How to Choose Snowboard Boots
Just like with hiking or skiing, the key to shopping snowboard gear is getting your feet into sweet-fitting footwear. If your boots grind, pinch and refrigerate your dogs, you'll never get the most out your gear—or yourself—when riding. My best piece of advice is to not be rushed when boot shopping. Take the time to find the boot that best matches the idiosyncrasies of your feet and the personality of your board and bindings. Here's how.
Getting Started
Your Rider Profile
Types of Boots
Boot Fit
Liners
Footbeds
Lacing Systems
Getting Started
The Basics
Virtually all snowboard boots sold today to recreational riders in North America, novice and veterans alike, are "soft boots". Soft boots look a tad like aprés-ski mukluks on steroids. They don't scream high-performance like their alpine or telemark cousins. Despite this, much technical design and craftsmanship have gone into their construction.
Snowboard boots function a bit differently than ski boots. The latter deliver your power to the ski through their burly exoskeleton, the outer buckled shell. Soft boots, however, work in tandem with your bindings' high-back and straps. This seamless unit shares equally the power transmission job.
How to Shop
Boots can be successfully purchased online. However, this is something I recommend with a huge dose of caution, as there simply is no substitute for strolling into a store for a comparison of fit and function between differing brands and models. By slipping your feet into a menu of boots in quick succession, it readily becomes apparent which boot either fits like a glove or at least gets you close.
Don't all boots break in and conform to your foot over time? They do—to a point. The nature of snowboard boots, however, belies how much internal structure and supportive sculpting is disguised under the fabric exterior. These components are, by design, highly resistant to breaking-in. Hence the need to see which boot fits best out of the box.
Post-purchase, a good boot-fitter can work with you to optimize the fit. Tailoring and fine-tuning can be done with thermo-formable liners, aftermarket or custom footbeds, sock selection and by hand cobbling.
Know Your Budget
Most of us work within some kind of budget. No matter how much you've squirreled away for boarding gear, make sure that the amount spent on boots be governed foremost by what fits, then what mates well with your bindings and board. If this means that you spend more on boots for a good fit, so be it. Just cut back a bit on how much you spend on your board or bindings. Fit is that important.
Your Rider Profile
Snowboarders fall into three basic skill groups:
Recreational
You're trying out the sport for the first time. Or you've boarded roughly ten to 20 times and have mastered the rudiments of the sport, but you know you'll only get out a few times each year. This category of rider is still gaining a feel for what is possible in the world of snowboarding.
Intermediate
Definitely bitten by the bug, you have advanced well past the basics, get out at least ten to 20 times a year and can stay upright on most terrain—and have fun doing so. While you're most likely very strong carving roomers, pulling basic tricks in the park and pipe, and riding through fresh powder, you still spend most of your time inbounds and are tentative on very technical terrain, steep terrain and the most difficult jibbing.
Advanced/Expert
Two words: complete addiction! You know who you are. You've probably been riding for years and are confident on all types of terrain and snow conditions. You have sampled the spectrum of boarding, from pipes to peaks, and may own several boards suited to different types of riding. This category also includes backcountry riders. The backcountry offers far different experiences than the resort scene due to the additional skills, fitness, tools and knowledge required for safe riding in such an unpredictable and potentially hazardous place.
Types of Boots
Unlike with boards, snowboard boots don't fall readily into definitive categories. There really aren't specific powder, peak, park or pipe boots. Rather there is simply a spectrum ranging from soft to stiff. Personal preference plays a large role here, in addition to some general rules on selection based on stiffness and activity.
How to Compare
Stiff vs. Soft: Stiffer boots generate edge power for scribing lines across iron-hard ice and deep drops off peaks. Softer boots are for soft corn snow, powder and all types of jibbing and acrobatic tricks. What you ride over and what type of terrain you tackle will help guide your selection.
Warmth: If you ride where the mercury is below zero for extended periods, or if you have a circulatory system better suited to tropical hammocks, make sure your boots (and footbeds) seal out as much cold as possible while keeping your feet dry, warm and happy.
Outsoles: All boarding boots have some variety of walking sole, but if you think you'll be routinely heeding the call of wild and carving remote lines, then you'll want boots with more aggressive lugged soles and enhanced durability.
Women's Boots: These address the common women's issues of narrow heels, poor circulation in the extremities and large calf muscles that drop deeply down the rear of the leg.
Specialty Boots
Hard Boots: More in vogue in the '90s, these are rarely seen today (though they remain somewhat popular in the Alps). Hard boots are usable only with machined metal-plate bindings. Most are either relabeled or slightly modified alpine touring boots sold as "snowboard" boots. Hard boots, in addition to being the tool of choice for the hard-charging carve and downhill race crowd, are used by snowboard mountaineers needing a rigid-soled, welted boot for cramponing.
