Can This New 3D Tech Solve All Ski Boot Issues?

If you’re a skier, the odds are fairly high that you’ve sat on a bootfitter’s bench at least once before.

While some folks are blessed with “good” feet, run-of-the-mill measurements, and no protrusions, those folks are few and far between. More often, the imperfect human anatomy leaves bootfitters accounting for all kinds of challenges with limited tools at their disposal.

Perhaps you’ve sat for an hour or more as a bootfitter molded, punched, and ground out your boots, only to have them still not fit quite right. Or perhaps a bootfitter’s inherent bias led them to recommend a certain size, flex, or boot that ultimately didn’t work out. Whatever your experience is, most skiers can agree that boot-fitting is a science that’s influenced by human bias and error, the limitations of time, energy, and ski shop staffing, and that it’s not really a science at all.

Unfortunately, this reality has deterred some from the sport entirely, and resigned others, myself included, to believing that the perfect boot doesn’t exist. A brand-new company called Boot Solutions is looking to change that.

Born at the base of Alta Ski Area, Boot Solutions was created by Powder House Ski Shop owner Paul Huber as he looked to the future of ski boot technology. Alongside his sons, JP and Strom, Huber developed a technology based on the realization that, rather than trying to create a perfect boot shell around someone’s foot, he just needed the foot itself to modify existing boots at his leisure.

In other words, a system that gave bootfitters all the information they needed to make a boot fit perfectly, and none of the information they didn’t. 

This past week, I joined a crew of testers that included two-time Queen of Corbet’s Couloir Piper Kunst, the owners of Alta’s Rustler Lodge, Kate and Tom Pollard, and several ski instructors from Alta and Snowbird.

We met the Boot Solution Team at the Columbia River Gorge to learn about their process and test the custom boots they had created for us on the slopes of Timberline Lodge’s Palmer glacier.

How Does Boot Solutions Work?

Like most other bootfitters, Huber starts with a measurement called the “last”—essentially the width of your forefoot. In traditional bootfitting terms, the “last” is actually a mold that approximates the shape of a human foot used to physically shape the plastic of the boot. The difference with Huber’s system is that he uses an exact replica of your feet.

The process begins with customers scanning their feet using an app, either alone or with assistance. Using the depth-mapping capabilities of your phone’s camera, the app requests weighted and unweighted scans of both feet, a lower leg scan to help determine boot canting, and a measurement of your feet.

Customers also fill out a questionnaire that asks about height, weight, skier type, ankle flexibility, any common foot protrusions (sixth toes, bunions, spurs), and other pertinent information that might influence the selection and fit of a ski boot.

Once Boot Solutions receives the scans, they’re entered into a program that compares the measurements against an internal database of ski boots and the clearance values for different parts of a ski boot. The program then recommends a boot within Boot Solutions’ inventory that best matches your feet. If any values in the foot’s measurements conflict with a boot measurement, such as forefoot width, the program flags them for possible modification.

Customers can purchase a comprehensive report that includes all information from the scans, including cuff angle, stance, canting, and footbed recommendations. The report also includes the modifications that Boot Solution’s bootfitters would recommend, or customers can opt to purchase the boot directly from Boot Solutions, which is when the real fun starts.

If customers purchase a boot from Boot Solutions, the information from their foot scans is then evaluated by bootfitters, and any alignment discrepancies from the scans are adjusted through CAD software, so the foot is in the most neutral positioning, and input into a seven-axis milling arm that cuts an exact replica of the customer’s foot from prosthetic-grade foam.

The replica, or last, is then covered with a vacuum-sealed plastic to make it more durable throughout the boot-fitting process.

A custom Sidas footbed is then made by vacuum sealing the footbed onto the upturned foot replica, as opposed to the traditional weighted-bag molding process, which allows for the footbed to support structures of the foot anatomy that can be changed by weight on the foot. Then, any modifications are made to the recommended ski boot using the foot replica. Modifications are still fairly standard—punches, grinds, buckle adjustments, canting, ramp angle changes, etc., but the foot mold replica allows the bootfitters to take ample time with each modification and perform them more precisely by marking the mold and boot, which streamlines the process. Customers then get a custom fit ski boot and 3D replica of their own feet. Pretty neat, huh?

Pricing & Timeline 

• Boot Solutions will officially launch to the public in early September 2026. Orders received in September following the launch will have a guaranteed ship date of November 15th. Following November 15th, Boot Solutions aims to have boots and/or custom fit reports ready within 48-hours of purchase (with scans).
• Orders are limited to North America. Pre-season orders are highly encouraged due to boot stock.
• Custom Fit Report: $199
• Required Sidas Custom Footbeds: $299
• All boots at MSRP pricing

Case Study

Out of the POWDER staff, it was almost a no-brainer to have me to test out Boot Solutions technology. I’ve had my fair share of ski boot woes, due mostly to the size of my feet and issues caused by poor fits in the past. I wear a 22.5 ski boot, although my left foot measures more like a 21.5, which also means there’s a pretty significant size discrepancy between my feet. I have super high arches, notably high insteps, hyper flexible ankles, narrow heels, and in a perfect world, ski a 130 flex boot.

