How to measure your foot for ski and snowboard boots at home

All you need is a sheet of paper, a pen, a wall and a ruler. The number you get, in centimetres, is your Mondopoint size, the one measurement every ski boot brand and most snowboard boot brands share. It will not replace a shell check or a bootfitter, but it narrows your search to two or three sizes before you spend anything.

What you need

• A sheet of paper larger than your foot, taped to a hard floor so it cannot slide
• A pen with a fine tip
• A metric ruler or tape; if you only have inches, multiply by 2.54 (evo)
• The socks you will actually wear on the hill
• A wall to push your heel against

Peter Glenn says to measure in ski socks. Peter Glenn adds that you should do it in the afternoon or evening, when feet are largest. REI makes the same point about trying on snowboard boots: feet swell later in the day.

Length, step by step

This is the method evo, Surefoot, K2 and Peter Glenn all describe, with small differences. K2 and Peter Glenn also have you stand on the paper.

1. Stand on the paper with your heel against the wall. evo says to point your toes outward; Surefoot and Peter Glenn simply say to stand with your heel against the wall.
2. Put your weight on the foot. Standing length is the one that counts for boots.
3. Have someone else mark the tip of your longest toe. That is not always the big toe; for some people it is the second.
4. Step off. Measure in a straight line from the wall to the mark, in centimetres.
5. Repeat with the other foot.

The result is your Mondopoint. evo's example: a 26.5 cm foot is a 26.5 Mondo size. K2 points out that the same number is also written in millimetres, so 26.5 equals 265 mm.

If you measured in inches, convert before you look at any chart. A foot that measures 10 5/8 inches is 10.625 x 2.54 = 27.0 cm. A foot at 10 1/4 inches is 10.25 x 2.54 = 26.0 cm. Round to the nearest half centimetre, since boots come in half sizes.

Which foot, and how to deal with a difference

Most people have one foot slightly longer than the other. Advice differs by source:

The disagreement is about what is easier to fix. Sizing to the longer foot means the shorter foot has a little extra room, which a footbed or thicker sock handles. Sizing to the smaller foot means the longer foot may be pressed, and a fitter has to stretch the shell. For a first home measurement we would start from the longer foot, since you can always go smaller in the shell check, and then let the try-on confirm it.

Standing versus sitting

Feet get longer when you load them. GearX recommends measuring both seated (unweighted) and standing (weighted), and says arch collapse typically adds 1/4 to 1/2 cm, sometimes up to 1 cm. If the weighted length is at least 1/2 cm longer than the unweighted length, GearX suggests considering an aftermarket insole. Use the standing number for boot sizing, and treat a big gap between the two as a prompt to ask about footbeds.

Width

Length is only half of it. Surefoot notes that width and instep height matter too, and that a home measurement only narrows down the chart rows. Carv's method for width: mark the widest point of your foot on the paper (the big toe knuckle) and measure from the paper's edge to that mark. Peter Glenn says to measure the widest part of the foot while standing.

Compare the figure against last widths given in millimetres. evo (quoting bootfitter Greg Louie) puts an average last at around 100 mm, narrow from 97 mm, and wide at 102 mm and above. Peter Glenn lists 97 to 98 mm as narrow, 99 to 101 mm as medium, and 102 mm and above as wide. Read these as ways to rank boots against each other. The ski boot fit guide goes through last width and flex.

Turning your measurement into a boot size

REI notes that sizes are not uniform across brands or even between models of one brand, so a measurement is a better anchor than a sneaker size. Our snowboard boot size chart shows how each brand converts, and the ski boot size chart does the same for ski boots.

Worked example: two feet, one boot

A skier measures in ski socks, standing, on a taped sheet of paper. Left foot: 26.8 cm. Right foot: 27.2 cm. Standing width at the widest point is 10.1 cm, which she records but cannot yet map to a last, since boot widths are listed in millimetres for a specific size.

Round the longer foot to the nearest half centimetre: 27.0. Under evo's advice an intermediate-to-advanced skier looks at 27.0 or 26.5, close to or slightly smaller than the measurement. Under Jans she would start from 26.8, which also rounds to 27.0. Both routes land on the same pair of sizes, which is how it usually goes with a 4 mm difference. The tiebreak then happens in the boot: a bare-shell check with toes touching the front and a gap behind the heel of about 15 to 20 mm, as Surefoot describes, or one finger if she wants a performance fit.

Snowboard boots: what changes

Burton recommends being measured at a local snowboard shop with a tool such as the Brannock Device, and calls a fitter's check the most accurate way to find your size. For a home check, the same paper method gives you a Mondopoint to compare with each brand's chart. Burton says riders who wear a wide street shoe, "EE (in North America) or wider", may benefit from wide boots, and suggests men's size 11 (Mondo 29) or larger may want to consider them too.

REI says boots should be snug but not cramped, and it is fine for toes to just barely graze the toecap. Rear fit should be snug with little or no heel lift. Wear thin synthetic or merino socks, because bulky ones cause a sloppy stance. Burton suggests walking around the shop for at least fifteen minutes in the socks you will ride in.

Related tools

Ski boot size chartShoe size to Mondopoint, by brand Snowboard boot size chartShoe size to snowboard boot size Snowboard size calculatorBoard length and waist width for your boots