Skate tongue? Leather options? Let's discuss boots while I ponder order options

[Query]

What you are saying makes complete sense.

I agree Jackson's website for rapid customs

  https://jacksonultima.com/pages/custom

makes it sound like the "wide" last is wider if you order "Wide" - though it is obvious they do taper to the back.

You could try thinner insoles, but thick enough to avoid damaging your feet, but I suspect you have already tried that.

What tstop4me said:

If you ordered Rapid Custom, I assume you went to a Jackson authorized tech.  Is that correct?  If so, the tech is responsible for the measurements, tracings, and scans [if your tech has the Jackson scanner; the scanner gave wrong results for me].  And Jackson is responsible for proper execution.  If they don't fit, I would expect a new pair that does or a refund.

Did you in fact go to a fitter Jackson recommended? If so, they should have realized the boots couldn't fit you, and if they sent properly done foot tracings and foot bottom moldings to Jackson, the factory should have realized that too, IMO. It usually works best if you are extremely polite and patient with manufacturers, but if all else fails, I suppose you can mention that you are posting your experience to many figure and hockey skating Internet forums. Only as a last resort consider contacting the BBB, the county and state consumer protection agencies, and state attorney general's office consumer protection department.

I suspect Harlick or Avanta could make custom boots that fit if you use their fitter, perhaps for less than you spend on lessons and ice time.

In the mean time, boots that are a bit too large can work, if you cut your own foam insoles (I've used a camping pad) to snugly fit the bottom, sides, and maybe back of your feet - but oversized boots are heavy and a bit clumsy.

[AlbaNY]

Nate, a quick read of all that made me think of my experience with Superfeet.  For a while I took them out of my Harlicks, because I needed that extra room (and btw the interior description of the Jacksons has me appreciating Harlick even more!)
Eventually I was able to put them back in happily.  They are the yellow, I believe?  They came from the original boot owner.

With my next pair, for inlines, I tried the hockey Superfeet for the additional thickness since the boots are at least half a size too large per my fitting and current pair.  (I wanted to use thin cotton socks for the inlines though, so it works.)  They really had my arches aching and unhappy for the first hours in them!  The hockey variety are shaped differently, for sure, and the darned things are kind of expensive to just get and hope for the best.  I have another set that I forget the name of, but still Superfeet.  I didn't cut and try those yet though.  They looked too wide in the heel cup as I recall? 
Some of the arch pain was alleviated by the newly replaced tongue foam compressing a little, thankfully. 

I love Harlicks, but the wait time is pretty brutal.  My own customs are supposed to be completed in December so that I can get them while back in the states.  So, that's over a year if the deadline is even met.  Bummer.

Oh, for the new pair I'm supposed to get custom Sidas insoles.  I hope they are comfortable and wonderful for me.  The fitter seemed very sold on them.

[Nate]

I texted my pro and will see what he says about them modifying the boot or exchanging for a full custom.

EDIT:  He will look at them and see what he can do when he's back in the shop later this month.


If I weren't trying to get a MIF and FS test done before I had this operation, I'd have just gone with Harlick Customs.  But, I had a timetable.  That has all blown up, of course, but I can't control all the variables, #LaughingIronically

[tstop4me]

I've had the Rapid Custom Jacksons for a couple of months and have worn them about 25 minutes... most of which spent heat molding them.  I doubt I will ever skate a session on them.

The footbed on the M and Wide are literally identical, so I have the same issue where the footbed isn't wide enough for my feet resulting in my being completely unable to get a balanced mounting with them, because it isn't "actually wide enough" for my foot.  All they do is add a little more room accommodation in the upper, but it literally doesn't matter if the footbed is still too narrow for the foot of the person that has to wear them.

Practically speaking, they just send me the same "too narrow" boot and stamped it with a W instead of an M.  Waste of money.

If I had known that, I wouldn't have bothered.  I'd have just paid the $2-2.5K or so to fly out to Harlick and have them measure and build me a pair.

The back of the arch (before the heel) of the footbed for my SP-Teri boots is a whole quarter of an inch wider than the Wide Jacksons, which is literally identical in width to the Medium Width Jacksons.

And the heel is equally as narrow, so if I were to try to force myself to wear them, heel bumps and Achilles Tendonitis is probably a guarantee.

I re-read your above post.

* Why did you wait a couple of months before trying on your new boots?  Generally, if there's a problem, you have a stronger case if you report the problem right away.

