Nike has had some of the most highly respected and core industrie people helping them design banger boots. they have a banger team that loves the product and everything is made and drivin by riders every one baught films of 5 years ago. quit hattin

it doesnt really matter whos running it, or if we 'baught' theyre films 5 years ago. im nat gaing to buy their baats this year cause its still goy

ad busters is the shit. i forgot about that story...

Craig Kelly Forever.

Here is my take. Unlike Fat Canooch, I do believe that boot quality has everything to do with foot pain. It is ridiculous that boots are not better in this day. My feet hurt the least in a pair of Northwaves from 6 years ago, yeah back when the liners were multi panel hand sewn in Italy. Unfortunately I hold no faith that Nike will solve this. I am sure that the boots will be better, but just enough for people to notice. Regardless of the quality I will not be lining up for them. This is my personal preference and I don’t fault Danny or LV for signing up with Nike. I hope they get as much input as possible and take the big N for as much coin as possible.

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. 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

I understand that in today’s world Asian produced products are essential for any business to survive. I am not going to fault the vast majority however, Nike is a key reason why this inevitable truth exists. They reached their stature by exploiting Asian labor long before anyone was paying attention. I don’t really want to preach about this angle but I would suggest watching the following videos:

VIDEO: Shadow Business – Jedi Mind Tricks

VIDEO: Behind the Swoosh – Jim Keady

I hate the fact that Quik, Burton, and K2 essentially own the overall snowboard market, but I like it a whole lot more than Nike having 80%, some other public conglomerate with 10%, and all the good independent companies having the remaining 10%. That is the reality I see if Nike is let into the pasture.in

Nice one SBC . .

foot pain is from a couple different things, neither of which have anything to do with boot construction or liners:

1. inadequate arch support. get some custom orthotics done by a podiatrist.

2. circulation issues. if you cut off the circulation your feet will hurt, get boots with zonal lacing and experiment

skiers have known this for 40 years

if you are looking at Nike to solve your footpain problem you will be sorely disappointed

its a fallacy that Nike has all this R&d behind them, its marketing, they created boing afterall, fucking d-u-m-b

This snowboarder has know that for 15 years.

Sorry but I have to disagree on both your points... I have been living with foot pain since, ouch, 1986. In 1993 I discovered cork orthotics and have run them and others since. Also, no circulation problems and I have cold feet have never been an issue for me.

I really enjoyed reading SBCs and LJJs well thought out responses.

I think that LJJ is spot on with the part about finding the boot that most closely matches the profile of your boot.

I am at Windells right now and am goin g to take a really good look at the different boots and liners and well as test some of them out on snow... I will let you know what I think of the new 08s.

media knievel

just because you feet aren't cold, that doesn't mean you don't have circulation issues caused by poor fitting boots and or straps too tight or poor strap placement. also cork insoles are a joke, I am talking about custom made orthotics from a podiatrist. a 10,000 boot will not fix your problems, just finding the one that fits right will. no company, not even NIke aand r$d their way out of it.

Agreed MK, I have used orthos for probably 10-11 years and there is a drastic difference, still the pain but a big difference nonetheless. What I don't understand is why companies don't put a better footbed in stock. When I used to sell boots, if you put a $20 Superfeet bed in an average pair of boots, the Joeys would jump on them because of the difference in feel. It seems like such a simple cost effective way to increase sales and satisfaction.

I am in the market for a new pair of boots this season and with no connects I am relatively brand neutral for the first time in awhile. I will be very interested in what you find out at Windells.

Full agreement with LJJ as well, there should be a rating system for foot type, ie wide, high arch, etc. Also I feel strongly that the ultimate set-up will be an integrated boot/binder design. Not step-ins or any of that gimmick crap, but instead a binder that is built to interact with a specific boot. I know some companies have gone down this road a way's but they have failed to commit fully to the integration. It seems with the market taking such a fashion/cost effective turn for the last 5-6 years that there would be an opportunity for am independent player that fully dedicates themselves to building the most comfortable boot on the planet.
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Live Fast. Die. - GG Allin

fat cannuck stated that foot pain is from a couple different things, neither of which have anything to do with boot construction or liners:

not necessarily true.

j, you are in the top of the line next year’s burtons. naturally these have the best design patterns/flex zones/support and overall construction points employed into them versus one of (for arguments sake) burtons lower end price point boots which are notoriously clouded with pressure points in the toe box areas and heel cup zones (from which I have heard tons of people complain about).

the width of the foot bed, how elastic the materials are (that wrap and support your feet), the cupping zones of the ankle hold areas, and arch support convex angles are some of the most important ingredients that go into boot construction.

yes, on the (again for arguments sake) foot side of things everyone has a different foot, so boot/shoe makers have to go with more neutral offerings when delivering their final measurements for mass production. and as you mentioned this is where you, the consumer, may have to customize your foot bed with a higher arch for more comfort or heel cup spacer to absorb any negative space, etc.

i like burton boots for their overall quality, fit and flex. however, after introducing their speed zone lacing system, i can no longer get my boots super tight (i have narrow feet) which has forced me to go your route of slight customization. unfortunately, this did not work as well as i would have liked; the feel was still loose, and i ended up switching to another boot company that is more geared towards more narrow foot beds.

so, when you state foot pain has nothing to do with boot construction or liners, I strongly disagree.

the bottom line is, you have to find a boot or boot company that best represents your foot dimensions, from there select the type of boot that best represents the types of terrain you find yourself
in/on most of the time, how often you ride and how aggressive you are in your preferred terrain.

Craig Kelly Forever.

you basically spent a bunch of time proving my point, its the shape of the boot that matters, not the construction. there is no one single construction method that you can look to that provides less pain than others, across the broad spectrum. a 200 boot might cause you less pain than a 400 dollar boot or vice versa. beyond junky, poorly constructed junk boots tech has nothing to do with it.

i was just wondering if any one had websites or anything, our shops rep is like always in.. ever since we asked him about the boots he went MIA, maybe nike made him head slave driver over in china where they pay him 75$ and hr to watch the $.05 n hr workers?

East Coast Grown, Jersey Fresh

...i think bobby and the crew he's developed will help the designers well...not too much you can do about "who" gets involved these days...just be sure to follow "your" roots...

ayup, evurry thangs been said already, there are those of us who are adamantly anti Nike because deep down they are a shitbox jock company that just uses its massive finacial resources to buy its way into the scene (as in nike sb) and it has such "supposed: R&D powers that it can't help but improve snowboarding,yeah right!

and there are those who don't care about snowboarding being "ruined" and want to get the latest furry dunks and would "rock" nike in a second

and to those people i say sincerely: fuck you.

I hate the fact that they are doing it, believe me we dont carry nike shoes cuz we dont wanna loose emerica (sole tech)

we just need to know whats up cuz the rep who is actually funny enough the sole tech reps brother for us. Trust me i hate them but from a shop POV

were the only shop in 75 Miles carrying nike boots, thats killer for the people who like Burton for the name, theyll like nike for the name. not the prod.. plus were a core jersey shop, Danny Kass is huge and he left vans for nike...

catch my drift

East Coast Grown, Jersey Fresh