# Can you get insoles that are thinner at toe end?



## Meg27 (Feb 21, 2018)

Hi, I've just finished my third week of riding in my new Vans Ferra boots - 2 weeks last year, 1 week this year, and I'm still having problems with them. I think they are a bit too small and having paid so much for them, and only boarding 1 -2 weeks a year I'm not sure I can justify changing them just yet. So I want to try my best to try and fix them before giving up on them.

My problems are: a) Main issue - too snug around toes leading to numb painful toes. b) the part of the insole around you ankle designed to hold your heel in place (sorry I don't know the technical name!) creates a pressure point on my right ankle bone (I can sometimes just about get around this if I twist the inner a little when I put my foot in, but it's never perfect).

I've tried all sorts of things and the closest I have come to comfort is either riding without socks, which inevitably leads to cold toe problems and rubbing instead. Or without the liners, which was great for the toes but left my heal unsupported and lower down making the ankle bone pressure point even worse.

I have a theory that if my toes had less padding under them and my right heal had a little more height they would be perfect.

I just have no idea how to go about making that happen? All the insoles I can see online seem to be for boots that are too big so add padding, rather then reducing it.

Any tips? (There aren't any expert boot fitters where I am sadly). And I have had them heat moulded.

Cheers, 
Meg


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## Wiredsport (Sep 16, 2009)

Meg27 said:


> Hi, I've just finished my third week of riding in my new Vans Ferra boots - 2 weeks last year, 1 week this year, and I'm still having problems with them. I think they are a bit too small and having paid so much for them, and only boarding 1 -2 weeks a year I'm not sure I can justify changing them just yet. So I want to try my best to try and fix them before giving up on them.
> 
> My problems are: a) Main issue - too snug around toes leading to numb painful toes. b) the part of the insole around you ankle designed to hold your heel in place (sorry I don't know the technical name!) creates a pressure point on my right ankle bone (I can sometimes just about get around this if I twist the inner a little when I put my foot in, but it's never perfect).
> 
> ...


Hi Meg,

Have you had your heat fit done? Please post up your barefoot measurements (length and width) as well as the mm or cm cm size that is printed in the boots.

STOKED!


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## Meg27 (Feb 21, 2018)

Hello, yes sure, both feet are 26cm heel to toe and 105mm at the widest part.

Boots are 26cm.


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## Meg27 (Feb 21, 2018)

Oh and regarding heat fitted, I did at home twice using the rice and microwave method, and once in a boot shop.

End of season last year I has pretty happy riding with no socks - but didn't have as much luck with that this year due to cold and rubbing on ankle bone when i walked - plus it's a bit gross!


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

Just wear very thin wicking liners (hiking boot liners/nylon) and no sb socks If ur using the stock insoles cut them us if you think they will work. Take a gander at the boot faq sticky. And do whatever wiredsport says.


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## Wiredsport (Sep 16, 2009)

Meg27 said:


> Hello, yes sure, both feet are 26cm heel to toe and 105mm at the widest part.
> 
> Boots are 26cm.


Hi Meg,

105 cm is a EEE width at Mondo 260. 26 cm is Mondopoint 260 (size 8 US Mens). What boot model and size are you riding?


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## F1EA (Oct 25, 2013)

Meg27 said:


> Hi, I've just finished my third week of riding in my new Vans Ferra boots - 2 weeks last year, 1 week this year, and I'm still having problems with them. I think they are a bit too small and having paid so much for them, and only boarding 1 -2 weeks a year I'm not sure I can justify changing them just yet. So I want to try my best to try and fix them before giving up on them.
> 
> My problems are: a) Main issue - too snug around toes leading to numb painful toes. b) the part of the insole around you ankle designed to hold your heel in place (sorry I don't know the technical name!) creates a pressure point on my right ankle bone (I can sometimes just about get around this if I twist the inner a little when I put my foot in, but it's never perfect).
> 
> ...


Superfeet Blue.


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## Meg27 (Feb 21, 2018)

Wiredsport said:


> Hi Meg,
> 
> 105 cm is a EEE width at Mondo 260. 26 cm is Mondopoint 260 (size 8 US Mens). What boot model and size are you riding?


Hi, thank you for your help. All I know is that my boots are VANS WOMENS FERRA HANA BEAMAN SNOWBOARD BOOTS 2017 - which say: US 9.5, UK 7, EUR 40.5, CM26.

Does that help?


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## BurtonAvenger (Aug 14, 2007)

Meg27 said:


> Hi, I've just finished my third week of riding in my new Vans Ferra boots - 2 weeks last year, 1 week this year, and I'm still having problems with them. I think they are a bit too small and having paid so much for them, and only boarding 1 -2 weeks a year I'm not sure I can justify changing them just yet. So I want to try my best to try and fix them before giving up on them.
> 
> My problems are: a) Main issue - too snug around toes leading to numb painful toes. b) the part of the insole around you ankle designed to hold your heel in place (sorry I don't know the technical name!) creates a pressure point on my right ankle bone (I can sometimes just about get around this if I twist the inner a little when I put my foot in, but it's never perfect).
> 
> ...


This is a pretty common problem. So lets get down to the basics here since you'll have to DIY it to fix it. 

Are you handy? Yes? Awesome. No, fuck lets find someone that is. 

Do you have a work station mounted belt sander available? Yes? Awesome. No, Time to find someone that does. 

