Snowboard Bindings FW16/17 Trend Report

SP Bindings

Back in the day, buying bindings was a lot more difficult. Even ten years ago half of the bindings out there were uncomfortable and unreliable; today’s offer, in comparison, is pretty damn good. And things are improving even more next year, with a major new player in the game and some unique tweaks to the tried and tested product lines. Relax and read on as Tom Wilson-North runs us through the best of next year’s foot clamps.

KEY NEW MODELS
The biggest news in bindings is the return of Mervin Manufacturing’s Bent Metal brand. The ones to check out here are the Transfer and Solution bindings. The Transfer’s Flex Control Drive Plate, hand made at their Seattle factory, uses an aluminized fibre bio-polymer. The stiffer Solution binding is the answer to more aggressive and high performance riding conditions, and it features a full ultra-light carbon highback and stiffer carbon infused base. Both have high back handle holes for billygoating, a nifty CUBE FLAD and some pretty cool baseplate tech that we’ll look at shortly.

Carbon abounds at Union too. Their Ultra FC gets a new MiniDisk baseplate injected with a proprietary blend of nylon and carbon called “X-Carb”. Their bestselling Travis Rice model, which is a shop cornerstone worldwide, will be revamped with a forged carbon and duraflex nylon highback and new ExoFrame straps for less weight, but unchanged response. At Burton, the Genesis X replaces the Diode, with a glass-infused nylon highback using the existing Genesis mould. “It kind of puts the existing Genesis on steroids”, says Burton hardgoods VP Chris Cunningham. Furthermore, their top line X-Base gets all titanium hardware for riders who are fussy about having the lightest gear out there.

That’s the big boys, then. But as Goliath found out the hard way, it’s the little ones that you’ve got to watch, and often the most innovative approaches are coming from smaller companies. Now have a line expansion going on, of which the Brigade is a key part, featuring their well-received SIEVA straps and new Hanger 2.0, and Rome trickle down tech from their top end Katana onto the revamped Targa and all-new D.O.D binder.

If quick-entry bindings work at your shop, you’ll be stoked to hear that K2 will be switching out all their 16/17 Cinch bases to the Tripod chassis, and there are new asym anklestraps on the Völkl Fastec Choice Alu. This also comes with a new canted EVA footpad for increased shock absorption. And Flow have a new SKU called the NX2-Redwood, which builds off the NX2 baseplate and is designed to merch with their Rush board and Hylite boots.

Other stuff you’ll want to try at the on-snow demos are the new Salomon Alibi freestyle model which uses Blaster tech and has a memory foam strap, or Head’s NX THREE with new Softback for maximum tweakability and a cushioned easy-riding baseplate. If you prefer your connection stiffer, then Nidecker’s updated Carbon model is worth a look, with new unibody baseplate and 100% carbon highback.

Switchback Bindings

LOW PRICEPOINTS SEEING IMPROVEMENTS
Whilst kryptonite highbacks, skyhooks and Louis Vuitton collabs are very nice to look at, we were excited to read that binding mid-ranges haven’t been forgotten. Burton’s Cartel & Cartel EST finally get the delicious EVA Hammockstrap on trickledown, and Head’s bread & butter NX1 get a facelift with translucent buckles, an all-new highback and bad-ass matt and gloss finish.

STRAPPING STUFF
Clearly the EVA strap trend is continuing, which is great news considering they are inexpensive, lightweight and if designed correctly, exceptionally comfortable. They also eliminate a lot of the waste that’s associated with traditional stitched straps. They’ve been at retail long enough for early adopters and premium clients to have been convinced; hopefully customers across the board can understand the benefits of these puppies and not lament the absence of squidy handfeel.

Upfront in the toestap area, SP are working on a new super lightweight toecap for their sLAB series which promises a great fit, and Switchback’s all new Miller toestrap is really minimal, functional and looks great. The minimal straps thing is also going on at Norwegian brand Vimana; “Our straps are made to feel invisible. No pressure points”, explains Vimana’s Trond-Eirik Husvaeg.

