The perennial favorite Mach1 MV W has returned but in a burlier, badder build--the 115 flex model!
With a lot of brands, their mediums and narrows feel awfully similar. Or their mediums and wides feel about the same. Tecnica trod a different path: its wides are wide, its mediums are medium and damn, its narrows are narrow.
The Mach1 130 LV is an honest boot; that Low Volume bit is assuredly truth in advertising. Yow baby, it's snug. This is how a narrow performance model should fit, said our testers: just a little too tight out of the box, everywhere. Unless your feet are truly narrow and un-bunioned, in which case you'll find the Mach1 LV one of the very few to actually lock down without excessive buckle tension.
How can it be so darned snug and yet avoid the typical hot spots skiers experience? It's the shape. The extra room built in at the sides of the forefoot, at the navicular and ankle bones, and at the heel are well placed. There is just enough pocket space for the bony bits without rendering the fit too roomy. The Mach1 130 LV sits on the tight side of the narrow width group but received very few “ouch” comments on test cards. More often than not, testers said it set the standard for how a narrow class boot should fit.
If its medium-width doppelganger MV is a Porsche Cayenne Turbo, then the LV is a 911 Turbo S. It’s a little smaller handles a little better, rides a little more epic. How many ways can you say epic as it relates to skiing performance? We're not sure, but the LV is epic-er than the rest. It was, in fact, the highest scoring boot in the entire All-Mountain category. Common themes here were a limitless amount of easily-accessed and entirely-balanced power along with “quasi-telepathic steering control.” Yep, that's what one tester wrote.
While many skiers won't need to tap into the C.A.S. shell and liner fitting customization options in the medium width Mach1, many certainly will in the LV. The dimpled areas at the sides of the forefoot and navicular bone, for example, are spots where the plastic's mass has been reduced to better handle and retain a defined heat stretch. The firm, microcell outer foam on the liner is grindable, as a way to strategically reduce peak pressure points without overly widening the fit. Room where you need it, tight where you want it. Makes total sense.
At a time when many medium width boots achieve “comfort” by being too roomy, Tecnica creates comfort and performance through a more anatomical shape. From the inside to the outside of the liner and to the closely mated shell shape, careful attention has been paid to matching the contours of the foot and lower leg. Testers approve across the board: comfort is performance here.
The Mach1 130 MV resides on the snug side of the medium category average, meaning it fits the way a medium width used to not very long ago. It offers an evenly distributed squeeze on the average foot with a skooch more room at the bony points of the ankles, navicular and the forefoot.
The liner's interior has a firm but cushioned feel that wraps the foot well. It transitions seamlessly through the instep and throat of boot up into the cuff where the shin fit is firm but evenly matched to the leg's shape. Testers wrote many "made for me," and "perfect," comments in their fit notes. One simply wrote: "I love you."
Frontside category edge grip and stability at speed are paired with off-piste design elements (grippy toe and heel plates) and a thick-enough liner to help moderate off-trail chop. Testers noted confidence-inspiring accuracy and power through all terrain and snow conditions.
It steers with no loss of movement and rolls the ski onto edge with a no-compromises torsional strength that makes your ski edges feel instantly sharper. Several testers mentioned skiing better in this boot than in their own.
In many ways the best bootfitting is the bootfitting that you don't need to do. This is a boot, as many bootfitters will attest, that doesn't tend to need much babysitting, fit-wise. It sells, goes out the door and spends its life skiing bell to bell, not hanging out in the shop getting punched and grinded.
That said, The C.A.S. (Custom Adaptive Shape) shell and liner are designed to make bootfitting modifications targeted and effective. Make more room exactly where needed, not in a sloppy wholesale fashion that renders key fit zones too-loose as a byproduct. Bravo Tecnica (from all us bootfitters).
Oh yeah, most testers dig the cam lock power strap hook doodad that lets you disengage the strap without having to pull the strap end through the cam.
The Zay ZR 115 is very similar to the stiffer ZR 125 that we tested, with the exception of a standard Velcro powerstrap here—and as such received almost identical test results to the big brother model. The ZR 115 also got a lot of attention for how it looked and how it closed—which are by the boot's nature inextricably linked. It has no lower buckles, but rather a thin cable which encircles the lower boot along two grooves at typical buckle positions. These loops are routed beneath the boot, along the sole and out the back to a single, multi-hinged buckle that tensions them.