Alternatively, Dynafit-compatible alpine touring (AT) boots are used by backcountry snowboarders who mount Dynafit AT bindings on short skis, rather than using split board or snowshoes, for approaching backcountry descents. Hard boots provide all of the benefits of true thermoformable liners.
Climbing Boots: Other "snowboard" boots include plastic or composite technical climbing boots. Serving a similar backcountry role as hard boots, these are used with plate bindings by a few high-altitude snowboard mountaineers.
Step-In Boots: Step-in boots and bindings have faded from the market. They convenience of getting in and out of these bindings gave rise to this system. Today, riders looking for ease of ingress and egress often choose a hybrid binding like those offered by Flow.
Boot Fit
Try Them On
Boots should fit snugly but not overly tight. Over time, all boots and liners soften up a bit and gain what is known as "volume" inside the boot. Don't be tempted to buy a boot that is loose or sloppy when first put on. Pay attention that the rear of the boot is snug, as this is where your bones lever the board onto its edge. Having some wiggle room in the toecap is very important for warding off popsicle toes.
Wear Snowboard Socks
Be sure to wear the same type of sock that you will be riding with to try on boots. In the past, skiers, snowshoers and boarders wore very thick socks for warmth. Today's modern boot liners and insulation go a long way to warm feet. Better now to go with a thin, smooth-faced, snowboard-specific sock. These let moisture pass through easily while producing less friction and fewer hot spots. Bundling your feet under multiple layers of ragg socks is a recipe for system slop - don't do it.
After the Purchase
It is possible for a boot to feel heavenly in store only to turn hellish once you start cranking some turns. Over the years, I've cavalierly taken boots straight to the mountain only to suffer cruel pain, numbness and impaired circulation courtesy of hot spots, hard points, sewn seams, oversized socks and inattentive lacing. To avoid this, wear your boots around the house, play with the lacing system and try out some snowboard socks before you commit to a day of boarding.
Liners
The "liner" can refer to both the actual lining of your boot as well as the insulating innards sandwiched outside the lining. It can be permanently attached to the outer boot or be a removable bootie. If removable, they normally are taken out to dry. Liners fall into three basic categories:
- Common stock liners: All liners are heat formable to a degree. Subject them to body heat and pressure and they gradually mimic your bipedal anatomy. This normally takes three to five days to feel really comfortable.
- Thermo stock liners: These pricier liners are built with sophisticated materials designed to break-in to your foot with just the heat produced by your foot.
- Custom liners: In the ski-boot world, custom liners are commonly called thermo-formable liners. These are molded by artificial heat sources such as an air dryer or special boot fitting ovens, though body heat will work too over time. Properly molded, thermo-formable liners provide a true custom fit immediately. Generally speaking, custom liners are an optional add-on.
I've dwelled long and loud about the importance of boot fit. Interestingly, the most critical aspect of fit is hidden from view underneath your foot: the insole or footbed. Since it's impossible for a boot maker to make an insole to fit the infinite variety of feet, snowboard boots (as with all other footwear) are equipped with generic, typically low-performance insoles. One could write a book about foot biomechanics and why supportive footbeds are so important. In a nutshell, a performance insole helps your foot function properly throughout its normal range of motion and cushions your foot from impact.
- Aftermarket footbeds: Off-the-rack insoles (such as Superfeet®) are rooted in sound biomechanical science and do a fine job for most feet. This is especially true given their reasonable price of admission (under $50).
- Custom footbeds: Gaining in popularity, these are usually made from high-quality EVA foam. Many outdoor retailers either offer this service or can recommend a specialist who can make them for you. Going for $100 to $200 per pair, custom footbeds mirror perfectly the topography of your sole and last for years.
- Orthotics: True medical devices, orthotics are available only by prescription. Anyone can use orthotics, but in reality only those riders with serious biomechanical problems should resort to this type of footbed.
Lacing Systems
Yes, there are competing systems for cinching up your boots. Some boots allow you to replace the stock laces with specialty and fashion-forward laces.
- Traditional laces: These are tried-and-true and, for the most part, foolproof.
- Quick laces: This one-pull lace system is fast and allows for zonal tightening. This means you can fine-tune the tightness of the forefoot lacing independently from the ankle and lower leg.
- Boa system: This consists of hidden, small-diameter cables attached to a gnurled wheel or dial on the top of the boot tongue and another one near the ankle. Licensed by several boot makers, it allows an even more precise fit over the foot and lower leg. "Zonal Boa" takes it one step further by offering upper and lower wheels for the ultimate in customizing the fit.
Last updated: November 2007.
