Wouldn't that be a good idea, to separate the boot from the liner? By that I mean to sell the two separately. The liner is really what you feel to begin with, it's what's on your feet, the boot shell determines stiffness, response, etc. Might it be wise for companies to allow the customer to choose them separately?

Well, you wear them, right? I figured that you can't really discuss boots without discussing footbeds, and also socks. How does this influence your fit or your choice of boot, or is this a secondary issue?

As in, taking say 1000 people with say, size 9 feet, and coming up with a number of measures that defines the shape of the foot. For example, the height of the arch, or the width of the foot when standing up, the shape of the heel, etc.

Don't companies use these kind of 'statistics' for their design purposes?

Okay, another topic.

So this is an issue, you want your feet to be warm when it's 0 outside, with that super dry, super cold powder. But you want to not get overheated when you're riding in spring or summer conditions.

The corollary is that you want your feet to stay relatively dry under all circumstances. Sweat and cold temps is a bad combo, sweat and hot temperatures makes for swampy boots.

Any comments?

Well, the boots still smell. What's your experience with the stuff?

I have wide feet and i had a really hard time finding boots to fit my feet properly. There is only one company that had a wide boot out and that is Salomon and that boot isn't even wide enough for me. I'm not the only person with wide feet in the world. Companies make wide boards to accomadate larger feet but not wide boots to accompany wider feet. Shoe companies aren't caught up to this idea even large ones such as nike. i believe the wide footed people of the world deserve a boot that is made for them and not just in one width but wide and extra wide.

For a while there, a lot of people were banking on step-ins taking over the market. Companies like Device, K2, Switch, Burton and others... it was the all over print of a few years.

My belief that in a rush to capture marketshare, nobody put in enough development time to truely make a functional system. I tried a few of the offerings and they universally offered sub-par performance.

I am not sure whether there is a place for step ins in the market, and in their original form, certainly not.

I was cruising around youtube and found this video. They used to make these things in the early 90s but I haven't seen or though about them in a while.

We should all list things we would like to incorporate into the boot. Like B3 gel inserts and maybe an articulating cuff. We should then have everyone vote on these ideas. So any ideas are welcome.

For me, it is when I walk around the store for 30 minutes, and not get foot pain.

Basically:

when my heels are always down

No pain after walking for 30 minutes

does anyone have their own?