The brand new Zay boot also got a fair amount of attention for how tricky the boot was for many testers to get on, though slightly easier than the stiffer 125—the early generation liner tended to crumple down into the throat of the boot, blocking entry, and the cables at times failed to release enough tension to allow an easy slide in. Once on and properly adjusted for tightness using the barrel-nut cable adjusters on the rear buckle and two traditional upper, testers were reminded that this is a seriously snug fit.
The rearfoot (heel, ankles, instep and mid-body of the lower) is tight! As tight as anything in the category, testers said, with a particularly snug fit on the navicular and styloid process area. And then the fit opens up to the forefoot and very roomy toebox. The upper boot was snug in a manner characteristic of other performance 98 mm boots. Testers had some hot spots—mostly attributed to the prototype liner—especially at the inside ankle bone.
But damn did the boot ski well, the test team said—agile, precise and as powerful on edge as any of the other boots in the category.
The Ten.2 120 HVL has risen again as one of the favorite wide-loads of the boot test, putting its predecessor Phoenix deeper in its grave! This boot returns unchanged from last year, when it debuted with more anatomical shaping throughout the shell and liner for a better match with the wide foot. This look (and feel) features a revised asymmetric toe box shape, very high instep fit, and more sculpted ankle and heel—though still roomy as a bus!
One of the most noticeable elements was the more flared and more padded boot top, with better liner cushioning for both shin and calf and plenty of room for a big one (calf), at that. Testers agreed that for the thick footed aggressive skier, the Ten.2 has what it takes. Laterally strong was a unanimous description—plenty of edge power and firm enough in forward flex but definitely with a more progressive, longer travel flex feel than Tecnica's wide boots of yore.
The fore-aft stance is very upright, even with the removable Velcro spoiler installed, and a few testers felt they might utilize a little heel lift, which for the shorter guys would help with the height of the cuff, which is a little tall on the leg—great boot for gargantuans but widely workable for the rest of us too.
The new Mach1 series represents the biggest (and we think coolest) changes made to Tecnica’s line since the company ditched the swinging hinge on its upper cuff. The Mach1 represents a return to Tecnica’s performance design roots. The key element here is the acute attention paid to matching the shape of the human foot and lower leg, starting inside the boot and working out.
The new C.A.S. liner (Custom Adaptive Shape) sports a squarer toebox shape, room for the pesky navicular bone on top of the foot and anatomically correct ankle and heel pockets. The liner is closely sculpted around the shape of the foot using a fairly stiff, heat-moldable exterior material Tecnica calls Microcell. The contours are plainly visible in the perforated orange exterior layer. The new Mach1 shell is similarly fashioned to match those curves meaning that liner and shell shape are well integrated from the start. The shell's upper cuff is also shaped to better match the skier's lower leg profile. At 15mm higher than the cuff employed on its predecessor Demon, it provides better power and leverage to the ski.
None of this would be much more than marketing spew if our testers hadn't overwhelmingly loved this boot and by virtually unanimous vote pushed it up onto the top tier of the All-Mountain Traditionalist category podium with a select few others in this competitive group.
The Mach1 definitely sits on the generous side of the medium fit spectrum—another joining the current manufacturing trend to hedge toward the roomy side of medium fit. Not that this is a bad thing. Testers with a variety of foot shapes liked the fit but noted more length, toebox and forefoot width and instep height than the average medium width model. A few even downsized for testing with no gripes. Across the board they liked the contained heel and ankle fit. They said the contoured grip was ready to go out-of-the-box. Ski performance was bombproof and precise, according to testers who gave it evenly matched top scores for power, agility, balance and comfort.
The G2 110 continues to get better no matter what badge it wears (It was formerly a Garmont until Scott bought the company two seasons ago). This 110 is one of the most agile, reactive boots on the market according to testers who yet again found little fault here.
The G2 remains a stripped down, fundamental performance boot. There’s not much feature glitz but there is plenty of on-snow glamour. Testers liked the way the G2 generated plenty of edge power and elicited immediate response from the ski. The flex is firm (stronger than its marked 110) but evenly distributed against the shin with a springy quality that invites dynamic fall line skiing.