Additionally, I have a bone spur (I think?) on the instep of my left foot caused by wearing a boot with a low instep and mashing the buckles shut for an entire season. The question-mark-spur/mystery bump tends to fluctuate in size depending on how much I’m wearing a ski boot and we named it King Arthur during gear week last year because of its boisterous personality. I also have a chunk of my left talus bone missing after an ankle surgery in college. Those who also wear smaller-sized ski boots (or those who have heard us complain at length) will know that there’s pretty limited options for stiff boots in a 22.5, especially outside race/plug boots. As a ski photographer, I spend a lot of time standing around in my boots, so this type of boot isn’t super feasible comfort-wise for me either.

I’ll admit, knowing the complexity of my case, I was skeptical that Boot Solutions would be able to do what no other bootfitter yet had: find me a high performance, stiff, low volume boot, that had enough space for my instep bumps and didn’t leave the rest of my foot swimming in the boot. 

On our first night with the Hubers and the rest of the Boot Solutions team, we were presented with the boots they’d matched us to, via our foot scans. I had opted for the one-person scan process of my feet, although there’s also an option for two person scan if the customer finds that easier. The scan itself was fairly simple and I was able to do it in about 20 minutes using the detailed instructional videos sent by Boot Solutions. Because I’d done the one person, my molds didn’t include full replicas of my toes, but with a two person scan, there’s enough information to get all 10 toes.

For the test, Boot Solutions’ inventory was limited to Salomon, Tecnica, and Lange boots, but following their official launch in August, the company will also have Head, Nordica, and Atomic boots in their database and inventory. Currently, their offerings are limited to performance and comfort fit alpine boots, however as the company expands, they’ll grow offerings to race boots, hybrid boots, and eventually touring boots. They’re also not offering aftermarket liner options just yet, but have plans to offer options for aftermarket liners next winter.

JP Huber had been tasked with finding and modifying a boot that would work for my feet and the first night in the Columbia Gorge, he presented me with a pair of 2026 Salomon S Pro Alpha 130 boots (the 4-buckle version before the newest BOA update). When my scans were input, Boot Solutions’ software had flagged that the heel cup and the lateral width (98mm last) of the S Pro Alpha 130 might be a little wide on my foot (90mm last), but the rest of the values matched well.

After making my footbeds, JP took the bootboards in the S Pro Alpha down by a millimeter, to account for the hypermobility in my ankles. Doing so flattens the ramp angle of the boot a bit and can give someone like me a wider range of forward motion in the boot, which also helps with the feeling of going “over the bars” and overflexing a boot. He also adjusted the forward lean of the boot by removing the spoiler, which put it at about 14 degrees. My stance measurements had prompted him to adjust the boot cuff and cuff line slightly inside for better alignment, but the boot didn’t need any canting.

JP moved the spine flex to a more progressive setting, which softened the boot a tiny bit down from the 130 flex, to allow for a flex that would feel a bit more familiar to me, coming from a more progressive, 115 flex boot. To help the shells fit my feet and legs better, JP scalloped the back edge of the boot cuff to give my calf muscle more room, and moved the instep buckles on my boots outwards to give my insteps more room and the buckles on the calves of the boots inwards to give more compression and lock me into the boot. He used clamps around the boot heel to try and narrow the pocket a bit, doing so by about 3mm. Lastly, he molded the boot liners, with extra padding over my instep to protect King Arthur from getting any bigger, and removed some material out from the liner over the instep in my left foot to give the bump a bit more room.

In the Field with Boot Solutions

The first things I noticed about the fit of the boot once I tried them on was that the footbeds were more comfortable and well-formed than any other footbed I’d ever worn, that the heel pocket on the right boot was concerningly large, and that the buckles might not have needed to be moved over so much, especially on my left leg. There was no pressure on my instep, no immediate pain points, and I was stoked to be in a 130 flex boot.

Once on snow at Timberline Lodge the next day, I quickly experienced numbness from the top of the boot down in both feet and had to unbuckle both boots multiple times throughout the lap. Before our next lap, Jp moved the top buckle on the boot cuff over on both feet, which easily alleviated any numbness and gave my calf a bit more room. I’d been used to cranking the cuff buckles on my boots down previously to try and get the boot stiff enough, but with a higher flex, a little extra blood flow to my calf was a lot more beneficial. Another lap later, I was experiencing a bit of heel lift and lateral motion within the boot, specifically on my right foot, so JP moved the right instep buckle back to the standard position, which locked my foot in a bit better.

I was able to ski for several hours after that with no pain and minimal numbness in my feet and legs. Notably, the stiffness of the boot also made a huge difference in my skiing. I’d been so used to overflexing boots and keeping myself upright using my feet and ankles that any looseness or lateral motion in the foot of the boot made a much bigger difference. However, in a boot that I was able to flex into and have it hold me, my feet were able to relax a lot more and the bit of room in my heels wasn’t nearly as big a factor. The comfort and fit of the footbeds was also particularly noticeable both in skiing and the general fit of the boots. JP and I agreed that an aftermarket liner like a ZipFit would still be beneficial to help fill in the spaces around my heels and ankles and really lock me into the boot.

