Tech Boot Repair

Lou Dawson and the TGR forums might both be rather interested in a photo of a broken toe insert.

Boot manufacturers have a lot on the line with their insert metallurgy; there's a lot of mechanical stress on those little guys.

CAST touring in Colorado have the parts & the know-how to install new inserts. Their main interest in this area is in retro-fitting tech inserts into boots that never had them, but I suspect they will be able to do what you need. It costs about $170.
OOps, just read the thread. Yes you already knwo this.

If you want to do it yourself CAST will send you the inserts for 40 or 50 bucks. You need to pull off the rubber sole or grind it away, hope the CAST insert frame is the same size as the originals, if not I have a router pattern that you can borrow, then rout out the cavity, bolt the inserts straight through the sole & have Dave Page re-sole.

..ha, get someone else to do it. Unless you're a die hard diy'er

FWIW:  I had a very different out of warranty experience with a pair of Scarpa Alien 1.0 boots that I busted after 15 months of use last spring.

Scarpa was out of stock of all the Alien 1.0 shells at that point in the year -- but they did sent me a new pair of regular Alien shells and offered to sell me a new pair of Alien 1.0 in the fall at wholesale.

CAST touring in Colorado have the parts & the know-how to install new inserts.

Those guys are based out of Driggs, ID. They're my buddies from Mad River Glen days.

I cracked the plastic around the inserts on the original Dynafit Green Machines long ago. If your issue is like mine was, it's difficult to think of a reliable fix.

But in your boots it's actually the metal that is broken?

It's sad to hear that La Sportiva isn't highly responsive since your boots probably weren't cheap.

I was surprised at the answer I got from La Sportiva. My impression is that their North American operation is not very robust. When they refused the claim I asked if I could simply buy a new shell and they claimed they didn't have any on hand.

Sorry I don't have a pic for you, but the damage is a small round hole, pretty much as if I'd somehow stomped on the binding with the boot at enough of an angle that the binding peg actually pierced the edge of the tech fitting, above the hole (I don't remember doing this). The hole is now wider at the top, and there is a little damage to the plastic just above the tech hole.

What this means is that the boot wobbles in the binding just a bit. I can still use these boots in a non-tech binding like the Marker Lord SP, and they still work in uphill mode, but there is a fair amount of edging strength lost.

I love the performance of these boots but I'm dismayed at the lack of customer support. I know the market for uphill equipment is highly specialilzed, but I assumed the high prices meant they could afford to stand by their products.