We've been testing the S/Pro boot for many years and seen it evolve through several variants. At one point Pro meant medium, but now you can have an S/Pro Alpha, which is a narrow, forcing the use of modifier Supra to designate Salomon's medium width all-mountain range. Last year we got an advance look at the new Supra BOA in a 120-flex, and this year we tested the S/Pro Supra BOA 130. Testers loved the extra 10-points of power and stability it brought to the table and they still loved the way Salomon has integrated the BOA system into its liner design for maximizing the shell’s cable-cranking, three-dimensional closure--even if that comes with some associated ease-of-entry challenges (more on that later).
This S/Pro (so-called Supra now) is the best version we've seen from Salomon, testers agreed. Gone as of last year is its former, ungainly Core Frame insert and bloated lateral shell shape, and in its stead we find a slightly more robust version of the svelte S/Pro Alpha narrow boot shape that preceded it. The S/Pro Supra’s is a clean, anatomically-inspired shell shape with curvature where it makes sense but without extraneous doo-dads to clutter its classic four-buckle overlap design. The best parts of the narrow Alpha's fit blueprint can be found in the Supra, just slightly expanded in its proportions for the higher-volume foot it seeks to house.
The ideally contoured and padded liner tongue that mirrors the instep and base of shin in the Alpha (one of our favorite fit features there), does so here in the Supra with slightly more ceiling height throughout. Some testers complained about an initially lumpy, inconsistent feel in that zone, which was worrisome as it should be one of the best fit areas of the boot. However, follow-up notes from these testers showed that some warmth and wear time evened out those fit glitches nicely--so, prospective buyers who experience this same phenomenon should give the liner some extra time to settle in during try-on, testers suggested. The vertically spacious and squared-off toebox shape works even better for skiers looking for a true medium-width fit than it does in the narrow-lasted version of the S/Pro, and testers commented that their foot felt just enough room to spread out and tune into the skis’ feel against the snow in the Supra, without numbness but also without any loss of connection to the ski or quickness of steering inputs.
The test team agreed that the lower boot held the foot nicely, with a comfortably firm grip on the ankles and a snug heel pocket. They also concurred that closing-down the boot around the foot with the BOA reel worked exactly as billed, wrapping in a consistent and three-dimensional way in easily-tuned, clicky increments. Testers liked the graphic tightness meter lines scribed on the shell overlap for their instant, visual appeal to the OCD bucklers and dialers on our team who just can't handle it when ridge hippies tell them to "just relax and feel it, bro."
Testers really liked the 120-flex Supra BOA they tested last year (it was a gold medal winner too) but they really, really liked the additional power and torque that the 130-flex delivered to the ski this time around. Enabled by a dead-on-the-money stance set-up (the Supra’s highest score metric), the boot's stable, strong attitude was apparent to testers who got their skis up on high edge angles, at speed, through some very sketchy off-piste conditions and early morning frozen spring cord. Testers found no chink in the S/Pro Supra's armor when it came to its descent performance--they loved how this boot skied.
Oh, but the trade-off for what testers called the test’s best execution of BOA from a fit-wrapping perspective was a limitation on the ease-of-entry that we think is related not to the BOA itself but to the built-to-BOA liner's ExoWrap instep gauntlet. The tubular material encircles the liner over the top of the foot to create a low-friction glide path for the shell above to smoothly transect as the BOA constricts, tightening the shell. It's one of the reasons testers say the S/Pro Supra's BOA closure quality lives up to the technology's hype--but at the expense of an easy slip into the boot. A few testers struggled, certainly. We suppose you could snip the ExoWrap out of there with scissors (we can already hear the gasps from Salomon reps), but we think the loss of the sweet fit-wrapping wouldn't be worth it. Our suggestion to the entry-challenged is to suck it up and deal with it or step down to the 120-flex version that's easier to get on.
Kudos
Caveats