Anyone whose skied for than a few years knows the importance of ski boots, They’ve also experienced their share of boot horror stories. They include:<\/p>\n
Bottom line is that a poorly fitted boot will hurt your skiing performance. Poor performance\u00a0only diminishes\u00a0what you can do at ski resorts. Limiting what you can do detracts from your Great North American\u00a0Ski Adventure (GNASA).<\/p>\n
I can’t fit your boots, and I can’t really tell you how to either. But Harold Harb can.<\/p>\n
I’ve had my share of boot challenges. My friends in the industry have had many more. Any boot challenge\u00a0is aggravated by 100 plus days a year on the slopes. You don’t get any relief if your teaching 6 hours a day or racing all week. To address some of these issues, the industry started to focus on boot fitting. Boot fitting involves the boot, liners, and footbeds.<\/p>\n
There are many retail shops that advertise themselves as “boot fitters.” Some are good, some not so good. Even the not so good ones can get a decent fit after a few refits. But what does that fit really mean in terms of performance? Do the fitters understand the kinematics of skiing? Do they understand\u00a0the kinetics? Heck, do they know the difference? Does it matter?<\/p>\n
I spent a couple\u00a0of decades working with engineers. Engineers understand performance. Many were aerospace engineers. Occasionally I’d be at a ski shop and I’d discover a fellow\u00a0customer was an engineer. Over a couple\u00a0of decades, I even met a few aerospace engineers\u00a0in ski shops. But never, not once, did I meet an aerospace engineer sitting across from me working for a ski shop that was hired to help me select and fit\u00a0a ski boot. Until\u00a0I walked\u00a0into Harolds Harb’ ski shop.<\/p>\n