# BOA vs Speed Zone vs Traditional



## EmreSnw (8 mo ago)

Hello,
I am new on snowboarding. I used traditional lacing few times and was okay. I don’t understand why does it worth to buy something more expensive and less durable and easier to be broken, just because 1 minute less to tie? Or not to use muscle to tie? People who are lazy that much, how do they do snowboard? 
I personally don’t like other than regular but unfortunatelly there are very few traditional lacing boots in my country. All they are BOA and Speed Zone and i think i will habe to but one of them😒

Could you please share your experiences about how comfortable and durable they are, also if they were broken? how to fix?
Thanks


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## Mike256 (Oct 13, 2013)

What a dumb first post


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## EmreSnw (8 mo ago)

Mike256 said:


> What a dumb first post


Because with regular, its not possible to make tight as much as BOA or speedzone? What is dump? What else make them necessary?


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## mjayvee (Nov 18, 2015)

EmreSnw said:


> Hello,
> I am new on snowboarding. I used traditional lacing few times and was okay. I don’t understand why does it worth to buy something more expensive and less durable and easier to be broken, just because 1 minute less to tie? Or not to use muscle to tie? People who are lazy that much, how do they do snowboard?
> I personally don’t like other than regular but unfortunatelly there are very few traditional lacing boots in my country. All they are BOA and Speed Zone and i think i will habe to but one of them😒
> 
> ...


Welcome to the forum and to snowboarding. 

Great first post, because you are asking about boots before board/bindings. Boots are very important and are the foundation to a snowboarding setup.

This video helps explain the boot lacing types. Good luck with your boot search!


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## ctoma (Aug 9, 2011)

Some people like traditional laces because it lets them dial in how tight\loose to tie their boots from the toes to the top. If I recall correctly, someone recently had a post where he said he uses tradtional laces and keeps them tight in the toes, loose around the ankles... or something like that. Also, tradtional laces are easy to replace.

Some boots are single BOA which doesn't allow you to tighten different zones. Dual BOA allows you to tighten different zones. Other have said BOA comes loose and they have to re-tighten constantly. Some people have had issues with the BOA system breaking, but I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) BOA is guaranteed and you can request a replacement.

Speed lace works for me, there's a lower zone and upper zone. I haven't had any issues with speed lacing becoming loose or undone, nor have I experienced a lace breaking (knock on wood).


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## Turms (Jan 14, 2022)

i like to have my boots really tight. And that it is not possible with laces. 
Ok it is possible, but after a couple of hours , tha laces are wet and you have to do everything from the start. With boa while i am sitting on the chairlift, i make a paar clicks.


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## ChrisZed (Oct 5, 2021)

Good question but before jumping into conclusions or calling people lazy for something you haven’t even tried yet, it’s not smart.
My advise is to choose a boot that fits your foot first and then focus on the lacing. Some models offer 2 types of lacing. 
I have tried all of them and I prefer BOA and speed lacing. It’s faster, easy to re-adjust them and stay tight for a longer time. I ve never had a bad experience.
Plus I spend more time snowboarding than wasting my time to tight my boots.


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## Yotaismygame (10 mo ago)

I've been using BOA since 2006ish. Never had a failure. Double BOA is great for keeping the ankle tight but the foot looser or vice versa.


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## NT.Thunder (Jan 4, 2020)

EmreSnw said:


> Hello,
> I am new on snowboarding. I used traditional lacing few times and was okay. I don’t understand why does it worth to buy something more expensive and less durable and easier to be broken, just because 1 minute less to tie? Or not to use muscle to tie? People who are lazy that much, how do they do snowboard?
> I *personally *don’t like other than regular but unfortunatelly there are very few traditional lacing boots in my country. All they are BOA and Speed Zone and i think i will habe to but one of them😒
> 
> ...


And that's all that matters - you like, I like, they like......if you prefer traditional find a pair and stick with it.

I guess I'm in the lazy category currently.


