The Gist
The new Recon Pro delivers on our test team's wish for a stronger-feeling Recon. Beefed to a 140-flex rating using a Pebax cuff and all new PowerFit Pro liner, this is the Recon build we've been waiting for. With a stealthy, murdered-out black color way and an optional power plate in the box for an even burlier flex-feel, it's apparent that this boot means business and will appeal to those all-mountain chargers who felt the Recon 130's were a touch under-gunned. However, all this manliness doesn't mean it doesn't remain what testers have called the most comfortable boot in the category. Testers still agree the Recon Pro, like its softer brothers, is an easy-on, trouble-free fit as well as a point-and-shoot performer everywhere on the hill.
The Fit
Testers say the narrow class fit is now on the money for anatomical curves and nice blend of both cushion but with newfound grip in the more dense PowerFit Pro liner, which testers mention will help the softer Recon 130's as they share that same new liner.Testers say that the Recon Pro remains one of the best fitting (comfortable out of the box) boots in the category, but where before it was simply too comfortable to proudly wear its high-performance badge, now it's just right.
Performance
Testers were in lock-step that the Recon Pro continues a K2 tradition of a perfectly grounded stance, quickness Bruce Lee would approve of and a strong, stable attitude while on edge at any speed, on any snow, through any terrain—all heightened by the fact that it does it with less mass. 1740 grams worth of real boot is how one tester described the thin polyurethane and Pebax newcomer. One tester said that the Recon Pro straps a turbo-charger and rally suspension onto the Recon 130.
Cool Features
K2 built the Recon with four different stiffnesses of polyurethane in a variety of different shell wall thickness--going very thin where possible for weight reduction but keeping things thick in areas critical for power and stability. Testers thought they accomplished this mission and were appreciative of the shell's bootfitting-centric material that will support all common heat stretches and grinds (where the shell wall is thick enough) and a bit confused by the Pebax cuff. Still at play for K2 boots is the Powerfuse Spyne, which links the cuff to lower shell in a firm but slightly elastic fashion—not blocked and locked but neither is it free to dump forward. The K2 dual upper cuff alignment system is still effective and still a bit of a puzzle for first-timers, though now they are anchored internally with regular T-nuts (bootfitters in the know thank you for that, K2) and the Recons also have cantable soles. The PowerFit Pro liners are still full-thermo Ultralon affairs, but now they are anatomically sculpted and, testers said, vastly superior to K2 liners of the past. The Recon shell is designed to be wholly moldable by wearing after an oven-cook, which we tested. The shape and volume change was dramatic but easily over-done. Testers suggest molding the liner first, then later consider oven cooking the shell if the overall fit still feels too tight.
Kudos