Seattle Area Boot Fitter?

[blackgriffen_1]

Another vote here for Jim Mates, he's done two pairs for me recently in addition to countless pairs for my family. Solid guy who really knows his craft. Search "Custom Boot" for contact info, for reference he's due west of Green Lake.

[The Duke of Hurl]

+1 for Kelly Timmons. Back in the mid-nineties he basically saved me from foot surgery and resurrected my skiing career. Solid dude, prolly taught half the boot fitters in the PNW their trade. Been hard to reach the last few times I've tried though.

[jesski]

This is all reallly good info. Thanks for the recommendations. Everyone on here I'd sort of heard of except for Kelly Timmons...anyone have his/her #?

May you wake perpetually to 3' of supersolid fresh for your pm'd refferal...thx

[nriley]

I worked with Jim Mates. He is not just a boot fitter. He does stance analysis in 3 dimensions. I have had boot fittings with Martin (who was great) and a great fitter who is now gone from Bothell ski and bike (can't remember his name). Jim took several hours to work with my ski racing coach and I to get just the right fit...and now I am faster than ever with great movement and support in my boots. What else can I say? The outcome justifies the means.

[plugboots]

+ 2 Kelly Timmons: 206 547 7879

[Buke]

I'll throw in my 2 cents for Jim Mates. He made my dynafit boots go from unbearable to great over the course of a couple sessions. In the process he made custom insoles. I'll never go back to skiing without them.

I'm going to give Paul @ WC a try for a minor tweak to a pair of boots in a couple weeks. I'll try to remember to post back with a review.

[gregL]

Depends on what you need to have done. If it's simply stretching the shell in a few places and baking the liners, any of the people mentioned here can do a good job. I've had personal experience with Martin, Kelly, and Jim.

If it's touring or tele boots (anything with a bellows), or you want to launch into a full discussion of your ski style vs. your physiology, I would go with Jim Mates. 206 297 9298, but you'll need an appointment for sure, especially right now. I trust him most of all with "delicate" plastic (he punched my TLT 5 Performances at the forefoot flex point and 2 pair of F1's at the bellows with nary a trace of scorching the plastic). He also once made a custom wooden form to mold the back of my boot to match my bulging repaired achilles tendon. He'll talk your ear off about stance, balance, and muscle memory etc. etc. which I find interesting but some people may not be in the mood.

Kelly Timmons was once the Lange WC rep; he's very good at de-tuning race boots. Once did Picabo Street and Alberto Tomba's boots. 206 547 7879.

PS Mates is on the WEST slope of Phinney Ridge, or "haut" Ballard, up 65th from the Goodwill.

[PNWbrit]

Once did Picabo Street

[oftpiste]

One thing I haven't seen mentioned here is that Martin is now on the hill with a shop at crystal just off the rental shop. They also do demos out of there now. It's pretty cool to be able to drop in before you head out, have a quick punch or pad, then stop back by later if you need further attention. There's always a pretty good amount of stoke in that little shop too.

[gregL]

Once did Picabo Street

He may have done Tomba too, for all I know.

[Rockhound]

i'll plug rick at sturtavants... i mean i'm a jong, but he helped me out and punched my boots for free, even though i didn't buy em there. great fit, great service

[oftpiste]

good to hear good things about sturtevants, but sadly they ain't what they used to be.

[Buke]

Update: Paul at World Cup built insoles for my alpine boots. I've skied them once. I'm happy with them. It was interesting to hear Paul's opinion about the fully weighted insoles that Jim Mates made vs the partially weighted version that he makes. They're two different philosophies. I can't say which is right for me. Both seem to work. The next step is to create a little more volume in the boot so that my toes don't go numb. Assuming that goes well, then I would have no problem putting my full endorsement behind Paul.

[gregL]

It was interesting to hear Paul's opinion about the fully weighted insoles that Jim Mates made vs the partially weighted version that he makes.

What's the rationale behind the partially weighted footbeds?

[Dromond]

What's the rationale behind the partially weighted footbeds?

Jim did mine unweighted, actually. My feet pronate badly and collapse under weight. To get the full support the foot needs to be pretty much unweighted. The footbeds are by far the most supportive and comfortable that I have ever had. Jim fitted my alpine and touring boots. My alpine boots are working especially well now. He was great about working with me on my myriad complex boot and stance issues. Jim Mates' get's my strongest recommendation.

[Ted Striker]

What's the rationale behind the partially weighted footbeds?

Jim did mine unweighted, actually. My feet pronate badly and collapse under weight. To get the full support the foot needs to be pretty much unweighted. The footbeds are by far the most supportive and comfortable that I have ever had.

Exactly. I have basically the same foot problems, and went to a podiatrist to get regular shoe orthotic insoles. He made unweighted plaster molds of my feet and the insoles were made from them. He said that a weighted footbed will support, but not correct your foot issues.

I took the shoe orthotics to a bootfitter up in Vancouver who I like and trust, who made up a pair of footbeds for me using the standard superfoot suction/plastic bag method - but no standing. He then tweaked the footbeds using the orthotic as a guide to make the footbeds more 'corrective'. The results were great. I will never get a 'weighted' footbed again.

[gregL]

Interesting. I've had Mates do 3 sets of footbeds for me, but they've always been weighted. He measured my forefoot width for my TLT 5's unweighted, though.

[Dromond]

Interesting. I've had Mates do 3 sets of footbeds for me, but they've always been weighted. He measured my forefoot width for my TLT 5's unweighted, though.

