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I sat down with Luke Koppa, Kara Williard, and Justin Bobb to reflect on some of the standout products and notable trends that defined the past year in ski and snowboard gear.
So, what trend does Luke think is “the gear equivalent of superhero movies?” How many BOA dials has JBobb broken in a decade as a self-described BOA convert? What’s Kara’s pick for the “Not New But Still Amazing Award?” Take a listen and find out.
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TOPICS & TIMES:
Biggest Developments & Trends
Ski Boots (4:21)
Snowboard Boots & Boards (17:56)
Snowboard Bindings (22:03)
Ski Bindings (26:06)
Standout Products (31:54)
Best Values (51:36)
Not New But Still Amazing Award (1:00:33)
CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCASTS (click each to learn more):
Phantom snowboard bindings and boots. They are amazing you should really try a set up splitty or solid board inbounds. Colorado company too. It’s a revolutionary development. Maybe you could get them to the summit too?? Any way they are rad.
Oh the phantom boot is even more amazing with a zip fit
Would love to see what J-Bob thinks
As to why heat-moldable shells didn’t attract any attention, it’s because they have no real impact on people who don’t want to take advantage of them. You just don’t heat the shell up, and it performs like it would have if it weren’t moldable. In contrast Boas add weight and change the boot’s “user interface”.
FWIW I’m personally not a fan of either, but I’m all for more selection and easy-to-useequipment. Heat-molding tends to increase the volume far too much, and I’ve long since gotten myself dialed in with 4-buckle overlaps.
I agree with Kara that the prevalence of ZipFits in particular and custom liners in general is a big deal. I’m a die-hard ZipFit convert at this point – they don’t perform quite as well as the injected foam liners that I used to run in my (plug) racing boots, but they’re good enough for anything I do now and they’re a revelation in hard, rough snow.
Jonathan I had the exact same fracture from mountain biking as well this fall.
Chiming in regarding the Burton step ons for snowboarding. I am on my fourth season with mine (same bindings, second set of boots) and absolutely love them. Yes they do click a little (more noticeable below freezing) and are more difficult to step into in really deep/loose powder but otherwise are amazing. I love the quick in and out and the quick power transfer to my edges. Every time I go back to strap bindings on my split board I get irritated with how floppy and archaic they are (planning on trying the step on split bindings eventually). Mine are super durable with at this point around 150 days on them and nothing has broken or even really showing signs of wear. I’ve also used them to teach two people how to snowboard and they found the step in and out process intuitive and easy, it’s a similar motion to twisting out of clipless bike pedals. Y’all should really try them out!
Luke, I really like your ski and clothing preferences(with the exception of anorak’s); I took your advice last year on a used Arteryx Atom lt jacket which I love, and recently ordered a cosmic primo and just got it in and dig it. We need a ‘Luke’s favorite gear’ page. Thanks!
Re Zipfits and other aftermarket liners, it would be interesting to hear about the sales volumes from the key brands – fully understand they may not want to give that though. Have they seen the increase in sales volume that would imply a trend? If so they should certainly be grateful to Blister for the support of a great product as I don’t see many other people talking about them but maybe I am just not looking in the right places. I do think that whilst Blister has always had a focus on boots and championed alternative liners, the addition of Kara full time has made a huge difference to the quality and consistency of info flow and reviews on boots compared to previously as well as to the conversations on Gear:30 etc
Whilst I am in complimentary mode (hey it’s a new year), in the 5 years or so that I have been a member, and since starting to get into the weeds on skis a bit more, my sense is that manufacturers are getting far better about providing ski weight data on their websites. There are still some exceptions and still some that just list one weight and not even tell you which length it refers to, but I have to believe a lot of the improvement is due to Blister harrying them for weight info! So thank you for that (and all that you do).