# current boot issues



## htfu (Mar 18, 2015)

ok, so i have had 3 sets of boots so far that have been roughly correctly sized and that fit my feet. they were (in order) :

- nitro select (2010)
- nike kaiju (2013)
- nitro select (2015/6)

the first pair nitros fitted amazingly, lasted reasonably well and were ok wrt price. over the lifetime of the boots my opinion of tls went from "working well, approve" to "i will never get another set of boots with tls, ever". this was mainly due to the laces being worn out by the teeth on the locking mechanism and eventually due to the locking mechanism becoming pretty much useless ie boots would loosen after every run or just walking a short way. the laces also tended to become very tangled up as the lace handled would come out of their sheathes on the sides of the boot and drag the laces out of where i'd shoved them between my shins and the tongue of the boot. the lastthing to go was the material on the lace hooks ie the laces actually sawded through the material of the lace loops and now the boots would not lace up properly.

the kaijus were great initially wrt fit and lacing. the lacing was traditional with a very simple mechanism to effectively separate the top and bottom zones. unfortunately they packed out a lot and this made the fit worse as the boots got more use, so by midday the boots were pretty sloppy (it bothered me then, not so much now as it seems that i can ride through that sort of thing). the armoured backstay disintegrated, probably due to my weight (~120kgs at the time) so this may be more my fault than anything else ... it also meant that the boots lost their ability to keep water/snow out, which did make things seem a lot worse than they probably were. the laces broke, but replacements meant that the boots were still fine. the boot liner lace lock broke and this made things worse as i could not find a way to replace it at the time. to be fair i reckon that the boots would've been way better had i weighed less. unfortunately nike exited the snowboard boot side of things so i was not able/willing to give the lunarendors a try :/

so, i went back to the nitros, the memory of the tls and lace loops had faded and i was finding getting boots to be very problematic as trying on boots became a lot less feasible (lots of independent stores closed and the ranges stocked by the bigger ones seemed to shrink dramatically). needless to say the current pair suffer from exactly the same issues as the first pair. i'm now going to have to find out if i can fix the lace loop thing along with managing the whole tls not really doing its job any more. everything else with my current pair of selects is good.

so, here are my questions :

- has anyone had the lace loop issue/tls not doing its job issue and found a way to mitigate/fix either one
- which boots should i be looking at next, all suggestions welcome (i'm 6'4"/1.94m tall, 165lbs/75kg and ride pow/piste/freestyle with a tiny bit of park ... mostly jumps and some of the bigger boxes)

any pointers/suggestions welcome ... got to keep my mind off the fact i'm not snowboarding, so gear geeking/research is the current replacement


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## bazman (Jan 15, 2017)

Best place to start is with correct sizing - can you measure both feet using the @wiresport (copyright) method below and reply back with the numbers?


Kick your heel (barefoot please, no socks) back against a wall. Mark the floor exactly at the tip of your toe (the one that sticks out furthest - which toe this is will vary by rider). Measure from the mark on the floor to the wall. That is your foot length and is the only measurement that you will want to use. Measure in centimetres or millimetres.

For width please place the inside (medial side) of your foot against a wall. Please then measure from the wall out to the widest point on the lateral (outside) of your foot.


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## htfu (Mar 18, 2015)

bazman said:


> Best place to start is with correct sizing - can you measure both feet using the @wiresport (copyright) method below and reply back with the numbers?
> 
> 
> Kick your heel (barefoot please, no socks) back against a wall. Mark the floor exactly at the tip of your toe (the one that sticks out furthest - which toe this is will vary by rider). Measure from the mark on the floor to the wall. That is your foot length and is the only measurement that you will want to use. Measure in centimetres or millimetres.
> ...



the sizing is pretty much spot on for the last pair of boots (2016 nitro select), thanks to @Wiredsport ...


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## bazman (Jan 15, 2017)

OK good news re sizing if you have that dialled already

Would be worth trying some other brands to see if you can get a good fit - can't recommend anything specific as what fits other people may not fit you.