* Something's amiss if you previously had an M, ordered a W, and the footbeds are identical widths.  When Jackson collapsed individual widths into dual widths, M was supposed to cover A & B (an A footbed with uppers heat-moldable to accommodate a B); and W was supposed to cover C & D (a C footbed with uppers heat-moldable to cover a D).  See:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT9ifFnxKOY.

* What other changes did you need that required a Rapid Custom over a stock, because stock is available in M and W?  With stock boots on the Elite last, the heel is one width narrower than the ball.  You typically go with Rapid Custom if the heel needs to be two or more widths narrower than the ball.

[tstop4me]

I texted my pro and will see what he says about them modifying the boot or exchanging for a full custom.

EDIT:  He will look at them and see what he can do when he's back in the shop later this month.


If I weren't trying to get a MIF and FS test done before I had this operation, I'd have just gone with Harlick Customs.  But, I had a timetable.  That has all blown up, of course, but I can't control all the variables, #LaughingIronically

(a) Is your tech indeed a Jackson authorized tech?  If your boots don't fit, then either (1) your tech messed up, (2) Jackson messed up, or (3) both your tech and Jackson messed up.  One grey area is your need for corrective insoles.  But it's really the tech's responsibility to sort all this out.  Techs (like mine) who do a large volume of business with Jackson have more clout when it comes to make-overs or refunds.

(b) Did Jackson rely on the Jackson scanner?  If so, I can tell you that the Jackson scanner gave wrong results for me (I don't think it's a good design; and I think I know why it gave the wrong results for me.), and I decided to go with the sizing of the Jacksons I was currently wearing instead.  But Jackson is responsible for the accuracy of their scanner, if your tech used one.

(c) Jackson's been in a bit of a mess.  My tech told me that several of their most experienced senior managers died within the last couple of years.  And Jackson's been bought up by CCM (or their parent holding company); so lots of the usual organizational flux surrounding integration into a large conglomerate.

(d) Harlick is not immune to screw-ups either.  For many years, my coach has sworn by custom Harlicks for her advanced skaters (which I'm not).  She's worn them for decades, since she was a competitive and show skater.  But even before the pandemic, she had three skaters with messed up orders.  Two skaters could wait, so Harlick made new ones from scratch.  The third couldn't wait, so she got a refund, and bought a stock Riedell. 

Along with supply-chain issues brought on by the pandemic, some of the mainstream boot companies have been plagued with experienced old-timers retiring or dying off.

ETA:  One advantage of custom Harlick, if you can tolerate the long lead time, is that AFAICT they're the only boot maker that will handle prescription orthotics and custom boots as an integrated system.

[Query]

(a)Did Jackson rely on the Jackson scanner?  If so, I can tell you that the Jackson scanner gave wrong results for me (I don't think it's a good design; and I think I know why it gave the wrong results for me.)

Could you elaborate on what is wrong with it, and what it did wrong for you?

BTW, does it do laser shape profiling, or does it try to estimate the foot shape from a finite set of projected camera views?

It would be wonderful if you could travel to the factory, be fit there, wait while the boots are manufactured, and check the fit, preferably on an in-factory ice rink, and have final adjusted made while there, all in the same day. But no one seems to do that.

Maybe one of you engineering folks could figure out a way to make that work. I bet you could get a lot of business.

Or make a kit that lets you create your own perfect fitting boots. I envision their making preliminary slightly oversized boots that otherwise match your measurements. You lace the boots up. Then you pour in a liquid foaming agent, which hardens, matching your feet exactly. Unlace, then cut the foam along the tongue, so you can take your feet out.

However, the lady I corresponded with who had a podiatrist do a laser scan of her feet, said that the podiatrist modified the scanned shape to match the way he felt the boots should reshape her feet, before sending the results on to a custom last maker. That was something he often did for other types of custom shoe. That implies that using a profiler or scanner, no matter how well designed, isn't always enough to produce good results for everyone, even if the boot maker manages to match the desired 3D shape. So my foam matching concept couldn't always work perfectly either.

[Nate]

I re-read your above post.

* Why did you wait a couple of months before trying on your new boots?

I've had the boots over 2 months and the tech was on vacation for about 5 weeks of that.  He knew I couldn't stake in the boots and we were making adjustments to see if we could get them to work.  That's also why I didn't post a follow up on this topic until I made a final determination ;-)

* Something's amiss if you previously had an M, ordered a W, and the footbeds are identical widths.

Already seen.  It's kind of illustrating the issue I'm having.