The lower fits a little short, is a little narrow in the forefoot and runs a touch low over the top of the foot. It’s more contained that most other narrows which makes this a perfect nest for a low volume foot. That foot should probably be attached to a fairly slender lower leg too, as the calf fit is tight with the rear spoiler installed even with buckles on their lightest settings.
Keep in mind that the G2's new liner is a fully heat moldable Ultralon EVA design, which will significantly relax the fit as needed once its formed to the foot and shell. Testers liked this improvement for the fit options it provided as well as its light weight and improved warmth.
Testers preferred the boot with the rear spoiler in place but a few mentioned that the boot was raked a little further forward than what’s found in most current boots. Some suggested thinning the spoiler thickness a few millimeters would kill two birds with one stone, opening up calf fit and creating a more upright stance. That’s something a bootfitter can easily accomplish for you.
The lateral set-up was ideal for virtually all testers. That’s good because there is no cuff adjustment available on the G2. So if you’ve got some wacky stance needs, this may not a good place to start your boot hunt. On the upside, no cuff adjustment means direct connection of upper to lower for maximum transmission of skier radness straight to ski—and that is what this boot is all about.
The X Pro 130 was our testers' favorite Salomon model this year. They liked the combination of X-Max-style on-piste power blended with a little more width and a thicker, more anatomically shaped liner. The stance angles put them right where they wanted to be and the boot skied with a strong blend of go-anywhere performance and comfort.
This was the first time for testers on the 130 flex X Pro (we sampled the 120 last year) and they said it was plenty solid. Our biggest, strongest testers welcomed the sturdy, firm flex feel and tall upper cuff. Our shorter and lighter guys felt a bit overmatched and said the 120 would be plenty for them.
The yawning width range cited here is based on executing a 360 Custom Shell cook job. After cooking, the shell’s magical heat-moldable plastic takes only five minutes to expand around the foot and lower leg. Our tests have shown that the 6mm range is no exaggeration—slam a Sasquatch foot inside and it will push the plastic waaay out. The out-of-box fit is roomy and long in the forefoot and toebox, yet snug through instep and ankle. The liner is firm and pre-shaped to match the foot with an aggressive grip on the heel.
The X Pro technology brings about some intriguing fit and performance decisions. The 360 Custom Shell’s enormous stretching capabilities led some testers to drop down a size and use the molding process to regain comfort—but now in a tightly-wrapped performance package. Our shorter legged testers often liked the lower-cuff feel that came with dropping to a shorter shell length.
The X Pro boots also come in five different men’s flexes. Each step down knocks a hundred bucks off the suggested retail price so buy only as much resistance as you need and leave some ka-ching in your pocket.
Testers were amused by the Freesoul 10's Harlem Globetrotters' sweat band boot cuff and they liked the boot's feel against the shin throughout its very long flex range. But testers also pointed out that the boot's lack of support fore-aft made it difficult to transmit energy to the ski and edging power was similarly limited.
While entry and exit received high scores, testers weren't enamored of the three different styles and directions of buckles that seemed to complicate the closure without any redeeming purpose.
Testers all felt that the boot was being tested a bit unfairly, a bit outside of its designated target application—the park—and felt that it could be an adequate shock-absorber for cool kids wanting to get from feature to feature in style.
The Bold 120 returns this season with some cool upgrades—completely revised Intuition liner, midsole grip and rad, new electric lime color—all of which added up to a more appealing package for testers.
The Roxa Bold 120 test results were still something of a split decision this year—some testers loved the upright stance and solid feel on snow while others had issues with an inconsistent fit. Though testers liked the improvements that the Intuition liner brought, many commented that the toebox and heel were both quite tight, though the fit in between lacked a snug feel. Testers suggested heat molding with toecaps to better even out the fit tension throughout.
All testers agreed that the tipped-out stance angle of the cuff loaded a lot of power (and inside edge bias) to the ski, which made the Bold a ripper on smooth groomers.
Testers liked the Bold 120's side to side predictability but didn't characterize it as lightning quick—a reliable ride with adequate support for all-mountain ventures at a heck of a price was the takeaway.