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## drblast (Feb 28, 2017)

All systems break, it's just a matter of when and how easy is it to fix. BOA has been fairly reliable for me but when it does break it breaks catastrophically and can be a week or two to get fixed unless you have a spare. Same with speed laces - break one of the laces or a cleat that holds it in, you're done until you replace the part. Laces hardly ever break; grommets do but you can work around that with some creative tying and/or velcro straps.

BOA is so much easier to get on and off and that doesn't seem like a big deal until you've got your car doors open in a well-below-freezing blizzard and are desperately trying to get your boots on or off. Or when everyone else hops out of the car and is ready to go with their five zone BOA boots that also open bottles and they're waiting for you to stop messing around with your gear like a fucking skier. Traditional laces lose a little appeal at that point.

Still, tie traditional laces right and wrap a velcro strap around the upper and you're good all day in pure comfort. I've never been able to do that with speed laces or BOAs so my hands get cold by the car sometimes.


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## EmreSnw (8 mo ago)

ChrisZed said:


> Good question but before jumping into conclusions or calling people lazy for something you haven’t even tried yet, it’s not smart.
> My advise is to choose a boot that fits your foot first and then focus on the lacing. Some models offer 2 types of lacing.
> I have tried all of them and I prefer BOA and speed lacing. It’s faster, easy to re-adjust them and stay tight for a longer time. I ve never had a bad experience.
> Plus I spend more time snowboarding than wasting my time to tight my boots.


Thanks all for replies. Nice to hear they are durable since i can’t find regular anyway.
Still i wonder, if they are durable that much, warranty sould have been 2 years at least. 1 year means only 1 season.

I have no experience of these other than regular, so this is just my point of view:
BOA looks most breakable since the mechanism is very big and extruded, make something possible to hit and crash it when riding or even traveling inside checkin baggage. People somethimes throw the bags to places there. Something can hit them always.

Speedzone looks more durable because of being less complexity and being smaller. Harder to hit it with something by a mistake. But as far as i know, to repair is harder.
Bıt if this is less likely to be broken, i would prefer speedzone. Because when they are broken its aleays hard to fix.


I love regular laces. Harder to make them tight but its just a minute. 
edit: Also there are some techniques to make regular lacing tight. After each row you twist laces to keep tightenig.


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## Turms (Jan 14, 2022)

i use BOA since 2009 i think. I have NEVER had a problem.
From the first months i order two replacement kits (i think 20 -25 $ for both of them) so if something happens i dont have to wait for the kit to come.
However you have made a mistake
The boots have 1 year Warranty
The BOAs have Lifetime warranty
Once again , you said you are new.
People here are snowboarding maybe for 10-20-30 years.
Some of them use BOA. Do you think the didnt tried the laces? Probably yes. BOA is not so old. Since they are using now the BOAs maybe they are lazy, as you said, or maybe the find BOA better....
it is a personal matter.
It is like saying "you have a 5-door Auto" because you are too lazy with a 3-door Auto"....

keep riding ...

PS BOA started with snoboardboots. Now is everywhere....Cycling, climbing, running...i dont think it would be so , if it was a crap...


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## drblast (Feb 28, 2017)

BOAs are nearly indestructible from the things you mentioned. I have had the ratchets wear down to the point that the dial would loosen on its own. I've had the cable wear through the plastic guides and the stitching in the boot that holds the guides come out. But likely the boots are at the end of their useful life anyway by the time that happens.

I've had speed laces break and the cleats that hold them in wear down so they didn't grip very tightly or become brittle and break. The Burton system seems a bit more durable than the Salomon system but the Salomon was an easier repair.

You don't have to be afraid of any of this happening unless you're riding hard for 50+ days a season and trying to get two or more seasons out of your boots.

Choose your boots based on fit and comfort first and don't worry about the lacing system. It doesn't matter.


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## EmreSnw (8 mo ago)

Turms said:


> i use BOA since 2009 i think. I have NEVER had a problem.
> From the first months i order two replacement kits (i think 20 -25 $ for both of them) so if something happens i dont have to wait for the kit to come.
> However you have made a mistake
> The boots have 1 year Warranty
> ...


Thanks. i agree it was ignorant to call lazy, because i see its not possible to tie tight and mantain it as much as these lacing systems.

