The Nordica Speedmachine 3 115 W took top honors in the medium width group of the All-Mountain Traditional category, the most heavily populated segment of the women's test. First place here combined with Nordica's other first place in the narrow group for a two-entry sweep of the category. Testers were not surprised by the Speedmachine's high scoring results, it has done well in boot tests previously in a variety of different iterations, but this year a few of our boot retailer testers were asking, why don't we sell Nordica? And some of our other testers whose own boots are of other brands were asking, why don't I ski in Nordica?
These are good questions without good enough answers, probably, because the Nordica narrow and medium width All-Mountain boots have rarely disappointed--they remain one of the categories' benchmark models year in and year out at our test for a consistently good fit that pairs with top rate performance on snow, and they don't come with any surprises to throw a skier off her game. Testers loved the way the Speedmachine worked with their particular skiing styles, many of them citing that they simply buckled up and went skiing without having to worry about an off-the-mark stance or unexpected flex feel. Intuitive, easy and fun were some of the descriptors that came up repeatedly.
Our team was similarly in agreement that this medium width ran more snug than expected in both the lower boot and upper cuff, and had a particularly tight heel and instep fits in the group, which translated into high scores for ski control but resulted in slight demerits in comfort and bloodflow for the target, average foot shape. Granted these were not major concerns for our team as it didn't bump the boot from first place, but fit did represent its lowest score, whereas it got a perfect score for Quickness & Steering. Testers universally praised the Speedmachine 3 115 W's feel for the snow underfoot, which they characterized as tuned-in and quick to respond. They also heaped compliments onto the boot's progressive flex feel that addressed the leg shaft in an even (if firm) way.
The takeaway for testers was that the Speedmachine remains a no-brainer for good skiers who don't want fancy features and would rather just put on a boot and go rip anywhere on the mountain without any boot related fuss.
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