You will no doubt have seen the mini revolution Ski Boots are going through at the moment. On the fitting bench we are being asked about BOA® a lot and I mean a LOT!
Is it any good? Does it actually work? Will it break? Who uses it? what's the future hold? etc etc etc
Well, I do not profess to know all the answers but here are my thoughts so far:
BOA® is being lauded as the next leap in fit technology for ski boots and while our brothers and sisters in the Snowboarding community have been using BOA® for a long time it is relatively new to Skiing . We first saw it at trade shows prior to last season, so around January '23 although there had been rumours before this.
Atomic, Salomon, K2 and Fischer all released new BOA® equipped boots for last season (2023/24) and for the coming season (2024/25) both Nordica and Tecnica have added BOA® equipped boots to their line up.
This leaves Head, Lange, Rossignol and Dalbello as the major manufacturers who have yet to make the leap. At the time of writing I know most if not all are working on BOA® boots and will release BOA® product soon. Watch this space.
When pretty much every manufacturer adopts a technology you know the technology either works very well or saves them a lot of money (I'll come tho this aspect later in the blog). Think about the plastic 4 clip overlap boot, the carve/parabolic ski geometry, pin tech inserts/pin bindings for ski touring. All are examples of technologies that changed the game in skiing and BOA® will be no exception.
So, what are the positives, where's the good stuff for us skiers? Well, having tested lots of the BOA® shells I can give you a single answer - Precision of Fit!
BUT, although BOA® gives excellent precision of fit where used this does not mean 4 clip boots do not or are in some way inferior to BOA® equipped boots. It should also be noted that the manufacturers have not equipped every model in their line ups with BOA® so the boot you need may simply not be BOA® equipped. Please do not choose boots on BOA®, listen to your boot fitter!
That said BOA® equipped boots feel better on the foot tag the equivalent model without BOA®. In the main I believe this is purely due to the even feel they create when securing the foot inside the boot. Because the design gives even mechanical advantage (like a block and tackle pulley system) over the whole surface area where they are placed on the boot the BOA® system simply put wraps the foot evenly. The hardware for the system is mounted in such a way as to pull the boot closed from lower positions on the sides of the boot meaning the boot closes from the sides of the foot rather than the top of the foot.
Further to this, because the closure is achieved by a wire which can conform to the shape of the shell you do not see shell collapse in the same way as a traditional clip boot on tigher closure settings. Not that we advocate a client needing tight closure settings to secure the foot, entirely the opposite in fact. The shell should hold your foot, not the closure system.
So, maybe we don't need BOA® after all, if the shell shape/volume/size/flex should hold the foot why do we need BOA® at all?
Well, the advantage of the technology lies in the evenness of the closure. This helps get that last % of fit, it helps with blood flow over the dorsal (top) aspect of the foot, helps give nerves room to work and a myriad of other fine points of boot fitting.
All good stuff then? Well, no, not all good stuff. Here's the catch, and it is a Boot Fitters catch! I have concerns about BOA®.
Firstly, I am not too happy about a single companies technology supplying a whole industry. I am sure better minds than mine have ensured there is resilience in the supply chain for this technology but having a whole industry beholden to a single company is risky. BOA® themselves do seem to be trying to be ahead of the game in terms of supply and the security of supply. We received a spares kit (that we have not had to use yet because we have had no reported breakages) before we received the product last season so they do seem to be on the ball but time will tell.
Secondly and more importantly for me as a professional boot fitter I am concerned that BOA® has been implemented at least partially for commercial rather than fit reasons. All brands have an idea of their ideal anatomical shape and they usually offer that shape in 3 last volumes - Low/Mid/High volume. Because the main advantage of BOA® is that the pull on the shell to close the boot comes from lower on the foot and therefore can essentially close/open the boot to a lower/higher volume, I think the brands will use this as an excuse to drop the lower volume lasts in their line ups. K2 have already dropped the lower volume shell in the Mindbender boot equipped with BOA®, saying that the shell is multi last so the 97mm (low) model is no longer needed. The 100mm Mindbender can be reduced in available volume for the foot by the BOA® system. I am less than convinced of this and ultimately it means less choice for me as your fitter.
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I would also like to see the brands using BOA® on the liner for fit security (this would be good on both Alpine and Touring boots to secure the foot in the liner) and on the cuff of the boot. K2 have already used BOA® on the liner of the Mindbender although it has been removed for this season and I have seen multiple spy shots of boots with BOA® on the cuff so that will come I am sure, in fact we will have boots with this system this season hopefully, watch this space!
BOA® is here to stay. Hopefully its use will help not hinder. Time will tell.