If you are sized for D width, you get a skate that is practically C width, perhaps with a little more room to accommodate a larger foot circumference, but the footbed width - the base of the skate that needs to support the foot so that you can mount blades and actually be balanced in the skate - is still C width.  This is likely the same width of what used to be (and probably still is) a Medium Width Elite boot.  With a C width footbed, my foot volume simply runs up the side of the boot - usually in the arch area - since there isn't enough surface area for your foot to sit [mostly] level on the footbed itself.  In essence, your feet are biomechanically tilted inside of the boot, which is why it will always fall out for me when I stand on them.  It doesn't matter how far outside I mount the blade.

You cannot feel this when wearing the boots without blades, or when heat molding, because of the amount of surface area contact the sole has with the ground.  It only becomes [VERY immediately] obvious when they have to support you with blades mounted.  The problem isn't even noticeable until after you've drilled holes and temp-mounted a blade to them.

* What other changes did you need that required a Rapid Custom over a stock, because stock is available in M and W?  With stock boots on the Elite last, the heel is one width narrower than the ball.  You typically go with Rapid Custom if the heel needs to be two or more widths narrower than the ball.

Split sizing.  You cannot get that with stock boots.  And this is not an option with boots like Edea, Risport, etc. so my options are expected limited as a result of this.

[Nate]

(a) Is your tech indeed a Jackson authorized tech?

Yes.  I had the sizing double checked by two other Pros, so that is not at issue.  Like I said, as long as I don't have to stand on the boots with blades mounted, the sizing is fine.  It only becomes an issue when I have to skate on them, because my foot is running up the boot due to the narrow footbed.

(b) Did Jackson rely on the Jackson scanner?

No one around here uses that.

(d) Harlick is not immune to screw-ups either.  For many years, my coach has sworn by custom Harlicks for her advanced skaters (which I'm not).  She's worn them for decades, since she was a competitive and show skater.  But even before the pandemic, she had three skaters with messed up orders.  Two skaters could wait, so Harlick made new ones from scratch.  The third couldn't wait, so she got a refund, and bought a stock Riedell. 

That's fine.  As long as I can get the Teri's to sort of work, I will at least have a somewhat usable backup that hopefully won't kill me for days after I skate in them, and I'll be able to communicate with the company and ship the skates back and forth for adjustments or any modifications/fixes that are needed.  As long as I can communicate with the company directly, that would be fine.  And I don't mind flying out there to get fitted at the factory.

Waiting a months for boots seems like a small price to pay.

[tstop4me]

Could you elaborate on what is wrong with it, and what it did wrong for you?

BTW, does it do laser shape profiling, or does it try to estimate the foot shape from a finite set of projected camera views?

I didn't have time to dig into the details of the scanner.  It's a device that attaches to an iPad that the tech holds while walking around viewing my feet.  I don't know whether it's a laser scanner, or works just from imaging.  I didn't pursue further details because the scanning system per se is not what's flawed.

During the scanning, I was seated with my feet resting on a glass plate angled ~45 deg from the plane of the floor.  That's the flaw.  The scan is done with the feet essentially in a non-weight-bearing position only.

Jackson should know better.  Back in 2014, I was fitted for Jacksons the old-fashioned way.  Multiple measurements were made of my feet; and the peripheries of my feet were traced.  But two sets of measurements and tracings were made according to Jackson's protocol:  one set while I was sitting (non-weight-bearing); and a second set while I was standing (weight-bearing).

When I was younger, I had normal arches.  But I've long since had flat feet due to fallen arches.  So the size (particularly width at the ball) and shape of my feet vary significantly between non-weight-bearing and weight-bearing configurations:  the arches flatten, the balls widen, and the heels are relatively narrow.

When my feet were fitted the old-fashioned way, the tech wasn't sure whether a stock boot would fit, or a Rapid Custom would be needed to accommodate the difference in width between ball and heel.  He sent the measurements and tracings to Jackson; they decided a stock 8W would fit.  And it did, with slight punching out of the front of the toebox.  Good heel lock, no cramping or pinching.

I went for new boots at the end of 2022.  I wanted my feet to be scanned in case my feet had changed, and a Rapid Custom might be called for.  The scanner results gave the length of 8, ball width B, normal arches, and normal heel, which would be a 8M.  No way would that fit.  So I instructed the tech to order 8W.  Again, with slight punching out of the front of the toebox, the fit is fine.

