Nordica Speedmachine 115 W

The Gist

Our test team liked the step up to the 115 flex women’s Speedmachine last year, saying the additional horsepower drove big skis well without feeling unmanageable—and so stepped it up to a second place finish in the group. This year they still love the vertical room over the top of the foot and said that the ankle pockets are firmly performance oriented (read: mold the 3D Cork Fit liner). They appreciated its useful features, like the Power Driver power strap spoiler, adjustable calf and a functional cuff adjustment for dialing lateral stance angles. Ratio of comfort to performance is surprisingly high, given that they said this one goes everywhere and does everything.

The Fit

The Cork-clad exterior material on the liner ankle pocket area is highly heat moldable, but on initial room temperature try-on felt pretty aggressive to our testers. Just a few runs warmed them up enough to relax to a tolerable firmness, but liner molding was the recommendation for a fully comfortable, all-day fit there. The toebox remains roomy, especially over the top of the toes, which most testers liked but a few felt it allowed for too much shift into the backseat at times. Testers say the dreamy Nordica liner feel remains fully intact still and found it one of the easiest performance mediums to get on and off. The calf fit is open and can be adjusted for a larger calf, so that feature was a test team favorite.

Performance

Shockingly strong on edge for how comfy it is, was the tester takeaway on average. Plenty quick, they said, for having so much luxury liner wrapping the foot. The stance angles were right on the money, and the straight up polyurethane construction pleased our old school rippers who like a strong and stable boot for dominating the downhill off of chairlifts. Hell yeah!

Cool Features

The thin shell wall in areas where common prominent points live makes it easy to modify the boot with a heat stretch, while keeping the boot thicker in areas that generate power and stability. The Nordica Infrared Heat stretching system is unique in that it uses an infrared heater to get the shell to temperature, then employs a suction-cup device to suck the shell punch into place, like a dent-puller at an auto body shop. It's got double liner pull loops and comes mounted with GripWalk soles and ISO 5355 ("DIN") alpine soles in the box--that's a nice add on.