Fitting the feet

R.B. works to fit a boot to perfection.

Ron (R.B.) Bathje carefully held the ski boot’s insole up to the grinder, which instantly spun to life with a loud whirring sound that filled the shop. This was only one step in his process to contour and shape all the knobs, bones and features of an individual skier’s feet into a boot. 

When he works, he creates “little hugs and curves” for the foot to stabilize the space underneath the ankle and the heel stand. Without it, the “foot can kind of wander inside that ski boot,” R.B. said. “And that's where people keep cranking the buckles and cranking the buckles, because there's no sense of the world below.” 

R.B. said he’s been a bootfitter for a “lifetime,” spending almost 25 years perfecting his craft in the Gunnison Valley. R.B. took a year and a half off to recover from a “malfunction” in both of his lower legs. Then, Vail Resorts bought the ski area, changing his plans once again. But on Dec. 1, his business reopened its doors to customers, this time in Gunnison instead of Crested Butte. His newest shop, Real Balance 6, sits in the Main Street Mall on Hwy. 50.

He opened his first shop on Mount Crested Butte in 1997. R.B. described his “little operation” at the resort as “bumpy ride.” His business moved locations five times around the base of the resort. When he moved for a fourth time, he told his staff that “this is Real Balance 4, there ain’t going to be a Real Balance 5.” 

Forced to move again when Cristy Sports opened its snowboard shop, he kept his word. The last shop was called Real Balance 4.2. He skipped to 6 when an opportunity to reopen his business in Gunnison. 

Prior to starting the business, R.B. worked at a ski shop in the base area for 10 years. He described the first time his uncle, the only skier in the family, took him to CBMR when he was eight or nine. 

“I was blown away as a little kid for the first time on big lifts, and seeing the big mountain,” he said. “I think that's maybe when it just burrowed into me for good. I had to be a dedicated ski bum.” 

When he first started working at the ski shop in Crested Butte, he initially wanted to run ski tuning machines, because the “skis don’t talk back,” he said. But, at the last minute, the managers noticed holes in the schedule for retail.

“I was just kind of thrust into that position and a couple years later, the next thing I know, I'm on the sales floor looking at people's feet,” he said. 

He said he was scared in the beginning when they wanted him to start fitting boots, but through trial and error — and a couple of good guides and manuals — he began to take pride in his work. 

“It's complicated stuff,” he said. “But after you get over that initial fear factor, and you do a couple of fits that people are pleased with, you get to stuff a couple of ideas in your bag, and can face the next one.” 

As his skillset began to grow, he continued to experiment, test and theorize to figure out what worked best. 

When he fits customers, R.B. builds a “floor plan that features you, so you stay in control,” he said. “Your foot isn’t in control until you've built a mirror image interface, and only then does the shoe become that extension of us and the second skin.” 

Gunnison resident Dave Abbott, who originally heard about R.B. through word of mouth, had gone through as many as one or two pairs of ski boots each year trying to find a one that would work. When Abbott visited R.B.'s shop in Crested Butte, it was immediately clear that Abbott didn’t have the right boot for his foot. 

“He had a boot at the shop that worked better and got me fit into that, and I’ve been skiing in them for five years,” Abbott said. “The buckles are barely attached and the plastic is all scratched up but they still work great. I’m really excited he’s got his shop open again so I can finally buy another pair of boots.”

R.B. vacuum molded the insoles to Abbott’s feet to match the foot’s natural contour. Abbott tried on his boots again and worked with R.B. to make small adjustments until the ski boot fit perfectly. 

“His work is remarkable,” Abbott said. “He just has a gift for it, an attentiveness to it and a really deep understanding of feet and issues that affect people's feet.”

(Bella Biondini can be contacted at 970.641.1414 or bella@gunnisontimes.com.)