I was pretty darn impressed with how much consideration JP had given every aspect of the boot to make it fit my feet. Not only was there no question about why a skier with my foot measurements, height, and weight was looking for a 130 flex boot, as I’d experienced in the past, but he’d considered the best ways to make the boot fit parts of my foot and lower leg anatomy and perform well for me to the point where some were redundant, such as the buckles we moved around. Rarely have I had my first day in a new boot be so free of numbness and pain in my arches, insteps, and feet. My instep bump was well protected and didn’t cause me any additional pain, which is also a win with any pair of ski boots. 

Other Boot Solutions Testers

Jp and Paul both told me that my feet, Piper’s feet, and Kate’s feet had presented them with the most difficult fits of the group. Kate had dealt with issues around her Peroneal tendons and had worn boots too big for a long time, to keep her tendons from causing more problems. Her scans had also put her the Salomon S Pro Alpha boot, but in a 90 flex. Boot Solutions had modified her boots to account for her tendon issues as well as some pretty big spurs on her first and fifth metatarsals and Kate was able to ski through the day with minimal to no issues. 

Piper’s feet posed a similar problem with bone spurs and bunions on her metatarsals and significant heel spurs on both sides. The software matched Piper to a Tecnica Mach 1 LV 115, which was convenient, given she’s a Blizzard/Tecnica athlete. She ended up putting her own ZipFits in the boot that Huber had modified, along with the footbeds he’d made, and was pleasantly surprised with how comfortable they were and how well they performed.

Another tester had struggled to find boots that would accommodate his high-volume calf size and low volume foot and were stiff enough to hold him. Huber used a clever trick—a traffic cone filled with concrete—to stretch the calf of a Tecnica Mach 1 LV 140 for him and punch out some space for his sixth toe with good success as well.

In fact, I was one of the only people out of the group who had made further modifications to the boot after Boot Solutions’ initial modification, but mine were as simple as moving a few buckles around. 

Comparisons

Boot Solutions is not the first product on the market, so to speak, that promises a completely custom bootfit. For one, the actual modification work they’re doing to the boots is fairly standard compared to a high-end shop—many ski shops even use the same Sidas footbeds for all their custom orthotics.

Perhaps the closest comparison that might be made is to the Surefoot process and product. Surefoot offers a custom bootfit by scanning customer’s feet at one of their shops, using the measurements from said scan to recommend a boot, making a custom milled footbed from a somewhat similar process that Boot Solutions uses to make their lasts, and then makes a custom injection liner to go within the boot.

There are a few major differences between the Surefoot process and Boot Solutions. For one, Surefoot’s scan only measures the bottom of the skiers’ foot in order to create the custom footbed while letting the custom injection liner do the heavy lifting for the rest of the foot and leg’s measurements. Of course, Surefoot can also punch and grind shells manually. Boot Solutions’ scans account for the foot’s anatomy both when weighted and unweighted and adjusts the scans in their CAD software to neutralize the foot as much as possible before the last is milled and a footbed is made from the last. Second, Boot Solutions is using the last to mold the stock liner (at least for now) rather than using a proprietary foam liner. Lastly, customers are still bound to the time spent sitting in one of Surefoot’s locations while their boots are worked on.

The same argument could be made around other aftermarket liners like ZipFits, which allow skiers to inject cork into the liner for a more custom foot/leg fit. When paired with a good insole and modifications from a great bootfitter, it turns into a similar end product to Boot Solutions. The real differences here are then the volume fit made by scan measurements, the insole creation process, and the time allowed to a bootfitter to make the necessary modifications long before a skier ever has to sit in a shop.

Who is Boot Solutions’ Ideal Customer?

Part of Boot Solutions’ idea was that folks who ski once or twice a year sometimes end up spending half their vacations sitting in a ski shop trying to make their boots not hurt. With Boot Solutions, they can show up to the mountain with a pre-molded, modified boot and hopefully only have to make marginal adjustments at most. Their other thought was for folks like Kate or myself who have had issues with injuries or not feeling as locked into the boot as they’d like, the process of running a scan through their algorithm can help determine a boot that’s truly the right volume and fit for that foot, rather than fitting to those deformities or issues or relying on a bootfitter’s knowledge of certain boots.

Additionally, the market is saturated with options for all ski gear, boots included. While each boot has its own pros and cons and measurements and features, being matched to a boot via an algorithm can aid in the decision fatigue of purchasing an expensive and important piece of gear. 

Lastly, the process of doing the fit remotely eliminates nearly all of the human bias of bootfitting. No matter how hard we try, as humans we have an inherent bias about different people. Having experienced it firsthand with bootfitters who don’t believe that someone my size and weight needs a 130 flex boot or a performance fit, these biases can have a hugely detrimental effect on the process. By relying on a measurement-based algorithm and only the relevant information given by the intake form and the skier’s appendage, it helps to remove that bias for the fitter. 

And no, they’re not selling your foot scans on the internet, we checked.