You really need to get to a shop with a good range and try on loads if you can

Re the lacing issues, traditional lacing would get rid of those as super easy to replace laces if needed. Boa have a lifetime warranty if you wanted to try that - personally I'm not keen. I've never had issues with Burton speed lacing, and they also have great warranty if you do get unlucky


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## htfu (Mar 18, 2015)

paging @Wiredsport, your input/suggestions would be really helpful here


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## Seppuccu (Dec 4, 2012)

I have a pair of Nitro Team TLSs that I wore and tore for a good 60 days or so. Had the TLS coming undone issue too, mainly on my trailing boot. One workaround for that is to tie a "half bowknot" once you've tightened your boots, which will prevent the boot from coming more than just a little undone. I also told a retailer about the problem and they just gave me a new set of the TLS lock for free. I never exchanged my old ones though, since I would have had to cut the ropes and felt the whole thing was a PITA.


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## htfu (Mar 18, 2015)

Seppuccu said:


> I have a pair of Nitro Team TLSs that I wore and tore for a good 60 days or so. Had the TLS coming undone issue too, mainly on my trailing boot. One workaround for that is to tie a "half bowknot" once you've tightened your boots, which will prevent the boot from coming more than just a little undone. I also told a retailer about the problem and they just gave me a new set of the TLS lock for free. I never exchanged my old ones though, since I would have had to cut the ropes and felt the whole thing was a PITA.


cheers for the suggestion, reckon that should help out a bit. totally agree on the replacing tls locks being a pita ... would prefer not to mess around with that.

just had a look at nitro's site and they do have the select with standard laces ... looks like i will have to consider these along with other potential options.


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## Wiredsport (Sep 16, 2009)

Hi,

Please remind us of your length and width measurements for each foot and please let us know your boot sizes (for the pairs mentioned).

STOKED!


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## htfu (Mar 18, 2015)

hey @Wiredsport

thanks for replying, here are my current foot measurements :

left :
- length : 285mm
- width : 95mm

right :
- length : 285mm
- width : 95mm

current boots :
- model : nitro select
- year : 2017
- size :
-- mondopoint : 290

the previous pairs were fitted in-store, but not properly measured iirc. my feet may have been slightly differently shaped (i was 47kg heavier back then), so specs for them may not be helpful now(?).


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## Wiredsport (Sep 16, 2009)

htfu said:


> hey @Wiredsport
> 
> thanks for replying, here are my current foot measurements :
> 
> ...


Hi,

This is very helpful for a couple of reasons. 285 mm is Mondopoint 285 or size 10.5 US in snowboard boots. Your current boots at 290 would be a half size too large. Also, 95 MM is quite narrow at a very low C width (actually a B width in your current size 11 boots). That would make your current boots a half size too long and 2 full sizes too Wide.

What I think is happening is that you are reefing down on your lacing system in an effort to tighten down on a foot that will never be snug in your current size.

There are no boots designed for narrow feet. The Flow Talon is my go to suggestion for narrow footed riders (who like a very stiff boot). I would strongly suggest those to you in Mondo 285. I think they will solve all of your problems (boot problems - there are some things they cannot help with )

STOKED!


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## htfu (Mar 18, 2015)

Wiredsport said:


> Hi,
> 
> This is very helpful for a couple of reasons. 285 mm is Mondopoint 285 or size 10.5 US in snowboard boots. Your current boots at 290 would be a half size too large. Also, 95 MM is quite narrow at a very low C width (actually a B width in your current size 11 boots). That would make your current boots a half size too long and 2 full sizes too Wide.
> 
> ...


 @Wiredsport ... you rock

thanks for the info and suggestion of the talons, i'll try to find a shop that stocks them so that i can go try them on. will report back once i've made some progress


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

htfu said:


> hey @Wiredsport
> 
> ...
> 
> the previous pairs were fitted in-store, but not properly measured iirc. my feet may have been slightly differently shaped (i was 47kg heavier back then), so specs for them may not be helpful now(?).


