Scottish Outdoor Clothing & Equipment retailer: Professional fitting for ski and snowboarding boots in Glasgow
The last thing you want is to have a ski trip ruined by sore feet, bruised toes and painful shins.
Choosing the right boot for your foot shape and then having it custom fitted to your feet sounds complicated, but at one of the UK’s favourite snowsports retailers Ellis Brigham, they make it simple.
Chris Wadsworth is an expert when it comes to fitting ski-boots. He brings 14 years of experience of the ski industry, both at home and abroad, to the Ellis Brigham team at Ellis Brigham at Xsite, Braehead.
He says the whole fitting team has plenty of professional experience to draw on. Added to that Ellis Brigham’s own in-house training mean your feet are in good hands.
We asked Chris to talk us through the process and the advantages of having ski boots properly fitted.
Measuring up for ski and snowboard boots
Firstly you’ll need a couple of hours set aside to have a thorough assessment, measuring and adaptations – but you’ll walk out with comfy boots ready for hours in the snow.
“Firstly we will help you find the correct shape boot for your foot from the boots we have in store,” Chris said. This is no quick process with over 150 boots in stock to select from, but the experts will help narrow down the choices to suit both your physical shape and practical needs.
The staff will talk to you about your skill levels, your competence and what your aspirations are for your ski-ing or snowboarding. They will look at the width of your feet, their height, and look at how your feet move and how you walk.
Once the boot has been selected it’s down to some fine tuning to customise the boot and create internal moulds and shelves to ensure your foot is perfectly stabilised in the boot.
The system used, SUREfit, is a process that looks at a skier’s history, individual foot shape, and biomechanics, taking previous injuries and medical problems into account.
“This footbed takes about 20 minutes to make,” he said. It will ensure the foot is snugly fitted inside the boot and protected. Black toes, bashes and bruises Chris said, are usually from boots which are slightly too big and mean the foot is moving about too much inside the rigid plastic boot. If they are too tight it cuts off the circulation and causes numbness, discomfort and lack of stability.
Whilst the assessment and fitting is a free service, the actual adaptations add to the cost of the final product. The material used to adapt the inside of the boot will stretch – it’s like the perfect mould for your foot shape.
“It adds a bit on the price,” Chris says. “But they have our SUREfit guarantee and we encourage people to try them and break them in and they can bring them back in for us to tweak and adapt if needed.” This promise lasts up to two years from first fitting.
Improved performance
Fitted ski boots won’t turn a novice into a champion but they will offer a greater degree of comfort and control for skiers of all levels. Chris said when your feet fit well into the boot, any movement is translated directly to the ski, giving you that direct link between your moves and your direction on the slopes. If they fit badly then your foot is likely to be moving within the boot and not transferring that movement to the skis themselves, and if they are too tight you may not have enough movement.
Years of experience
From its origins, repairing footwear and selling climbing boots and clothing in 1930s, Ellis Brigham has embraced advances in the technology of equipment designed for high performance, safety and comfort. But the personalised service that the brand was built on has never changed, according to director, Mark Brigham.
He says: “We have 16 stores around the country – including Braehead in Glasgow, Fort William and Aviemore – but the focus has always been on the range of the services and the expertise offered by our staff. We have 400 employees, but the customer is at the heart of everything.”
Customers range from the novice who might just be looking for a pair of ski gloves or goggles to athletes at the top of their sport looking for a specialist item.
Ellis Brigham outlets also offer in-store ski servicing whether it be a little TLC, such as a wax and edge, bigger adjustments, or repair – the technicians at the retailer have the knowledge and skills to perform these tasks to the highest level.
And the company offers regular repair events for clothing, to restore functionality to well-loved pieces.
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