Larry Houchen has fitted ski boots for nearly 30 years.

Houchen is self-made in the art of boot fitting. He fine tuned his craft with techniques he developed. At the age of 23-year, fresh out of college, he took a job at the now-defunct Aspen Leaf ski and tennis shop in Cherry Creek. It was a high-end joint, but the ski department was in the basement.

"They were having a preseason ski sale and we were short on staff, so the manager asked if one of us would spend the day putting boots on people," he recalled. "And I said, 'Sure. I'll do that.' That's how I got started."

Since that job, he worked at numerous retail shops, including 11 years at Boulder Ski Deals, before opening his own business in 2004.

Each season he sees more than 1,000 pairs of feet walk through his boot shop.