[tstop4me]

However, the lady I corresponded with who had a podiatrist do a laser scan of her feet, said that the podiatrist modified the scanned shape to match the way he felt the boots should reshape her feet, before sending the results on to a custom last maker. That was something he often did for other types of custom shoe. That implies that using a profiler or scanner, no matter how well designed, isn't always enough to produce good results for everyone, even if the boot maker manages to match the desired 3D shape. So my foam matching concept couldn't always work perfectly either.

My tech does something similar when he does foot tracings.  He told me that when he first started out, his aim was to do as accurate tracings as possible.  But after a while, he learned that, depending on the manufacturer, the boots would be a bit too big or a bit too small.  So he then learned to skew the pencil in or out, depending on the boot manufacturer.

Even with laser scanning technology, proper fitting is not straightforward, for some basic reasons.  It's not the fit when the boots are new and the feet are stationary that are important; it's the fit when the boots are broken-in and the feet are skating.  So either you need tight control of materials and manufacturing, along with an accurate predictive modelling algorithm ... or proper fitting remains a bit of an art and a lot of luck.

[tstop4me]

That's fine.  As long as I can get the Teri's to sort of work, I will at least have a somewhat usable backup that hopefully won't kill me for days after I skate in them, and I'll be able to communicate with the company and ship the skates back and forth for adjustments or any modifications/fixes that are needed.  As long as I can communicate with the company directly, that would be fine.  And I don't mind flying out there to get fitted at the factory.

Waiting a months for boots seems like a small price to pay.

<<Emphasis added>>  In another forum, skaters have reported recent delivery times for custom Harlicks in excess of a year.  One skater in June received an estimate of 15 months. 

[Nate]

<<Emphasis added>>  In another forum, skaters have reported recent delivery times for custom Harlicks in excess of a year.  One skater in June received an estimate of 15 months.

I'm willing to wait 15 months.  I don't mind paying to expedite, either.

The Superfeet didn't work in either boot, so I'm sending them back.  The Arch is a bit too high for me.  However, the Currex work pretty nice in my stock SP Teri's so I'm going to see if I can adjust the mount, and just deal with those until I get the Harlick's in.  I can spin well in them and jumps were fine.  I just need the right blade moved out a tiny bit and I should be good to go until I get new boots in.

I'm super indifferent to the long delivery times.  There is no other option for me, so I can't really feel any negative sentiment towards that :-P

I don't really want any boots from manufacturers I cannot work directly with.  There is only so much a pro can do when it comes to that stuff.

[AlbaNY]

Nate, I wouldn't necessarily try to expedite based on what I was told.  At the fitting it was explained that this wouldn't reliably cut off much time since anyone who expedites just has their boots placed at the top of the line at each production step... and not to bother.  I suppose a lot of people try the expedite option?

I did actually ask about expediting it later, directly with Harlick in May, and the best that could be done was to assure mine are ready in December.  That puts it at 13 or 14 months?

Like you, I'm totally willing to wait though.  It's good you can work with the SP Teris.  I don't actually have any real need for a custom pair, since I squeeze into or work with whatever the eBay gods will me.     Properly fitting, suitable stiffness, and initially more comfortable boots would have made my feet a lot happier though. 

[Nate]

Graf's national distributor (basically the equivalent of what SkatesUS is for Edea) is only a couple of hours away, and the company has been surprisingly responsive in answering all of my questions. They got him to reach out to me. I'm scheduling an appointment to go in and try some on, but I'm only buying full customs. They have a video of Felicia Zhang getting fitted. If they can make customs that work for her feet... mine will be a cakewalk.


It's like 12 weeks for full customs, so they'd be arriving around when I am getting back on the ice. I think I'd need to buy a longer blade for them, though... I'll probably get an Apex Elite, for better edge life.


They're lighter than Harlick, which is probably not a bad thing given my history. That being said, my camel looked amazing with those heavy AF SP-Teri's and I didn't really feel the weight.


If the Jackson's cannot be salvaged, I will exchange for Edea Piano, take only the boots without mounting or molding them and sell at a slight discount to recoup 80%+ of the costs...or donate to a higher level skaters at the university who needs economic aid.
 
For the moment, I've put my Pinnacles back on the Risports and will just limit my jumping. Hate those blades. They're as tall as Mt. Everest.but they were the easiest to mount. Same holes, so I don't have to pay $40+ to have a Pro do it.

[Isk8NYC]

I wear Graf Edmonton Specials - the skate tech got them for a bargain price when they were being discontinued.  The insole isn't anything to write home about - thin with no arch support.  The boot took a little getting used to because the forward-bending support is much less than what I was wearing, but I could bend my knees/ankles without strain.  The side support is awesome - no wobbling.  The back of the boot is cut down sufficiently to allow foot pointing, but I've had lower backs on other brands.  The heel cup is deeper than my allegedly-custom Harlicks.

