What's the ripping female skier looking for in a performance Frontside boot? According to our women's test team they're looking for everything the guys get, with perhaps a fit nod to a couple typical shape differences, like a slightly thicker, lower calf muscle as compared to the average male leg shaft and a tighter heel pocket is always nice. Well, that's exactly what they get with the new Lange RS 120 SC, and while this one is all-new this year it's not drastically different when it comes to fit and ski prowess because it's back into gold medal status again in this hyper-competitive category.
The SC stands for Short Cuff and most of our test team prefer this to the higher-cuffed men's (or unisex) version of the RS, though a couple of our taller testers do like the unisex boot for its increased leverage over the ski and extra fore-aft support for those long levers below their knees. The unisex RS LV is available in the same 120-flex down to a size 24.5 and the 130 LV is available as small as a 22.5 (but it costs $150 bucks more for those 10 stiffness points).
The SC cuff design drops the plastic height by 12mm, which is enough to minimize the jab at the back of the calf but still maintain a solid feel against the shin and enough support for hard carving at the highest speeds on the hardest snow surface. As proof that the short in SC is not a detriment of any sort for strong skiing women, the test scores for cuff height and fore-aft balance were both rated 100% ideal. Lange doesn't market the SC as a women's boot, per se, as the majority of the customer base are junior racers--it just happens to be one of our women's test team's favorite boots every year, so they claim it as their own!
The lower boot is really where testers found reasons to get excited, fit-wise--it's tight the way good skiers want a narrow Frontside boot to fit but without many hot spots, they said, with an especially locked-in heel pocket. In fact, here's a bit of what testers had to say about the RS SC's revised fit. One said: This boot is the real deal! I love the fit, like a glove for the gal that wants a snug but comfortable high-performance boot. Another: My foot is home! For being modeled after a race boot it is surprisingly easy to wear straight out of the box. And a third: What a great, solid fit! It felt comfortable throughout with a lot of support and a nice tight heel.
Testers across the board praised the tightness of the boot's control zones and the slight relaxation of tension in places where it was needed for bloodflow, sensation and warmth. Lange was one of the first brands to coin the term V-shaped last, which describes a tighter rearfoot (ankles and heel) with a more open forefoot and toebox, kinda like a reverse mullet for the foot--business in the back, party in the front. Our testers' averaged fit scores for the RS 120 SC bear out this V-shape concept on a 1 through 5 scale where 1 is tight like a World Cup race boot, 3 is the target for medium width boots and 5 is the least tight, like a rental boot: heel (1.29), ankles (1.43), instep (1.71), forefoot (1.86), toebox (2.00).
The changes in construction are many, if subtle, in this year's RS 120 SC. The cuff and shell both have redistributed thick and thin areas to maximize power where possible without increasing weight or a lively feel. The heel pocket was revised, as was the instep and fit across the top of the foot. The cuff hinge point was altered to mimic the flex feel of the race boot line-up and the rear anchor point of the cuff now employs a modular carbon or polyurethane plate that can be changed to fine tune the boot's flex. This is only a partial list, as the revisions were extensive (and exactly the same as those found on the men's RS 130 LV that our guys tested). In a nutshell, all of this added up to smooth power delivery with rapid responsiveness to skier inputs, in what most described as a flawless on-snow experience. Testers invariably compared this RS 120 SC to those they've tested in the past or owned previously--same but better in every way was the unanimous takeaway.
Kudos
Caveats