AESTHETICS

NOW

Whilst we’d love to announce a paradigm shift in public binding demand, it’s black, black and more black everywhere next year, again. But to avoid your binding wall looking like the inside of a Volkswagen exhaust, there is thankfully some light at the end of the tunnel.

White, improbably, was mentioned as a bubbling trend by a few brands. “We are continuing to see colours toned down and the emergence of white as a particularly popular shade especially with artwork models”, explains Flux’s Sales & Marketing Manager Ray Takahash. “But yeah, black is always popular.”  White also plays a significant role at Union, alongside monochromatic colour schemes and dips.

Otherwise, outdoor colours and camo combinations are still important, with olives, reds and mustards coming through. We saw some cool matching sets from Salomon (the blue Holograms look pimp on their Huck Knife deck) and the Bent Metal binders feature artwork by team rider Jamie Lynn, naturally, while Nitro’s Zero binding goes to the beach with the “new SHAKA, a surf inspired finish featuring real surf traction pads,” froths Nitro’s Florian Lang.

In collaborations, look out for a Wildcats collab from Now in anticipation of the crew’s new movie which is out this autumn, and there are collabs abound at Flux, with NOFX art on the R2 and John Jackson art on the Team model.

NEW TECHNOLOGIES
A few new technological refinements are sure to pique your interest in 16/17 binding lines. Drake go 100% tool free on the Reload and Supersport models, and Now are replacing their alumi-ring with a nylon and carbon blended ring. They’ve also got a Hanger 2.0 with a wider heelcup and drop-down medial wall that’s found on the top end of the range and the Jeremy Jones pro model.

A key part of the Bent Metal offer is their Flex Control Drive Plates. They are using – get this – the same materials that they use to control the flex in their Lib Tech and Gnu branded snowboards. That means top and bottom laminates, a maple wood core, UHMW full-wrap sidewalls and composite fibres that let them tweak each binding’s performance. You heard it here first, wood core bindings. “Like mini-snowboards”, as Mervin co-founder Pete Saari puts it. “The drive plates provide toe to heel control just like a snowboard gives tip to tail control”.

Florian from Nitro is all about their air dampening technology, which he says is “the lightest and most efficient shock absorption technology on the planet. It saves your knees and ankles in cold temperatures just as well as it does in spring riding conditions. Air doesn’t change its properties with temperature while Gel pads and moist foam pads become rock solid when it starts freezing.”

SPLITBOARD BINDINGS
If splitboard bindings aren’t part of your range, fair enough; but now that splitboarding is here to stay, you need to remain filled in as to what the big players are doing:
ROSSIGNOL: “We’re happy to announce a co-development between Rossi Snb R&D, Xavier De Le Rue and Plum Splitboard Bindings to come up with a product that meets up to everyone’s expectations… and once you’ve seen Xav in the movie Degrees North, you can see why expectations are high!” Arnaud Repa, Product Manager.

SPARK R&D “We are working with new glass filled nylon materials that we are sourcing in the US, because we will be making our highbacks in house for the first time. We’re also working intensely on some new straps, hopefully they will be ready for tradeshows. And we were able to remove the foam entirely from our highbacks which is great for a number of reasons, EVA is pretty nasty stuff, it’s difficult to apply consistently, and is often the failure point of a highback.” Will Ritter, Founder.

KARAKORAM “Our focus is on quivvering this year- from snowsurf shapes to big mountain chargers to playful freestyle boards, different board shapes for every condition and style are coming alive. Our Prime System gives you locked in performance, split or solid.” Tyler Kloster, Founder.

CONCLUSION
So, there you go. There’s a solid range of binders out there next year, with enough spice to keep clients coming in to see the latest and greatest. Otherwise, binding evolution has definitely slowed down of late – after all, these are things that can only be so good, and we’re not far off the perfect snowboard binding already. The market knows what it wants and the brands are all delivering a great range. Without a big R&D push from somewhere – a new company, or a diversification by an existing major – bindings are likely to remain as good as they need to be, which is a far cry from the sketchy, anomalous and unreliable clamps of the nineties and early 2000s. Even if they’re black.

Völkl