A biased ski boot salesman

Last Friday, as I was shopping at REI, I overheard a conversation between a shop employee and a customer that was being fitted a pair of ski boots. The salesman was complaining that European ski boot companies were unable to offer stiff boots that were wide enough to fit wider feet.

He said “European feet tend to run narrower than Americans' and that's why we can't get the products we need on this side of the pond”. How does that sound to someone like me that used to be marketing and selling ski boots for a significant portion of my career?

It meant quite simply that the sales guy, around 45 years of age, had a few biases and had little idea about what he was talking about. Let's try to see where the reality lies; stiff racing boots are used by better skiers that have someone (a tech) working on them, or get fitted by a professional boot fitter and in all instances, the boot technician is quite likely to modify the shell and/or the liner.

Proficient skiers generally want as close a contact as they can get between their foot and the shell, and will always begin with a narrow shell and make room for the foot by either grinding or heat-forming it. This is why racing boots essentially come in the narrowest size.

Now, with Caucasians representing 85% of the US skiing population (2015 industry study), chances are that feet very similar to them will be found among Austrian, German, French and Italian skiers and this debunks this salesman's grossly preconceived notions...