Your opinion: best overall ski boot

brandonhausner

brandonhausner

Member
Searched barred this and nothing came up

I wanna know your guys' opinion

What is the best ski boot?

This includes fit, comfortability, and how long they last for.

Tell me what you guys think

Im thinking about getting a new pair and I was just wondering your guys' opinion
 
happy with my spk's. Broke tthe bottom off but now that I re attached them far enough apart I can get them tight as fuck and they work well. Dunno if there is really actually a great boot out there today that is built to last.
 
I hear that newschool company Jiberish is making a boot that takes inspiration from american history and the post neo 1950's era hipster plaid movement. Should be nice.
 
Rossi radical wc haha i'm still using my race boots. Everyone's saying full tilt and i have friends that use them and claim they're great, but i've heard the same about spk's too. Wish i could just demo boots for a month before the season actually began

 
^this. it all depends but i have 09 rampage kyrptonites, same liner just custom insoles and they are still going strong.
 
If you would of asked me the start of the season I would of said the Head Raptor Overkill and its predecessors. (Been riding with head boots for the past 12 years)

But for the past 2 months been riding the K2 110 Spyne series.. and am so stoked on this boot.
 
I've been rocking SPKs for a couple years now (2 pairs) and they're dope for the first little while but once they pack out and you have to tighten the buckle further I find there's mad pressure points. I would recommend a boot with more buckles for better distribution of pressure. I've been hearing good things about Dalbello...
 
The best boot is the one that fits your foot is the correct answer.

That being said most boots are not going to fit your foot perfectly off the shelf unless you magically have the exact same foot they modeled the boot from. The human foot has HUGE variation, it's pretty impossible to accommodate every foot shape. Knowing this means 2 things. 1. Make friends with a good bootfitter. 2. Buy a boot that is easy to customize.

This is why racers ride full plug boots. The boots are just blocks of thick plastic that no one can fit their foot into off the shelf because you are suppose to have a good boot fitter carve out the boot specifically to your individual foot shape.

On the other hand, some of the low end recreational boots have thin plastic and badly placed plastic joints that make those boots very difficult for a boot fitter to work with if you need any custom work done..
 
Not totally why plug boots exist. Racers generally use a different thickness shell for different flex requirements. A thicker shell will be much stiffer then even a mid thickness shell. But this is racers. Apparently they can even tell a difference in the colour of the plastic just from the flex. Plug boot is nicer to grind but only because it's thicker so harder to mess up. it's the performance which keeps them being used though.

For the average skier an off the shelf boot, combined with a good custom footbed should be sufficient. A good boot fitter will alway be needed but there are so many shape boots available now that honestly it's getting quite easy to get a good boot these days.
 
Or get a boot which fits in the first place. The number of buckles has very little effect on the fit, the shape of the shell has much more of an impact. Next time you get boots have them fitted. A fitter will shell check you to determin the shell volume compared to your foot. Also don't expect boots to be comfy straight away. A good boot should feel a bit small in the shop, so if they are super comfy straight away chances are they are too big.
 
I was under the impression that flex was controlled from the spine of the boot and the cuff. I was referring to the plastic thickness in the foot compartment.

I'm not advocating plug boots for everyone or even most people, just simply stating that some boots are more easily modified than others and giving extremes as examples of different ends of the spectrum. I spend a lot of time at my boot fitter because of my wide forefoot and narrow heel so I get to see a lot of what goes on there. Often times customers will come in with pressure points that can't be solved because their boot has a shitty design and has a plastic joint in a bad spot or has really thin plastic that can't be ground or punched enough.

These are things I think might be valuable for NS'ers to look out for. I specify NS'ers because you are right in that the "average skier" probably can find an off the shelf boot that works reasonably well for their purposes. Park skiers are generally going harder and faster and could definitely see a benefit from a more precise fit. A plug boot is at the extreme but there is a middle ground in there somewhere.
 
The flex can be controlled by the spine of the boot but the actual thickness of the plastic will have the most effect in flex.

In general for most of ns I would say off the shelf boots with custom footbeds are good. I occasionally see bad designs like you say but honestly it's rare that you can't work on a boot due to the design. It tends to be the price point boots too. Spend a bit of money and you will get a good shell which can be modified. Most people here will be for in a 90-130 flex boot so all should be in decent quality boots. It's the softer beginner boots which will be harder to work on but I very early sell that level boot anyway.

But all this really comes down to the fitter. Your fitter is far more important then the boot it's self. Spend some time with a good fitter an you will have great boots.
 
You can lock the cuff to the clog to help control flex but the actual thickness of the shell is way more important in the flex.

I would disagree some what about your thinking ns skiers need more then most. Most skiers will be in a 100-120 flex boot for men and 80-100 for woman. That will cover ns nicely too. If you are buying a boot in thi range then you know it will have a decent hell and decent liner. When your buying very bottom end boots you may run into bad designs more such as no overlapping seams ect. But if you are buying a decent boot a fitter should have no issues modifying it.

Just one other point. One thing I see a lot is people have pressure points and thick they need a stretch. A good bootfitter should in fact look at the footbed first. Often it's simply the foot not sitting neutral. I see boots being stretched far to often without having a footbed in them. I would not stretch until there is a footbed in there as I can not garentee the stretch will do anything.
 
the ones that fit is definitely the right answer.

that being said, at first i liked my cochise 130s but the flex is weird, i think im gonna go to the nordica patron pro for next season for in bounds and a scott cosmos for bc
 
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