The ongoing saga of the ZipFit liners.

[volklgirl]

After several phone and e-mail conversations with Lou from EpicSki, we determined that a set of ZipFit liners may very well be the answer to my continuing problem of boots with overly wide heel and ankle areas. I had to make measurements of both my feet and the inside of my boots for him to determine which liner style would provide the best solution to my problem. A final phone call with a CC# and we were good to go.

Here's what my original liners look like after 3 years of use and plenty of padding for fit (don't you just love duct tape??):

Then, after waiting, and waiting, and waiting....the ZipFits arrived today! The light blue areas are filled with a ceramic clay material that softens and molds to your feet when heated:

I just couldn't wait, so I put my foot into the new liner. Wow is that snug! It felt like my toes were jammed into the end and I thought maybe I had mismeasured the inner boot shell length. So, I held the liners together bottom-to-bottom.....nope, they're both the same size . Then I put the ZipFit liner into the shell and my custom footbed into the liner. Holding my breath, I slid my foot in, holding the rear strap as instructed. Wow. The best heel, ankle, and lower leg fit I've ever had. Aaaaaahhhhh. I managed to keep them on for about 20 minutes before my forefeet started going to sleep, so I know I'm going to have to have work done before using them. But first, I have to get them heat molded. Lou says I can do it myself and they're remoldable if I screw them up, but I think, even with the video directions, I'm going to go to a pro.

Here's the link to their videos:
https://www.zipfit.com/zipfitvideos.html

Story to be continued.......
(probably after my broken pinkie toe heals :( )

 

[SkiGAP]

Hey VG, here's wishing you a month or so of pain and agony! Just kidding, of course . Good luck and I hope they are a dream. I am interested to know how the self-molding goes. Be careful with that toe!

 

[skibum4ever]

After I broke my ankle 2 seasons ago I developed a bump on the front of the right ankle that put me into excruciating pain while skiing. After some bootwork on my regular shell that only helped slightly, I asked about custom boot liners. I now have 2 pairs of Zipfit liners in 2 different sets of boots. They are different models of Zipfit liner but both totally alleviate the pain. Thank you Zipfit.

Volklgirl, I hope yours work as well as mine have.

 

[volklgirl]

So, today was the first shot at molding the liners. The real boot guy is in Las Vegas for the ski show, so only Brian was available. Not an ideal situation, but we figured it out together.

For the right one, he heated the liner and shell and put them together and added the footbed. I then stuck my foot in with the top cap over my toes. Ack!!! Even with the original liners I have only minimal room and with these liners I have NO room.....then jamming a toe cap in as well???!!! We then let that one cool for 15 minutes while the left one was on the heater. As it cooled I started to develop a hot spot just under the outside of the ankle bone. When I took my foot out and we took everything apart, we found that a section of the liner had folded under below the ankle bone and hardened that way. We also found my footbed had crinkled up but I couldn't feel it because the toe cap was over it. Bleh.

The left one went much better. This time we put the footbed in the liner then put my foot in the liner with the toe cap on and strapped it down. Then the whole mess went into the boot. OMG!!! My left foot is the bigger one, so the cooling process was excruciating. Not only did my toes go numb, they even developed "pins and needles" once everything came out of the boot. Once we removed the toe cap, I put my foot back in. WOW!!! These totally encase my foot! This is the best fit I've EVER had.

Before I left tonight, Brian heated up my footbed and put some weights on it to get it flattened back out. Tomorrow he'll trim a teeny bit off so it'll fit in the liner better, then we'll go through the whole process again with the right one. I can't wait to get it straightened out tomorrow night and give them a try.

 

[SnowHot]

VG I'm so excited for you. I think you're going to love these liners.
As for the molding pain and agony.......that's kinda normal. I may have been smiling in my boot fitting pics, but I really wanted to scream.
Can't wait until we get to hear how you love them after you ski in them.
Now, where's my popcorn?

 

[volklgirl]

So here's today's update......

My right footbed was actually quite a bit longer then the left one. Hmmmm. Brian trimmed it down to the length of the other one and we went through the molding process again. Ugh. Once again the right one developed a fold under the ankle bone. WTF?! Then we added a bit of padding stuck on my leg just under the ankle bone and tried it again with much more success. The molding on the left one went pretty smoothly this time too. Then we gave them both a quick low reheat job while I got the rest of my ski gear on and I went off to ski them in.

I only managed about 45 minutes because my left big toe was smashed into the end of the boot! It felt OK on the chair but once I tried to ski on it, I couldn't even straighten it out all the way. I think maybe the liner is pushing me forward just a bit. If we can get my big toe some room, the left one will rock!!! On the other foot, though, I found that the mold started out well then it felt like it shrank as it cooled leaving way too much space behind my Achilles tendon and some space around the ankle bone. Argh.

So, am I married to them yet? No. As someone else said, I think extensive marriage counseling is in order (I'm just going to think of this as a very long engagement!). Do I think this might work? Yes. I found a very distinct jump in boot/ski responsiveness with these liners. On the left foot, at least, even the slightest twitch of my foot was transmitted directly to the ski. I finally have a short turn for the first time in....well.....AGES!

 

[Jerez]

I got zip fits by internet and Sven Coomer, the man who invented them, helped me do my fitting myself. It was relatively easy. I also got the zipfits that lace up inside and are slightly lower volume. He was amazingly patient and helpful and now i am in heaven. I have boots that not only don't hurt but actually are COMFORTABLE and yet are very tight, even a race fit.