[Nate]

I wear Graf Edmonton Specials - the skate tech got them for a bargain price when they were being discontinued.  The insole isn't anything to write home about - thin with no arch support.  The boot took a little getting used to because the forward-bending support is much less than what I was wearing, but I could bend my knees/ankles without strain.  The side support is awesome - no wobbling.  The back of the boot is cut down sufficiently to allow foot pointing, but I've had lower backs on other brands.  The heel cup is deeper than my allegedly-custom Harlicks.

Yea, I seen some of the Edmonton Special Classics on super sale at some retailers, but they only had 6L in men's sizing.  Otherwise, I would have ordered just in case I could stumble upon a miracle, since I could just send them back if they didn't fit.

[Query]

During the scanning, I was seated with my feet resting on a glass plate angled ~45 deg from the plane of the floor.  That's the flaw.  The scan is done with the feet essentially in a non-weight-bearing position only.

I think it's a little more complicated. Many people feel pain, possibly indicative of damage, when their bare feet are bearing weight flat on the floor. That's the reason people many, perhaps most, people want insoles or orthotics in their shoes and boots.

Most of the people who go to podiatrists are quite possibly NOT comfortable in default configurations, and need insoles or orthotics that cause their feet NOT to collapse to natural full weight bearing configuration.

Jackson must be trying to eliminate those peoples' problem by making you non-weight bearing with, I presume, feet on a flat surface.

I personally feel quite comfortable in bare feet on floors, so I want to test in full weight bearing mode.

Some fitters compromise, and have your feet bear some weigh - e.g., in sitting position.

But realistically, I think the way you should test should depend on your feet and body, and that there is no good way to do it for everyone.

[Query]

I was given a pair of Graf Edmonton Specials, because a charity I was associated with received them as a donation. I guess they were of a size and stiffness that none of the people the charity served could use, so they were a fair number of years old.

One of the heels fell apart after a few months of use. I started looking online, and found that was a problem many people had reported.

Basically, the heels were created out of many layers of leather glued together, possibly with a base layer of wood.

I called Graf. They told me the boots were defective, or that I had screwed the blades on incorrectly. I wanted to replicate their glue to put it back together - but not only was the glue toxic and carcinogenic, but it had to be set in a high temperature controlled oven. Not the sort of thing you do at home.

I considered using Shoe Goo, but Graf wasn't willing to give any advice on it. I don't know if it is strong enough.

Graf reluctantly suggested I could bolt the heel together. (I guess I would have had to drill an indentation inside the boot, or the insole, so the the of the bolt wouldn't press against my foot.) I never got around to doing this, but found someone online who said they had done it, and that it had worked.

(Edmonton Specials are designed for quads. Way more than I needed - I was mostly doing Ice Dance.)

So you have one bad review from me. However, if other people are happy with them, that is good.

I will say that the Graf Blades, which I didn't use, seem to have a potential problem, last I looked. I think the mounting holes were NOT countersunk - which might make it difficult to accurately position the blades on the boot, and might make the mounting position unstable. But that isn't from experience, just a guess from a non-expert.

[Query]

from tstop4me:
(a) Is your tech indeed a Jackson authorized tech?

Yes.

Perhaps you should revisit talking to the Jackson factory again. Again, being very polite. It would be fairly unusual for custom boot maker not to back up their authorized techs. Though, as I said, I'm not sure "rapid custom" boots really are custom - it sounds like they are just heat molded.

CC'ing up the corporate ladder is not necessarily a bad sign.

BTW, talking to the pro you chose is NOT the same as talking to the factory. I think you have established that the pro was not very good, even if they are a Jackson authorized tech.

If Jackson is still reluctant, you could ask whether your being willing to travel to and from the Jackson factory would help. Obviously that's a cost. But Jackson really ought to back the boots up, and should be willing to refund your price, or make you a new pair of boots that do fit, one way or another. They have at least in the past been a very reputable boot maker.

[Nate]

Rapid Customs are not Custom in that they are not built to tracings and skater specific measurements.  They're Rapid Custom because that's the only way you can get a pair of boots where one boot is a half size smaller than the other.  Stock Books don't ship with split sizing.  The Pro wanted at least Rapid Custom to eliminate the risk of heel slippage that may be causing issues in the heel.

