Over the last several years there has been a ski boot trend of building supposedly narrow boots that for all intents and purposes fit like medium widths. We continue to call out these poser-narrows as we can. The Nordica Promachine 115 W is absolutely not one of them. This is a narrow's narrow, made for real skiers with low volume feet and legs--the kind of body that belongs in a narrow lasted ski boot. Our fit scoring is calculated over eight different fit zones, from toebox to heel pocket to calf, on a scale of 1 through 5. A "1" indicates the sort of tight fit you find in a World Cup race boot. A "5" indicates the sort of roomy fit found in, say, a packed-out rental boot. New testers are instructed that the ideal medium width boot might receive mostly 3's, whereas the wider 102mm last should receive 4's while the 98mm gets 2's. What did the Promachine 115 W get, averaged over the eight fit zones? A 1.96.
Not to belabor the point, but even though one of our testers complained that her navicular and arch were being crushed by the Promachine's tightness, she noted that it wasn't a problem with the boot but just a mismatch for her more mediumish foot--what was the Promachine's score for Anatomical Fit and Initial Feel? It received a perfect 5.00.
Did the snug fit equate to high power and quickness scores? Duh, yes it did! This is a boot built to ski, first and foremost, testers said. That it is fairly easy to get on and fits without typical hot spots is a fortunate secondary benefit. The construction and materials are derived from the race-bred, Frontside Dobermann boot, so with that sort of engineering heritage Nordica would have to really screw things up to not have a ripping all-mountain model in the Promachine. Testers mentioned that it has a slightly taller than average cuff height against the shin and it's also a touch upright in angle and it's stout--so, shorter, lighter and less aggressive skiers experienced some challenges getting out over the front of the boot and staying in the driver's seat.
Kudos
Caveats