Boot fitting shop idea "just fits"

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 9, Issue 438, 27 May 1992, Page 7

Boot fitting shop idea "just fits"

The idea of a boot fitting speciality shop "just fits" for one of Ohakune' s latest ski entrepreneurs, Nick Riding. Nick and his partner Linley Jose are opening "Bootworks" this weekend, specialising in ski boot fitting and saies. Nick has been in the ski business for about 13 years, working as an instructor in North America in California, Nevada, British Columbia, Utah and at Whakapapa. He has worked in the ski retail business through that time, mostly in New Zealand, emerging as a boot fitting specialist. "I used to die in my boots every day so from about 13 I started working my own equipment, to make it fit."

Bootworks will be a ski shop with a difference, the main aim being to help people select the right boot for their foot, skiing ability and height and weight. A major advantage Bootworks will have, apart from Nick's already expansive fitting expertise, will be "Compu-Fit" - a computer aided boot and foot measuring system. Compu-Fit was developed by an American, Jay White, who was getting frustrated back in the 70s with not always being able to get it right in fitting someone's boot. The system uses scanners to take about 25 different measurements of the customer's foot. The operator then inputs

data such as height, weight and skier ability into the computer, which then provides a selection of boots that would suit the customer. The system has about 350 different boots in its memory. "The system lets be look inside a boot and see where it suits the foot," said Nick. It matches things like ankle position with the pivoting point in a ski boot. "That is often a big problem with people, especially children, where the boot hinges in completely the wrong place for the ankle." The process takes about 20 minutes. Once the selection is done a customer would then either buy a boot from Bootworks, or if they

did not have the particular make and model, they would be advised of where to go to get it. If they buy from Bootworks the $35 measurement fee would come off the boot price. Once the selection is made the system is

not out of tricks. It can then be used to work out the best way to modify the boot to exactly suit the foot. This can be done for a skier's existing boot. That is, they could go to Bootworks and have their foot scanned, and see if it matches

their own boot. If it is within cooee, Nick can then work out the best way to adapt it to get the best out of it. So it may not always be necessary to go out and buy new boots if a skier has problems. The wizzardry doesn't stop there -

the machine can then take all the data that was inputted and give a selection of skis that would suit, from a data base of about 65 skis for progressive intermediates and upwards. The computer has in its memory all the flex patterns of the ski.