Any thoughts on a Boa system?

I have ridden Vans Fargo boots for the last 4 years. for park riding they couldn't be more convenient. Without taking off your bindings you can tighten your boots.

the down side is when you brake a lace, happened to me once in the 4 years. and you just string up the spare when you get home. this is a bit of a job but really worth it.

Also the eyelets started to rip off their seems so I had to get new boots once they fully ripped off when i landed on my toes pretty heavy.

"Is Nike Good for Snowboarding?"

I think that this is one of the more intriguing topics right now.  It touches on many of the issues in the industry and I would be interested to hear people's thoughts.   While I can see both pros and cons, this post will be my argument for NO:

NIKE 2006 revenue - $14954.90 M
Adidas 2006 revenue - $ 7858.60 M
Quiksilver 2006 revenue = $2,362.29 M
K2 2006 revenue = $1,394.66 M

Nike is in snowboarding for one and only one reason: to make money. Of course, every single company in snowboarding has this as one of its priorities. However, when your annual revenue is $14 billion and you get into a relatively small market, you expect to dominate in terms of 70-80% market share.  In my opinion, Nike has seen its core markets of basketball and running either plateau or start to decline.  They view the action sports market as the sector most likely to continue to grow with the most opportunity for significant expansion.  If you don’t think this is the case, when Nike started into basketball Converse dominated the market, Nike now owns Converse, when Nike started into soccer, they were laughed at around the world, they now outsell Adidas. They have a simple formula, develop a product with a few differentiating features, buy the most respected in the sport to gain credibility, engineer the product to be cheap to produce, build them in sweatshops for the lowest possible cost, and sell for a high margin.

The following quote is from an article on CNN about how Nike gained credibility in the skate shoe marketplace.
“And in fact, Nike failed miserably in its first attempt to tackle the market seven years ago, when poorly designed shoes and a glitzy, mass-market ad campaign resulted in a line that was pulled after just one year. But thanks to the painful lessons it learned from that earlier effort, the $11 billion company has found that when it comes to marketing its three-year-old Nike Skateboarding brand, the trick is to not behave like an $11 billion company. Its market-share numbers are purposefully paltry--less than 5 percent of the $1 billion skate-shoe business--because, for now, Nike is focused not on volume but on cachet.” CNN

Nike can swing more weight than anyone in the business.  This means more need for consolidation into massive companies, ala K2 and Quik, to compete in any fashion.  It means that rider salaries are going to inflate, good for a limited number of pros, bad for all the small companies that disparately need the exposure that a solid team rider brings.  It means that Nike will be able to offer products with a higher profit margin than competitors.  The already struggling shops will have incentive to stock heavy with Nike, sucking up space smaller companies really need.   Look at the Dunk, it is basically an ugly shoe (that's right a big swoosh withgaudy color schemes on the same pattern is the last thing I want to wear) and absolutely lacks any innovation.  Yet people pay out the nose for them, it has to be one of the greatest marketing jobs of all time.  

I think we should put together a list of strictly the most comfortable boot to ride in. Don't worry about lacing, looks, or anything like that. From your experience, what is the most comfortable?

just curious about this. they seem to be the beezneez and ive noticed nothing bad about them. so why doesnt every company do it??

I recently viewed the new 32 ultralights. To me, the liner seems like more of a wetsuit material compared to the Burton liners which are way softer and more tech. Are there any beneifits of the 32 liner that could possibly used in teh boot?

Anybody else have issues with 32 soles coming off the boot?

My lashed began to fall apart after a couple of weeks. If they weren't so darn comfie I might have tried to sent them back. Instead I just got some shoe goo and put those bad boys back together.

i had a pair of the apx 5 from a few years ago when they were doing that whole apx project. they were sick, perfect mid-level flex, nice and comfy and warm. they were a little bulky/heavy i guess, but thatd be my only real complaint.

but more specifically they had a nice, simple mechanism so you could have separate upper and lower zones for the lacing. im not sure if theyre still using it or not, but i really liked it. i havent had any experience with their current speed lace system (sl2) but it seems like it should work pretty reliably

This is a review of the nitro quick lace system. I had the team tls eero ettela colorway. I had broken the boa knob off of my k2 t1's (best boot ever despite the break) one month before i got then nitros and i was looking for something on sale and still geared towards being supportive but not overly stiff. I bought them in january and by end of the season (end of april) I had noticed one boot had packed out more than the other and the lacing system didnt always stay tight.

Is there anything special about the 2-1 Power Lacing system on the Burton Hail? I dont even know if there is a difference or not, but I thought you could possibly answer my question. So thanks!

This is a system to hold the tongue of the boot in place. Burton uses a similar one on the lower lacing system of certain boots.

Here are the upper lace pulls for Thirty Two - they are metal sliders hooks, rivited onto the upper cuff of the boot. Most of these are the same (at least in function) from most companies- some however (like Salomon) come with little teeth to grip the lace and help hold it.