In the early days of skiing, athletes relied on traditional laces to cinch closed their footwear. As you can imagine, they didn’t offer much stability at all. Buckles were first patented by a Swiss stunt pilot and bike racer Hans Martin in 1954, and offered far superior stability and control. They have been adopted as the preferred method of closure since— or at least some variation of them. 

Over the last years though, some ski boot brands have started incorporating the BOA fit system in to some of their AT touring specific boots, like the Traverse CS from Fischer and the Backland Pro CL from Atomic. SCARPA F1 has also used a BOA system for some years. However, K2 is breaking ground by releasing their Recon 120, a strictly alpine boot with a BOA fit system and the first of its kind. 

The idea behind the Recon 120 is that the BOA system will squeeze around the foot evenly as it tightens, avoiding hot spots and providing more customizability for the wearer. In regards to durability, the system is made with a ‘breakaway design’ that ejects the dial cartridge upon heavy impact to avoid damage to the system, and the cable it is attached to means you can pop it back on and re-tighten after a fall. 

I’m interested to see how these go. Check out the product page here.