In recent weeks, we’ve seen a number of boot manufacturers release their next update on boot designs : double Boa. 23/24 season saw Boa on the clog, the lower boot, and we’re already seeing boots hitting the market with Boa on both the clog and the cuff.
Many are decrying the use of Boa as a negative touting lack of performance, reduced robustness and poorer fit as negatives but I think many are also failing to see the bigger picture. The majority of skiers, in the UK at least, are recreational, ski purely for fun with family and/or friends and prefer comfort and ease of user over, what would be to them, tiny if not imperceptible improvements in performance.
If you’re cruising blue runs from cafe to cafe to take in the views over an espresso or hot chocolate then performance is definitely not your number one driver for boot choice.
Consider too, the revival of the rear-entry boot with Nordica’s HF range, or also the snow-board style offerings from Dahu and Apex which uses a soft-boot in an exoskeleton boot ‘cage’, all being marketed with comfort as their number one selling point.
So is Boa taking over? In my opinion, certainly not. Is it going to solve all the problems for everyone? No there as well. Will it find a place in the market, and while it’s new and shiny, lots of manufacturers are jumping on a potentially profitable band wagon? I think so. There is also the chance that, and time will tell, that Boa does actually offer as good performance as clips, bearing in mind that for ski boots at least this is a new technology.
Skiing is a very expensive hobby, with enough barriers to entry without gatekeeping boot designs to make things less usable and less comfortable to discourage the average skier. Let’s encourage design and development, make things easier to use, cheaper to buy so more of us can spend more time on the hill.