The boot testing process starts with the so-called dry test, where a tester puts the boot on just like a customer would in a shop, buckles it up and assesses how it fits. For our test purposes, each tester considers 8 distinct fit zones and then also judges the boot’s indoor stance balance, cuff height, tongue cushioning and flex feel. After recording their impressions, each tester ventures out to conduct on-snow testing over 3 runs, typically, paying attention to how the fit, stance and flex feel may be different while skiing and then recording their experience with its on-snow performance in five, scored categories. After a promising dry test, a boot’s exemplary on-snow performance can seal the deal for a gold medal debut. If the dry test was poor, even great skiing boots won’t make the gold medal cut.
Rossignol provided a nationwide dry test experience to their ski boot dealers in early winter to introduce the new, uniquely easy-on Vizion range, and many of our boot test team were able to take part in that. Early tester reports were that the Vizion Pro 120 MV aced the dry test, checking all the boxes expected of a performance medium width fit. Of course, they knew they’d get to do it again in April at our annual boot test, but they were still frustrated in December—the Vizion was a dream to get on and it fit great, but they weren’t able to ski it!
So, the question on many testers’ minds going into the official boot test period was whether the Vizion would ski as well as it was said to.
Well, twelve testers put the Vizion Pro 120 MV through the ringer at our Mt. Bachelor test, and ten testers had nothing but good things to say about how it skied. One said: It skis as well as the vast majority of other boots in the All-Mountain Traditional group. Another said: Feels great and skis great. Buttery smooth. Engages the turn very easily then finishes with power and grace. And another: The Vizion Pro gives you a strong feeling against the ski, just like a polyurethane performance boot--really excellent skiability for a boot that has such easy entry!
What about the two who didn’t have good things to say? Well, let’s just say they’re always a little crabby and we don’t pay them much attention, in general.
But why the extra focus on the Vizion Pro’s skiing skills report card? Well, because it is a boot designed, first and foremost, to be easy to put on and take off. It is a comfort and convenience model that is purported to keep skiers in the sport who are otherwise ready to quit and to bring back from the couch those who had to give up on skiing for the simple reason that they couldn’t get the damn boots on! So, the assumption is, it can’t possibly ski well.
The Vizion concept is like a cross between a rear-entry boot where the rear portion of the upper cuff hinges backward to open like a snake’s jaw preparing to swallow a rat, combined with the traditional, solid closure of the four-buckle overlap shell design. Why is this hybrid architecture important? Because the rear-entry is easiest on but inherently sacrifices performance. A combination of rear entry level ease with four-buckle overlap performance would be a marriage of interest for a lot of skiers—skiers of many sizes, shapes and skill levels. The Vizion’s unique cuff-opening technology isn’t rear-entry but something else—testers say it’s cooler and even easier to release the one special buckle on the cuff (hidden under the other, lower cuff buckle) to pull the rear part of the cuff back and wide-open, ready to engulf the foot and leg in a no-handed plunge.
The Vizion concept is also about looks—looking normal, to be exact. There are a variety of easy-to-put-on boots out on the market but they all come with some downside. Some are too wide for a narrow-footed skier. Some are too soft for accomplished skiers. Some of the most easy-to-put-on boots allow the liner to remain on the foot and be slid into a hard, exoskeletal frame—but those look odd. That shouldn’t make a difference to real skiers, but it does. The look of a boot matters, especially to the skier who’s already embarrassed to ask for help from strangers to get his boots on in the ski area parking lot. An easy-to-get-on boot that skis as well as any other boot and looks like a regular old boot? Sold--done deal.
Rossignol is so sure of the market need for a boot like the Vizion that they’ve made it available to both men and women, in narrow, medium and wide options, and all of those are available in a variety of stiffnesses, ranging from the softest women’s 80-flex to the stiffest men’s at 130.
Sure, there’s a chance that the Vizion’s newfound combination of ease of entry and performance will extend skiers’ on-hill timeline and only serve to further pack our lift-lines and crowd our low-angle boomer-groomers with the aged and inflexible—and that’s okay, hopefully we’ll all get there someday, and be on skis! One veteran tester put this into some helpful perspective: what I love about this boot is that the target customer isn't just your average old guy that can't get a boot on, it's for anyone who loves to ski!
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