Heel pain help - Alfa Free a/p/s

[Jlars13]

Hey everyone,

Hoping to find some boot fitting advice here for soft boots- I just switched over to xplore bindings and I found a pair of Alfa Free a/p/s for an insanely good price. Wore them around a little yesterday to see if I needed to throw a footbed in there (I have a couple lying around), and took them out for a spin this morning. While I’m loving the bindings and the boots for the most part, I am getting pretty bad pain on my heels. It feels more like the bone of my heel is pressing painfully against something hard than the typical “hot spot” rubbing type pain. It happens when I kick and when I raise my heel for a tele turn. Now obviously, the first thought is “there’s too much room in there, you need to lock in your heel, try some inserts, maybe heel lifts.” But here’s the weird part- it seems to get way WORSE the more material I put under my foot! I’ve tried throwing in a custom footbed on top of the stock footbed and it makes the pain far more severe. I’ve tried just the custom footbed, no help. What gives? To note, these boots are a euro 43 and I’m probably closer to a euro 42. But again, they were VERY heavily discounted and I couldn’t pass them up.

[bbense]

FWIW, I've experienced similar heel rub and the boots do break-in over time. But until that happens.

1. Consider using blister heel pads.

2. Experiment with different sock thickness.
This can make a lot of difference in my experience, even relatively small changes in sock thickness can help. If the boots are on the large size, maybe try a thin liner sock under a heavier sock.

3. You can try the rice sock or hot water bag thermoforming methods to heat the plastic in the heel to better conform to your foot shape. I'd be cautious with this approach. There's a lot of glue and plastic in these boots that might be destroyed by too much heat.

[Peter P]

I switched to the Alfa Free this season (from the Alaska XP), and definitely noticed some heel discomfort at first. I found putting band-aids on the hotspots helped a lot, as did wearing thin liner socks that gave an additional layer for the hot spot to slide against. I also found keeping the boots tighter than looser, even for non-downhill stuff helped.

I'm surprised, as a traditional size 42, that you were able to make the 43 work with these boots. I'm a traditional Euro 44, and my Alaska XPs were 44, but I wear a 43 in the Alfa Frees and I feel the fit is very similar. In fact, the sole used to build the Alaska 44 is the same size as the sole on the Free 43. It makes me wonder if your foot is moving around too much in the boot.

Anyways, I felt that this boot really started to shape to foot after a few uses, especically inside the cuff, and the comfort increased quite a bit. And I really appreciate the extra support they provide for the downhill.

[Jlars13]

FWIW, I've experienced similar heel rub and the boots do break-in over time. But until that happens.

1. Consider using blister heel pads.

2. Experiment with different sock thickness.
This can make a lot of difference in my experience, even relatively small changes in sock thickness can help. If the boots are on the large size, maybe try a thin liner sock under a heavier sock.

3. You can try the rice sock or hot water bag thermoforming methods to heat the plastic in the heel to better conform to your foot shape. I'd be cautious with this approach. There's a lot of glue and plastic in these boots that might be destroyed by too much heat.

Thank you for this, sounds like I might need to get a few more days on them. Glad to hear I’m not alone in having some degree of heel pain. I’ll try blister pads for now.

[Jlars13]

I switched to the Alfa Free this season (from the Alaska XP), and definitely noticed some heel discomfort at first. I found putting band-aids on the hotspots helped a lot, as did wearing thin liner socks that gave an additional layer for the hot spot to slide against. I also found keeping the boots tighter than looser, even for non-downhill stuff helped.

I'm surprised, as a traditional size 42, that you were able to make the 43 work with these boots. I'm a traditional Euro 44, and my Alaska XPs were 44, but I wear a 43 in the Alfa Frees and I feel the fit is very similar. In fact, the sole used to build the Alaska 44 is the same size as the sole on the Free 43. It makes me wonder if your foot is moving around too much in the boot.

Anyways, I felt that this boot really started to shape to foot after a few uses, especically inside the cuff, and the comfort increased quite a bit. And I really appreciate the extra support they provide for the downhill.

Yeah frankly I was surprised too, I almost didn’t try them on in the store. I thought I would have to double up on footbeds or something but they’re pretty close to fitting correctly around the foot. I think I’ll take your advice here and go for a thicker snowboard sock and some kind of protection on my heel for now, good to hear other people have had similar experiences with these boots and hopefully they’ll break in. Thanks!