate for that and wanted your thoughts. For example, my foot measures 27cm long and I could fit either a 26/26.5 boot shell or a 27/27.5 boot shell.
Great question, I'll address it in my next video so keep an eye out!
I just got the GFT, but the tongue arrived crooked on one of the liners. Wondering if I should return them or just try heat molding. This doesn’t inspire confidence tbh.
great question, I'm gonna address it in my next video, but I would reach out to Zipfit directly, they're super reasonable people in my experience.
Anyone try the Patriot Footbeds? I bought Atomic Hawx Manga's 3 years ago and fitted them with a Patriot Footbed as well as their Power Strap. I never tried the stock Atomic footbed as I pulled it right away. Love the overall fit and performance.
Also shout out to all the members watching this a day early! Thank you for supporting the channel!
i never heard of a pizza stone before.. hmm.. that would at least save my oven from all the pizza gue...
Spoiler alert! 🤔
😂