You probably have a much more functional and stable foot. Without the orthotics my ankle practically drops to the ground. I'm exaggerating... somewhat. Let's just say I won't be taking up barefoot running any time soon. He actually shoved extra material under my foot during the molding process to make them more supportive. My feet are more stable in the boots now and I'm feeling less pressure on my knees when on hard snow.

[blackgriffen_1]

Last time I used Jim he indeed talked my ear off about everything that concerned stance, muscles, boot type, etc., but more importantly he also talked about weighted versus unweighted insoles. The way he explained it, because my feet pronate rather a lot and my arches "fall" when they're weighted, we did unweighted insoles so that I would always have the right amount of support. The quality of a boot fitter isn't in which method they use, but when they know the right method to use for the right foot.

[PNWbrit]

Just got new intuitions from Martin Rand yesterday. Very impressed. Good to be able to ski in ski out of a boot fitter.

Nice guy too.

[GeezerSteve]

I enjoy chatting with Jim about stance and other things (e.g., golf and running a small service biz). I pretty much share Jim's views about ramp angle, forward lean and stance, so maybe that's it.

[kukur9]

Another vote here for Kelly Timmons in the Wallingford neighborhood: 206 547 7879. I just got back from a great time with him talking skis and cycling while he improved the fit of my Mega Rides/liners. Thanks to those of you who posted his info before; Kelly got it done right.

[FJ62]

Bumping this ancient thread to give props to Kelly Timmons who saved my ski season.

Had awful / crippling boot pain on my right foot for nearly a decade. A few seasons ago, I bought new Fischer boots/Intuitions from a well-known fitter up at Whistler (not SureFoot) and hoped for the best. I tried to make them work to no avail-really painful, esp. on crud/chopped up snow. Just general cramping on the outside edge of my right foot. Tons of punching and mods were done, both up there and down here (Jim Mates did some tweaks and sold me some unweighted insoles, too). Still the same pain.

Anyhow, in frustration, I went to Kelly for a third opinion two months ago. He did a pretty in-depth look, tried to make a few tweaks and said that the Fischer boots weren't responding well to the punches, there was too much slop and pinching points and that, frankly, the first guy sold me boots that were too big. Kelly is a Lange guy and admits he knows the Lange plastics best. He recommended putting me in 27.5 Lange RX or RS 130s and suggested I just buy them online wherever is cheapest and not even try them on till he does his magic. I always thought my feet were too wide for Langes but he even suggested getting the narrow last as he had more plastic to work with and modify.

So, I bought a pair of RS130s at Evo for 300 bucks, took them straight to him and he did his magic, basically punching it around my feet, tweaking the stock liner (he resews some part of the toe box he doesn't like) and doing god-knows-what. For the first time in forever, I'm without boot pain. I'm also skiing better. Total price for the boots and tweaks was under $500. Could have saved a ton of time and money if I found Kelly first. He has no web presence or even email... but his phone # is still 206 547 7879.

[galibier_numero_un]

Great story, and so refreshing to read.

... Thom

[auvgeek]

After seeing many boot fitters in the Seattle-area, Martin Rand is my favorite.

I used Mates exclusively for a number of years, but I grew tired of his attitude. So much ego, and he acted like it was my fault if his fix didn't solve my pain. He also isn't great at listening if you're having tricky boot pain and have already fixed all the stance things he likes to preach about. After he ruined a pair of my shells (ground too thin and couldn't punch any more but I had moved to the east coast for grad school and it had been too long between visits for him to admit fault) and a pair of my wife's shells (which he paid for but was very grumpy about), and we decided to take our business elsewhere. I know a few other people who have stopped seeing him as well. I'm still very pleased with the (unweighted) footbeds he made me almost a decade ago, though, and I would pay him for another pair if/when these ever wear out. And I learned a lot of stance when I first started seeing him, so I am appreciative of that.

I would absolutely not see Timmons again, especially for footbeds. My younger brother and jesski (now my wife) had footbeds made by him, and neither are useable. His footbeds are very thick, very rigid, and done weighted....by standing on some ancient pillows. jesski had another pair made elsewhere, but my brother can't afford it so he went back to superfeet. Timmons had a bad ego/attitude as well. He talked trash about Mates a number of times (I hung out once while he working on my brother's boots), which I thought was pretty unprofessional. My brother's boots never fit well, and he was so annoyed by Timmon's attitude he won't go back to see if Timmon's will fix them. YMMV.

Another issue I have noticed with both Mates and Timmons is they aren't good at helping you select the proper shell. Every time I have brought a brand new shell to Mates and asked if it was the right one for me, he has said he could make it work. For example, he used a hydraulic press to make a pair of boots more upright for me when he should have just recommended boots that were more upright from the start.

While not "big names," I have had Brant at Sturdavents do good work for me and be easy to work with. A guy named Alex used to work there, too, and was great to work with but has likely moved on to bigger and better things by now (he talked about going to law school). Neither are quite as good as Martin (IMHO), but less of an attitude than Jim and Kelly. I've never personally used the guys at Evo or World Cup, so no comment there.

jesski, who used to work at Crystal finally convinced me to see Martin last year, who was awesome to work with. I took him some Lange plugs but said I'd buy whatever he thought fit me best. He had me try on a few boots, and said the plugs were the best for me. So he blew them out from 92 mm to fit my 104 mm wide feet (size 26). His attitude made a big difference when you're trying ensure the boots fit like a glove. Plus, there's nothing like being able to ski a few runs before deciding whether or not you need more room in a certain area. It always made me nervous to leave my boots to get punched/ground and just hope what I wanted (where and how much) was communicated effectively. Heard Martin is retiring, at least from Crystal. That sucks.

Just my experience.