Wut...47kg lighter...ehmm ya yer peds have shrunk...at least yer cankles.


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## htfu (Mar 18, 2015)

new boots or try to mcguyver things to make the boots last 2 or 3 more weeks?

anyone have any experience with repairing material lace loops on snowboard boots? or any pointers on how to best glue/bond/weld/?? the material (think it is nylon ... not 100% sure)?


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## htfu (Mar 18, 2015)

sooooo, it looks like nobody in the uk or europe has 285mp talon focus boas  so i will have to find a way to make the nitros last another 2 weeks.

anyone have any experience/tips/pointers wrt fabric lace loop repair/reinforcement? the lace loops are nylon/polyester according to the uk nitro rep ... bonding looks to be the best bet but would it be an idea to do some sort of sewing of the overlapped ends and then bonding/glueing just to try to make it as strong as possible?


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## SEWiShred (Jan 19, 2019)

Post pics of the damage on the boot.


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## htfu (Mar 18, 2015)

pics taken a few days ago :


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## htfu (Mar 18, 2015)

update: nitro uk said that it is not a warranty thing (never thought it would be), since i bought them from an online store based in europe i'd have to speak to them but would get the same answer ie. out of warranty, buy a new pair of boots. i asked the uk if they knew what fabric the lace loops were made of in the hope that i coukd glue/bond them to get a bit more use out of them. apparently they are a poly/nylon blend, so i thought that i'd look into what would be needed ... turns out the nylon part is a pita :/ so i just went to my next week in the alps without doing anything about it, a few days into the week another loop broke (this time on the other boot). the boots were now getting super loose after only a few hours riding in the morning. the tls was basically not really working at all either. decided to just make do with whatever happened and rode the rest of the week.

got back home and decided that i was not going to buy nitro boots again, even though there was a select model with laces. the lace loops were still fabric and i'm not about to spend more money on something i know will fail even though the rest of the boot is fine. so i asked @Wiredsport for a recommendation, came back that for my feet (thin/narrow) the flow/nidecker talons were the goto boot.

tried to find a pair in mondo 285 ... nothing doing anywhere within reasonable distance ... until today. got a new pair of 2019 talons on their way to me, in time to break them in a bit for my next week in europe 

really hoping i have found a reliable pair of boots (still not sold on the boas, but i guess there's nothing like experience to learn the pros & cons of something). let's see how it goes ...


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## SlvrDragon50 (Mar 25, 2017)

htfu said:


> update: nitro uk said that it is not a warranty thing (never thought it would be), since i bought them from an online store based in europe i'd have to speak to them but would get the same answer ie. out of warranty, buy a new pair of boots. i asked the uk if they knew what fabric the lace loops were made of in the hope that i coukd glue/bond them to get a bit more use out of them. apparently they are a poly/nylon blend, so i thought that i'd look into what would be needed ... turns out the nylon part is a pita :/ so i just went to my next week in the alps without doing anything about it, a few days into the week another loop broke (this time on the other boot). the boots were now getting super loose after only a few hours riding in the morning. the tls was basically not really working at all either. decided to just make do with whatever happened and rode the rest of the week.
> 
> got back home and decided that i was not going to buy nitro boots again, even though there was a select model with laces. the lace loops were still fabric and i'm not about to spend more money on something i know will fail even though the rest of the boot is fine. so i asked @Wiredsport for a recommendation, came back that for my feet (thin/narrow) the flow/nidecker talons were the goto boot.
> 
> ...


Glad to hear you found a possible solution. 

I did have a BOA reel break on me two weeks in, but I think the days of worrying about not getting repairs on mountain are over unless it's a tiny mountain. 

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk


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## Myoko (Dec 11, 2018)

I keep telling people, a simple but effective product called *"Strapins' *will sort any boot lace issues immediately, and for the entire day. Someone else also recently said they helped him with heel lift and they have definitely helped me with anything from broken boots and bindings, to recently holding my arm in a sling until I could get off the mountain.

Just googled that name to see if they are still around and it looks like snowboard profiles just did a review on them.


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