The first thing you need to do is find the footbed that works for you, I'll leave that up to you because frankly I'm not about to dive into that mess. Once you have that, you need to take it the belt sander. Turn on the sander, and take the footbed and lay it flat on the belt while it's running and grind down the toe area from the bottom up. Do this in quick bursts, not for long periods of time, wear eye protection as this thing is going to shoot foam everywhere. It may take you a few swipes across the belt sander till you get it to where you want it, but in the mean time take a little off and then put it back in the boot and see if that decreases the volume to where you need it. This is going to be the best method to get this fixed. 

Now for the ankle bone this could be a few things. 

1. It could be that the internal j bars of the heel hold are too low. As mentioned you would need a shim to raise you up. These could solve the problem. HEEL LIFTS
You just slip this in under the footbed in the liner and it elevates you. I personally think these wedges are too big though for most snowboard boots and found that I rarely ever used these for snowboarders just skiers. Which means you might need a smaller shim, in that instance I recommend using a Bontex board like these. Bontex Shims (pair) What I would do in this situation is cut the bontex board in half right before it starts to widen out for the forefoot. Slip it in under the insole and boom you have a small shim that elevates you. Sometimes you have to double these up. 

2. A little more extreme and a little more DIY. You have to build a bridge around the ankle bone with some C Bars listed here: Boot Fitting Foam C-Pads (2pr) Now normally most people use C bars to tighten up the ankle, but if you use these to pad out the liner from the shell around the one ankle bone it can create a space so that it's not getting that hot spot. What you do is take the liner out of the boot, put it on your foot, take a sharpie/lipstick/chalk or whatever and mark where your ankle bone is and whether the pressure point is on the top/side/bottom of the ankle. Then you apply the foam with duct tape instead of peeling off the adhesive to make sure it's on the right spot and put it back in the boot and try the boot on to see if that's alleviating the pressure point. If it's not you move it till it is or you double it up. Now this will change the fit of the boot a little bit and you want to make sure you're not over doing it. Also if the foam isn't the right thickness, grab a dremel with the sander bit and mill it down a little. Once again this is for people that are handy and it won't destroy the liner as you can always peel it back off. 

3. The super extreme fix and I do not recommend this for 99% of people that have no clue what they're doing with a DIY project, but as you have no fitter this might work. You're going to have to cut the liner. So take the liner out of the boot again, put it on your foot again, and mark the spot where it's giving you the hot spot. Then at that point you will take a razor knife and make an X incision in it. This will cause the foam to buckle out right at that point. Now the thing to note is that this isn't a giant X it's small and should only be slightly wider than the actual hot spot on your ankle. If after doing this x incision the liner is still giving you issues, you can actually remove the foam from this area. Once again I can't stress enough that I don't think this is something most people need to do, but in extreme cases it's a step by step procedure to get it done. Now by removing the foam I mean, you literally rip it out of the incision, you want it to be no bigger than the hot spot area effect and there might be other things you need to do after this. Such as getting a C bar like listed above and then trimming it down to a small crescent and putting it around the incision to pad out the side of it, or another thing is to cover it with duct tape so as to seal it back up. ONCE AGAIN I'M STRESSING THIS IS FOR VERY EXTREME CASES AND SHOULD BE A LAST RESORT.


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## Wiredsport (Sep 16, 2009)

Meg27 said:


> Hi, thank you for your help. All I know is that my boots are VANS WOMENS FERRA HANA BEAMAN SNOWBOARD BOOTS 2017 - which say: US 9.5, UK 7, EUR 40.5, CM26.
> 
> Does that help?


Yes, that does help. You have a 26 cm foot (260 mm). Your boot is designed for a foot of that length. But...women's boots are designed around a B (some C) width. Your EEE foot is Five width sizes larger than that. We should confirm your measurements but if this is all correct we will need to make some changes .

Please post up pictures of your feet being measured. Both feet, length and width please.

STOKED!


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## 161210 (Feb 9, 2018)

So what I do to get men's boots to fit my female feet is to use the superfeet women's insoles. This works pretty good for those of us with wider widths. Female feet are typically wider at the forefoot with a slimmer heel...we also have a lower calf attachment (our calf muscles are wider near the ankle than a mans). So if you have a wide width and can fit into mens or boys boots then try a womens superfeet insole...I actually use the pink ones with the extra cushioning in the forefoot...you may not be able to though so maybe try the blues. What the insoles do is the wider forefoot on the female insoles fit perfectly in the male boots forefoot and the heel cup of the insole will raise your heel in the pocket causing it to fit correctly and not be a sloppy heel. the arch support will also support and shorten your foot and make it super comfy in the boot. So if you need to adapt a men's boot to your female feet try them on with women's superfeet insoles..seriously - it works really well.
I learned this in the military way back before they figured out to provide females with women's boots - we had to make the men's boots work and alot of women with really small feet got injured often becuase of horrible bootfit...so we had to become our own bootfitters.

I also do this with hiking boots to get the better quality and selection of men's boots adapted to fit my feet perfectly...give it a try (if you have wider female feet). If you do try this with men's hiking boots though pay attention to your calf attachment...meaning you will need shorter boots..typically under 8" tall should work. This may also apply to snowboard boots...so watch the height that they come up your leg so that you have a boot that you can tighten properly (you probably don't want taller boots because anatomy).

Good luck!


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