As for Jackson, they don't deal with customers directly so that is not an option.  I'm not going to try that again.

Graf has two fairly robust screws going through the heel of their boots so I don't think layers splitting off is going to be an issue.  Most skates screw the heels together (SP-Teri, Risport, Jackson, Graf, are all like this).

The pro is fine, and I have had the sizing rechecked by two other Pros so I know for a fact he didn't mess up there.  The last is just not great for my wider feet.  There is nothing wrong with the boots.  They just won't work for me.  There really is no one to blame.  It's just a circumstance.  I didn't establish anything, actually the opposite.  So I'm confused by the repeat attempt to scapegoat him when I have had the sizing checked by two others who that that is fine.  Rapid Custom is just two stock boots with different lengths.  Nothing special.  I knew the sizing before I ever went into the shop, it's just cheaper to order through the shop because they mount for free if you order through them.  Outside of that, I would have ordered the same product myself, and so would the other two fitters I spoke to.

My situation has also evolved.  I needed boots in earlier so that I could test.  Since that is no longer on the cards due to me not being able to use them at all, my timetable has shifted; and so has my enthusiasm for "solving" issues - particularly when it's unsolvable without them building a whole new boot on a different last.

If the stock Graf Last feels like a good base for building a boot for my feet, the custom order will be put in immediately [on Saturday], unless by some miracle a stock boot works (their stock size is closer to the median length between my foot sizes, so that a possibility if the shape is fine).  I like the idea of two lines of support for potential issues.  Jackson only has one - and, as I've stated, there is only so much the Pro can do.  I am not contacting their factory.  That's as much as I'll say about that.

[Nate]

Stock Large/Wide Graf Edmontons actually felt kind of good and the footbed is wider and more flat than the Jackson's, which felt kind of amazing (more like a Klingbeil in fit). The heel is perfect.

I'm getting customs just to make sure they're just right ... and I have the time to wait.

[tstop4me]

I think it's a little more complicated. Many people feel pain, possibly indicative of damage, when their bare feet are bearing weight flat on the floor. That's the reason people many, perhaps most, people want insoles or orthotics in their shoes and boots.

Most of the people who go to podiatrists are quite possibly NOT comfortable in default configurations, and need insoles or orthotics that cause their feet NOT to collapse to natural full weight bearing configuration.

Jackson must be trying to eliminate those peoples' problem by making you non-weight bearing with, I presume, feet on a flat surface.

I personally feel quite comfortable in bare feet on floors, so I want to test in full weight bearing mode.

Some fitters compromise, and have your feet bear some weigh - e.g., in sitting position.

But realistically, I think the way you should test should depend on your feet and body, and that there is no good way to do it for everyone.

You should re-read what I posted above.  Before Jackson introduced their scanner, two sets of measurements and tracings were made:  one in non-weight-bearing (sitting) and one in weight-bearing (standing) position.  As I wrote, the old method got it right, the new method didn't.

The same could be done with a scanner.  I didn't see the Aura scanner.  But my tech told me that Aura takes three scans:  one with the skater sitting, one with the skater standing straight, and one with the skater standing with ankle and knee bent. 

A limited number of scans won't fully characterize the feet; and can't predict the fit with some unknown orthotic yet to be inserted.  True.  But two or more scans give a better characterization than a single non-weight-bearing scan; and will indicate arch issues that would likely need an orthotic.

[AlbaNY]

I have a little update:

A couple days ago I had an email from Harlick to get final confirmation of all the specs for the new boots!  I'm excited that they must be working on them soon.   

As for having them heat moulded and the blades mounted or when I can retrieve them that's another matter to figure out.
I feel a little bad for my current pair.  They are very stinky, but are actually usually comfortable now, and they have served me well.     (I know, I'm silly about my attachment to inanimate objects.)

[Query]

I feel a little bad for my current pair.  They are very stinky

There are ways to deodorize boots. I generally don't have that problem, because my feet don't sweat much, and maybe my sense of smell isn't very strong, but, for example, people use fungicides, vinegar, and/or baking soda. There are commercial products as well - a  lot of hockey players really get into this. Anyway, other people on this forum could help more.

I wonder if there are potential related health issues if you don't fix such problems, because the stink might indicate the presence of high levels of fungus or bacteria.

But presumably you are much more concerned with other issues, like fit.

It's wonderful that Harlick is working on the new ones!

[AlbaNY]

Query, I've tried a lot of the usual tips and products.  They still stink. 
I never got a chance to use ozone.  A skate tech said that was the only thing that works well.