Sometimes, testers find that the marketing department wasn't so far off. Here's what Nordica says about the Speedmachine 3 120: "No matter the terrain or the conditions, Nordica’s all-new Speedmachine 3 120 unlocks everything the mountains have to offer...Confidently ski anything and everything with Nordica’s Speedmachine 3 120." Our testers agreed. They mentioned multiple times and in multiple ways how versatile the boot was all around the mountain and they similarly reached consensus that the boot was confidence inspiring--really, it came up in their test comments a few different times!
The Speedmachine 3 120 was not a boot that was new to our test team--they've tested it before, but this time around they found that the liner construction had been perfected over the past generation and delivered classic Nordica, plush-feeling and easy to get on and off but without a too-soft build that didn't hold the heel and ankles and suggested early pack-out. Testers called the fit a perfect medium-width blend of contouring for wide and bony spots with a firm grip where it counted in the rearfoot, without drifting into narrow boot territory. The lower shell and upper cuff provided no glitches or flaws to consider--it's a tried-and-true polyurethane machine that's been bred to perform properly, and testers couldn't dispute this. The test team had very few critical remarks to make about fit or performance.
Testers were not disappointed by the 120-flex entry, even though it went up against mostly 130-flexes in the category--saying that it held up to pretty much everything they threw at it. One tester said he could get the flex to collapse but he had to try pretty hard (and he could stand to shed a few pounds). Testers love the neutral stance and the well-distributed flex feel against the shin. But what testers loved most about this boot were the things they didn't have to think about--they didn't have to think about how to get it on and buckled up, they didn't have to think about making any special moves to get the ski to respond, they didn't have to think about making fit adjustments or fussing with features. They just put the thing on and went skiing, and had a great time. This defines what makes a great boot for our test team--brainless fun with no drama and no bootfitting to-do list.
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