Vapor boots

[MR.D]

Hi, I have recently upgraded my boots to a set of new 2014 vapors, they come with heat molding inserts (intuition brand), my question is seeings how I got them online, they have not been heated. Can I do this at home? If so how would I go about it? The limited info I have so far is to heat them to 120C then put my feet in them while warm. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[Gloersen]

BOS Archive

 

This guy did his homework

Intuition Method

[Horton]

@MR.D I have many pairs of vapor / strada / RS1 boots and I don't heat molded them. They work just fine the way they are. I'm sure there's going to be a chorus of people disagreeing with me but I don't think they will definitely be better after being heat molded.

 

You can heat mold them at home or you can heat mold them in a snow ski shop but there's a fair chance you're going to screw them up more than improve them.

[eddie_roberts_jr]

I'm with Horton on this one. I've done both but prefer no heat. Wear a 10.5 shoe and size 11 Vapor boots and let my feet mold them. Works great.

[slow]

I have a super narrow foot and went down a size to get a snug fit. Heat molding the liner with toe caps worked great. There was a 1/2 gap between the liner and the shell in the toe before i heat molded

[Texas6]

I'm with Horton and Eddie; I've had 3 pairs, 1 Strada, and 2 Vapors that I now keep on two different ski's. They will form to your feet just fine over time, heat molding didn't seem to accelerate that or give me a better result

[matt_b]

I have had 3 sets, Never heat molded them per Eddie and Horton. They feel great!

[wtrskior]

I've had 3 pairs. all have been heat molded in my traditional oven per the instructions that came with them.

 

I'm sure they will mold to your feet eventually, but one thing that would take too long or not at all is to get extra space in the toe box. I find the boots run a little small for me in the toes so I put a toe cap in and mold them that way. Way better fit for me.

 

only way you are going to ruin them is if you forget about them in the oven.... 5-10mins max. you can re-heat intuition liners a number of times as well.

[Horton]

@wtrskior after about 3 heat cycles intuition material starts to shrink. You can not redo as many times as you want without the liner getting short.

[wtrskior]

@horton never said you could re-heat as many times as you'd like... The intuition liners will shrink about 80% when you heat mold after the first time! That is going to take a lot of skiing in cold water and for 15min durations to get them molded to your foot. most of my season most likely.

 

BTW I was a alpine ski boot fitter in a previous life and have sat through many boot fitting seminars. To suggest that heat molding will ruin your boots is 100% wrong. Ski shops are heat molding thousands of ski boots every year.

[UWSkier]

For me, heat molding was required as the boots were slightly too short from the factory for my size 14 dogs. Heat molding with a thick sock over my toes made just enough extra room to make them perfect.

 

So I think when it comes to molding, YMMV.

[skierjp]

I've had 4 pair and never heat molded them. Actually Bill at Performance suggested not to heat mold them. They will conform to your feet within a few sets!

[ski6jones]

If you are at the large end if the size range for the boots you have then heat molding will make them more comfortable from the beginning. At least that's been my experience.