If you're only going to offer one narrow lasted boot aside from your race product, it better be a good one. Perhaps Rossignol put extra effort into developing the Experience SI 130 since it's surrounded by a bunch of mediums and wides and extra wides. Or maybe the brand’s lone soldier feels like it has to work that much harder for lack of back-up.
No matter the reason, it did it again—top of the class for the second year running on the All-Mountain Traditionalist category podium shared with a very select few. It actually got better scores than the RX 130 LV (its psychic twin), and you know that has to tweak the Lange folks, them being so performancey and all.
Why does the low-key, Mr. Nice Guy, under-the-radar Experience SI 130 do so well? Some testers like to say its strong genetics drawn from the long-gone B Squad line. The bloodlines have finally thinned out to a point where the masses can appreciate the power and accuracy that remains. Others said that it's the new pigment in the shell plastic that gives it renewed juju. Most just pointed to a flawless stance, a great flex feel, and a liner that grips the heel and ankle like a race boot with a relaxed fit around the rest of the foot. That’s the key to building a great narrow boot in the all-mountain category.
Minor liner changes this year continued to bump the fit scores forward. There were few fit complaints cited on test forms. It's tight, but middle-of-the road tight for the 97mm group and evenly so. There’s a little extra forgiveness up front in the squared-off toebox and slightly open forefoot. Testers noted that the cutaway plastic instep pocket on the tongue helps relax fit over the top of the midfoot.
Sometimes, when boots get blown up to big boy proportions, the proportions get blown out—not here, testers said. The Alias Sensor 120 boasts a monstrous fit that maintains a shape that makes sense again this year (though it returns with a new cosmetic and revised liner toebox).
The width of the boot is huge in toebox and forefoot, but similarly so over the top of the foot and through the instep, where big, thick feet usually have a lot of volume. Testers said that the transition from the top of the foot through the throat of the boot and up into the shin was perfectly engineered for comfort and support of a power forward's hoof and lower leg. And yet testers found that the heel and ankle pocket was still shaped to contain and control those areas for accurate edging moves on the hill. There isn't much fancy going on, but testers said that was just fine—a strong 120 flex to support the big, good skier that needs a real 104 mm cargo hold lower boot was all the Alias 120 needed to put together with its fit and stance for them to push it above the cut in this category.
Testers didn't mind the lack of rear spoiler here, probably not needed for the crusher calf, but the skinny legged may notice the Alias 120's upright stance. Our test team thought the balanced position this boot created was perfect for the target. Tall, strong and ready for whatever a good skier may drive it into.
We think boots like the Patron Pro could save the sport of skiing. First, by strapping into this boot a skier would be reminded that a boot is supposed to fit snug, like it means business, tight like there is intent to rip at the highest level. Next, it would grab hold of that skier and re-train him on how to properly stand on skis—there will be flex in the ankle, there will be a bend in the knee—if that feels foreign to him he will either ski more, get himself to the gym, or quit. Assuming the former, this skier would realize that the absolute power and precision of this boot is too much for his worn-out, bought-online junk sticks and be forced to go straight into the shop to buy an all-mountain performance ski that suitably matches this performance boot. Then, after skiing like some crazed, heroic version of himself all day long, this skier will buy drinks in the bar, decide to go heli skiing, and re-commit his life to the sport.
Well, we think this could happen, and we'd like to think that a boot experience could be life-changing, but one thing that we are sure about is that the new Patron Pro is all of that stuff we just mentioned. It is the archetype of the ski boot that all the best skiers envision—it is functional, but it is unadorned. It is not fluffy, it is not soft, it is not medium-anything. It is full-throttle, narrow class, stiff and unapologetically strong on edge. It wants you to be a better skier, no matter how good you already are.
That said, this version (revised last year) has a wonderfully cushioned shin fit compared to its previous self and its former calf jabbing tendencies have been resolved. The toebox and forefoot (while still performance-fit) are more anatomically shaped and opened-up. Testers loved the touches on this off-road Dobie (essentially what it is) and wondered how Nordica was able to keep the power and precision of the track machine but combine it with what felt like big-travel suspension. Specifically, the more flexible bootboard design did the trick, along with those liner changes that better distribute shock and help the foot to seat flat to the boot floor.