But there are some issues:
Those replacement kits are not easy to be found everywhere easily, in some countries not possible to find or order. It is soo great if there is life time warranty for BOA, hope also for speed lace… But shops which sell these items, say they can send it only within 1-2 years for warranty, not any more. After 2 years, if i will need to send, better to buy new boots.
No matter how carefully you use them, when riding on slopes, you can fall and hit or stuck your BOA to somewhere. 
Though its very small risk, still unpleasent to be without boots on the slope, It may worth to have these risks, to tie more tightly, i don’t know now since i have no experience that much.


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## drblast (Feb 28, 2017)

EmreSnw said:


> No matter how carefully you use them, when riding on slopes, you can fall and hit or stuck your BOA to somewhere.


When I was a kid, based on stuff I saw on TV, I thought quicksand was a major problem and if I ever traveled or went on a hike I'd have to be REALLY careful not to get caught in it. Turns out, my inexperience led me to vastly overestimate the danger of quicksand, and vastly underestimate the danger of other things like riding down a small hill on an old skateboard.

Really, you're way overthinking this. It's much more likely you're going to break a binding or leg if you fall hard enough to break a BOA dial. The chances that you'd hit that exact spot hard enough are vanishingly small, and even then the boot and your body will flex more than the BOA dial will to cushion the blow. You can pretty much take a hammer to those things and nothing will happen.


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## Turms (Jan 14, 2022)

EmreSnw said:


> Thanks. i agree it was ignorant to call lazy, because i see its not possible to tie tight and mantain it as much as these lacing systems.
> 
> But there are some issues:
> Those replacement kits are not easy to be found everywhere easily, in some countries not possible to find or order. It is soo great if there is life time warranty for BOA, hope also for speed lace… But shops which sell these items, say they can send it only within 1-2 years for warranty, not any more. After 2 years, if i will need to send, better to buy new boots.
> ...


When something mit Boa goes wrong, you can write direkt to BOA and they send the replacement...it takes Max a fee days


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## Hurricane (Jan 5, 2010)

My speed laces broke the first trip I went on last year after driving 5 hours to get there. When I went to tighten them up the laces pulled out of the channel on my left boot around the toe box. I was able to make it work but it was disappointing. So when I got home I bought my first pair of Boas and now I'm sold. For me it really doesn't have anything to do with speed or laziness vs traditional laces but it's more of the tunability of the double boa system that allows you to get the boots tight where you like them. They do usually require a couple more turns as the day goes on but it can be done without even pulling up your pant leg.


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## Yeahti87 (Jan 17, 2019)

For me it’s the traditional laces. Yes, it takes longer to lace up but I won’t trade the customization of the traditional laces for speed lacing/BoA.

My first boots were Rome Sentry single BoA, then I’ve changed to traditional laces in Adidas Tactical and have been riding them for years now. Last season got Adidas Acerras double BoA so a very similar model. I rode them maybe 3 times x 1.5 hour and sold them.

For me the key thing with the traditional laces is that if I want to hard carve only/charge I keep them all tight. Once I want to do some more fs and I need little forgiveness but still want to have a good response and keep my ankle tight and secured, I just loosen the very last hook a bit with some loops on the last but one from the top. It was impossible to do that with double BoA. The whole ankle part of the boot is a single BoA section there. With the traditional laces I have 3 customizable sections only there.

I wouldn’t be worried about the BoA durability though. The only problem there is some winged highbacks that might pop up the knob.


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## Exzul (Nov 10, 2019)

mjayvee said:


> Welcome to the forum and to snowboarding.
> 
> Great first post, because you are asking about boots before board/bindings. Boots are very important and are the foundation to a snowboarding setup.
> 
> This video helps explain the boot lacing types. Good luck with your boot search!


You legend well done


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## Myoko (Dec 11, 2018)

drblast said:


> Choose your boots based on fit and comfort first and don't worry about the lacing system. It doesn't matter.


