Generic remarks on boot brand fit

[Query]

We keep seeing people ask whether x or y or z brand of boots will work best for them. And people keep saying that x or y or z worked best for them.

Problem is, boot makers, even custom boot makers, don't really make boots fully formed around your individual feet, nor do they do performance testing to see how your feet need to bend. They take or use a small number of measurements, add putty or equivalent to their own small number of standard lasts (foot shapes, and form and sew the boot around those lasts.

Even Klingbeil (closing soon), which has a last making lathe, cannot afford to use it much.

So, quite possibly, most people cannot be be fit well to most brands of skating boot, even custom to custom boots. (Many common foot shapes, such as those typical of most purebred Asians, fit no major brand of skate boot.)

The advice I have gotten is: Don't use what works well for your friends or coach - look at your own feet, and see how well they match the shapes of other people's boots. A good starting point is the shape of the insoles vs the shape of the bottom of your feet, and the circumference around your ankles and your mid-feet.

It's complicated. That's why people often choose to talk to expert boot technicians who work with many brands, or choose to attend those competitions which many boot makers send reps to For the most part, the reps boot makers send are pretty honest people, who will tell you whether you are a good fit for their boots.

Some people cannot afford to travel to such technicians or competitions. So there ought to be independent experts, to whom one could send a foot cast of each foot, and pictures from various angles, along with known medical issues, who would tell us which brands are mostly likely to work well, as well as whether one should first get a custom orthotic. That would help those who are too far from the other experts to figure things out.

Does anyone know anyone who does that?