There's a lot going on in the Mindbender 115 W BOA and testers say it's all good stuff, so don't let your initial interaction with the boot get you bent! Testers said it's quite a pile of goodies: there's two BOA reels to negotiate--one on the liner and one on the lower shell--a cam lock power strap, two liner pull loops, two cuff buckles, a revised ski-walk locking release mechanism, tech fittings and GripWalk soles. And that's just what you can see! Internally there's a nifty boot board with two different densities of inserts to modify the ground feel underfoot and an articulated Powerfit Pro BOA Tour Ultralon-loaded liner. There are times where all this is too much, but testers said it ultimately all works.
This was not without some challenge to access those goods, as testers complained that the dual BOA configuration created some barrier to entry (literally), and that difficulty was experienced on the way out of the boot as well, with testers noting that the liner articulation seemed to fold up around the Achilles and make exiting the boot difficult. Some testers opted to don the liner, do up its BOA, then cram foot with liner into the shell (and back out again), but most preferred to not add that extra step.
That all said, they still placed this boot at the top of the medium width freeride group and gave it two perfect scores in its Anatomical Fit and Edge Power test parameters. They said the fit was good enough and the skiing performance was good enough to counter whatever entry and exit inconveniences they experienced. This is a roomy medium, but not without appropriate curvature to match prominent and wide spots as well as enough firm grip at the rear foot to translate skiing movements to the ski in direct-enough fashion. While testers agreed that ratcheting down the BOA spools did a good job of closing up the fit around the foot and leg, they found it had limits at the tightest end of its range where the top of the foot began to squeal before the toes were tight enough. Interestingly, K2 anticipated this and created a fill-pocket on the liner toebox where a foam shim can be inserted into the pouch for helping to better distribute that dorsal surface pressure.
Skiing was where testers were really sold on the Mindbender 115 W BOA--it ripped everywhere, they said, but was surprisingly strong on edge for a boot with a walk mode. They liked the flex feel and its accuracy of steering and couldn't find any moves it didn't master. Going the other direction (up) was also well-received by testers who liked the new walk mode actuation and said the touring range of motion and quality of movement was top notch (an ongoing K2 freeride boot character trait, in our experience).
Kudos
Caveats