You should write to him (email on the website).

One of the best things i ever did was purchase the hot gear bag. now my boots soft and easy to get into and are toasty warm every time i put them on and they remold perfectly every time i wear them. It's the best.

Did the person helping you fit them heat the boot too? This is very important. The zip fit molds to the plastic, but the plastic has to be hot too to mold to the liners and to get the outside of the liner to mold properly.

Don't give up on them. once it works, you'll never go back and they can be transfered from boot to boot.

 

[Jerez]

PS: strongly recommend you do it yourself rather than the trainee boot guy. I heated my boots over steaming water on thes stove and the liners with a hair dryer. it worked just fine and then you can tweak it over and over till you get it right.

PM me if you want more info

 

[volklgirl]

I set out on Friday night to continue the process of "skiing in" the liners. However, before I could even make one run, a snowboarder blind-sided me, driving me into a (very fortunately padded) lift/snowgun power box and water spigot mad:.Thinking I only had a pulled muscle, I mosied around for about 1 1/2 hours, feeling out the liners. I think 1 more day on the left one will have it feeling great , while the molding stuff on the right one seems to have settled down around the heel instead of around the ankle :(. I believe another molding is in order for the right one, once I'm feeling up to being in boots and on skis again.

 

[volklgirl]

Zip Fit liners ROCK!

So, my leg has finally healed enough to get more than six runs in and I'm finding that I LOVE these liners!!

Here's the good stuff:

• The fit is the best I've ever had!
• Every bit of gap behind my super-skinny Achilles tendon is gone.
• Heel hold down is awesome.
• My Lange 100s are now considerably more stiff than with the stock liner.
• The fit is such that EVERY twitch of the ankle or foot is transmitted directly and immediately to the ski.....Wow!
• I now have short turns for the first time in, well, forever.
• Dealing with Lou was quite nice and he really appears to know his stuff.

Here's the not-so-good stuff:

• Molding the liners can be a serious pain.
• It takes several days of significant pain to break them in, even after the initial molding.
• Forefoot fit is pretty snug, even after using the toe caps during molding.
• The fit is such that EVERY twitch of the ankle or foot is transmitted directly and immediately to the ski.....all the extraneous movements that have been happening with the too loose boots now result in the skis doing some very weird and unexpected things! It's going to be a couple of days before I get that under control, I think
• Getting toe warmers into and out of the toe box SUCKS!

So, my overal rating is: 4 1/2

 

[Sheena]

Thanks for writing this up VG! I am seriously considering getting custom liners. I have started having problems with my heel not fitting snugly in the boot, and it often lifts slightly out of the boot - not the funniest feeling when on something ungroomed or a little steeper.

I may have to make a trip to somewhere to find a good bootfitter as I don't trust myself to do the molding, etc myself.

Oh, btw, was the ducktape around the heels on the old liners to help the heel stay put?

 

[volklgirl]

Ummm...sort of. Actually, the old right liner has 2 layers of "saddle pad", that wraps around the achilles tendon above the heel and then around the back of the ankle bones, filling in the space above and around the heel to keep it locked down. The duct tape merely kept the the edges of the saddle pads from rolling up and peeling off when I had to remove the liners.

If you're really only having issues with your heel/ankle area, I highly recommend the Zip Fit liners.

 

[Jerez]

Hot gear bag

Get a hot gear bag. You won't regret it. Makes putting on your boots something to look forward to. No kidding. I think someone had some for sale at Epic.com

 

[volklgirl]

The latest update on the liners:

I purchased the Hot Gear bag and couldn't be happier!! Toasty warm boots with liners that are soft enough to remold themselves each time is a God send. The liners are also quite warm on their own.

My continuing problem with them, though, is that the liners are a bit short lasted. At first I thought maybe the ZipFits had thicker padding in the toe box than the stock liners, but then I checked them bottom-to-bottom against the stock liners, and there's about 1/8-1/4" difference. With a 1 finger shell fit, that's enough difference in the liner to have my left big toe crammed in there very tightly. No sign of a bruised nail bed yet, but I've been keeping that nail really, really short and switching out to the stock liners any time it starts to get really tender.

Other than that, I'm still very, very happy with these liners!!

 

[volklgirl]

Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!! LOVE at last!!

A discussion with the boot guys on Epic illuminated the fact that the missing toe room in this shell/liner combination was probably hiding out behind my heel as the shell is very curvy and deeply contoured in the heel pocket while the ZipFits are very straight along the back seam.

Examination of the boots and liners revealed that the heel lifts that are attached to my foot boards (under the liners) prevented the ZipFits from sliding back into that heel pocket even a little. So, out came the heel lifts, and the shells and liners got reheated and remolded.

The next day, the toe room issue was gone, but now I had other problems. Removal of the heel lifts left me with heel slide, heel lift, cramped calves, quad burn, and the feeling that the fronts of my skis were totally missing.

After 4 days of fighting with this, the light bulb clicked on and a possible solution popped into my head! What if I reinstalled the heel lifts inside the liner, under the foot bed????

So, apart it all comes again, then another night of reheating and remolding, followed by the test today.....

Eureka!!!

Stiff, responsive boots with a perfect fit!! I couldn't be happier after skiing for 2 1/2 hours non-stop today. Even at 8 degrees outside, my toes never got cold and the boots remained perfect! Every agonizing minute of this was suddenly totally worth it!!!