While it’s not a brand-new model, here are three words that underscore why the Lange Shadow 130 MV was a tester top pick again this year: updated Auxetic liner. We’ve raved about the Auxetic liner in the past—its namesake feature is the hexagonally etched exterior material (you can see this) that allows the liner to bend around the curves and prominences of the foot and ankle in a surprisingly accurate way. Without feeling bulky or overly padded, the foot is spared of hotspots and yet simultaneously held closely.
Testers have described the Auxetic liner experience as wearing a silky-snug (and dry) wetsuit bootie, and their only two gripes in the past have been that it felt too comfortable, (which we interpret as slightly roomier than expected) with the exception of the toebox length, which testers say runs slightly short. This year’s liner update solves the excessive room issue without losing the comfort—slightly firmer ankle and heel padding that offers a 15% reduction in pack-out sealed the deal for our testers, who said this tweak ticked the last checkbox in the Shadow’s registry of perfect elements.
What skiers consider comfortable is wide-ranging and subjective—for some it means extra room and copious padding from a fluffy liner, but for others it can mean a closely-snug shape match to the foot and leg with appropriate clearance for bony points. The first favors the casual skier who may not venture into tricky terrain that requires a direct transmission from body movement to ski response. The second is a performance-oriented approach to comfort that pays heed to the fact that having to over-buckle a loose boot to gain a close fit will distort the boot’s shape and typically lead to an uncomfortable situation.
The Lange Shadow is a boot that understands the relationship between comfort and performance for the skilled, all-day, all-mountain skier—well shaped and snug. It also serves as a benchmark example of a boot that prioritizes both the shape of the shell and the construction of the liner as the way to deliver a performance-comfort combination without requiring a compromise on either.
We have spent quite a few words describing how well the Shadow boots ski, and we have relied on our testers to corroborate Lange’s claims that the Shadow does more with less, by way of the cuff’s multi-anchor, rocker-arm-style design that translates a smaller forward flexion movement into a more responsive and precise-feeling ski.
This year’s test provided the perfect proving ground for the Shadow’s performance claims—a lot of new, dense snow on top of frozen spring groomers created the potential for a tip-deflection nightmare as speeds and tracked up conditions increased through the day. Testers unanimously commented that the Shadow planted the ski shovel into arc after arc regardless of the chunderized piles where other test models got bucked around and required additional attention to manage each turn.
They said the Shadow’s on-snow performance level matched its comfort game by combining the ease of traction control and an automatic tranny with the fun and driver-control of a 6-speed manual. The ski boot comfort and performance combination, exemplified.