This comment. I prefer Boa's but then I had a brand new boot once where the Boa locked and I couldn't get it off my foot which was in pain at the time because I had over tightened it. I think it was only a single Boar version at the time. Nearly had a bloody panic attack!
All boots will surely break, and at the worst possible time usually and when they do you need to be able to keep riding for the rest of your holiday. Get some Strapins or make something similar if you can, that way your boots will stay tight all day regardless of the style of boot you have and keep you on the mountain when they break. Spent the last 2 weeks of my last trip with my right boot screwed because the tabs that hold the wire had given away.


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## Kinobandito (Oct 19, 2021)

EmreSnw said:


> Thanks all for replies. Nice to hear they are durable since i can’t find regular anyway.
> Still i wonder, if they are durable that much, warranty sould have been 2 years at least. 1 year means only 1 season.
> 
> I have no experience of these other than regular, so this is just my point of view:
> ...


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## Eric L (Dec 7, 2021)

When I tried the Ion step on speed lace at the shop, I was pulling so hard on the lace and nothing was happening, it was almost impossible to tight them ??? Is it better when the boot is broken in ? Or I was simply not doing the right thing ? I went with the Photon Boa instead but I like stiffer boots.


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## robotfood99 (Mar 19, 2016)

There is no need to heave-ho on the speedlaces as if you are trying to choke your ankles to death. The reason they are called speed laces and is actually the fastest lacing method out there is that you only need to firmly tug at them for secure fits above and below the ankle. Really pulling them an extra few mms may feel more secure but also take their toll on the hardware. Locking down the inner boots more securely will probably cure the loose speedlace feel more effectively than yanking on the speedlace pulls. Broken-in boots will help, too, no doubt.


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## Turms (Jan 14, 2022)

Eric L said:


> When I tried the Ion step on speed lace at the shop, I was pulling so hard on the lace and nothing was happening, it was almost impossible to tight them ??? Is it better when the boot is broken in ? Or I was simply not doing the right thing ? I went with the Photon Boa instead but I like stiffer boots.


i have noticed the same. 
Thats why i prefer BOA

Question : Burton use instead of these metalic ropes the New England Ropes 
So far i know , when this kind of ropes are wet, the loose a little from stifness. Or am i wrong? 
My problem is that my calves are relativ thin, and if i have to make the BOA (or SL) every couple of hours tighter, then after a couple of weeks there will be no more rope to tighten


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## robotfood99 (Mar 19, 2016)

Turms said:


> i have noticed the same.
> Thats why i prefer BOA
> 
> Question : Burton use instead of these metalic ropes the New England Ropes
> ...


New England ropes do not really have any stretch in them, nor technically get wet. It's more likely that the ropes are digging into the boot tongues. Also a lot more likely that your feet are bedding into the liners or the liners are packing out from your body heat. 

Sounds like you could benefit from some shin shims like these.








The Eliminator Custom Tongue Shims


The Eliminator Custom Tongues improve ski and snowboard boot fit and are easy to install without tools.




www.tognar.com


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## htfu (Mar 18, 2015)

you should probably try some on in a shop to get an initial impression. unfortunately from then on it is going to be a matter of trial and error to find what works for you, keeping in mind that as you get better your requirements will change. essentially you need to start somewhere, if i had to start from scratch with boots i would definitely go traditional laces and add something like the lace lock on the nike kaiju boots that would effectively allow you to have a dual zone with trad laces without the extra fuss.

given that you are starting off i would suggest focusing on comfortable midrange boots without too much fnky tech as you will probably be replacing them in a year or two anyway. the money you is better off being spent on trips and lessons, not gear (again, this is what i would do if i had to start from scratch).

with all that being said, make your choice and focus on having fun snowboarding


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

Just to add, there are now buckles that can be used instead of laces, speedos and boas.  I have done all the other methods but now buckles are my thing...why settle for less. lol


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## drblast (Feb 28, 2017)

wrathfuldeity said:


> Just to add, there are now buckles that can be used instead of laces, speedos and boas.  I have done all the other methods but now buckles are my thing...why settle for less. lol


Don't listen to this guy, he's gonna have you in hardboots and a onesie before you know what happened. :-D


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