12 Best Ski Boots of 2023 | Buyer’s Guide & FAQs

Beneath every great skier is a great pair of ski boots. No other single aspect of your ski kit will have as big of an impact on your performance and comfort. Regardless where you are on your ski journey, finding a pair of well-fitting, skill-appropriate boots is foundational to a great ski season.

We’ve rounded up the best ski boots on the market, some new models as well as updated classics to bring you this comprehensive list of our favorites. For a breakdown of boot anatomy as well as advice on how to pick your next pair, take a look at our buyer’s guide below.

Buyer’s Guide

A good pair of boots are the foundation of every ski kit. They’re your direct line of communication with your skis, and your ability to meaningfully maneuver down the slope scales with how well your boots fit. If you’re going to own one big ticket piece of ski equipment, it should absolutely be a pair of boots.

Factors like your experience level, your body type, and your style of skiing inform the best possible pair of boots for you. With the rising prevalence of heat-moldable shells, custom insoles, and aftermarket features; boots have become as unique as the skiers who ride them.

Below we’ll break down the different kinds of boots, how to match a pair to your type of skiing, and additional features to look for in your next pair. As a final note, we stand by our expertise in all things outdoor, but when it comes to ski boots we highly recommend talking to a bootfitter.

Why See a Bootfitter?

Your local bootfitter is intimately familiar with the crunchy details of every model in their store, and can give more feedback about how a particular boot will work with your particular foot. They’ve spent hours of their lives matching up feet with shells based on all of the factors listed above, and can not only pick out a great boot for you, but do all of the aftermarket custom fit care standards in the industry. On the flipside, it’s definitely easier to find a deal online. 

Still, seeing a fitter is a great idea regardless of where you actually get your boots. Getting your liners molded, handling any punchouts, and getting advice on what specific models you should look for is a worthwhile use of your time.

Types of Ski Boots

For our purposes, we’ll be focusing primarily on boots that specialize in downhill alpine skiing. That said, many top performers come equipped with pin inserts to allow for uphill travel, and serve as a 50/50 inbounds and out of bounds option for skiers who want to do it all. Dedicated touring boots come with significant performance impacts and are not featured in this guide.

Alpine

The modern ski boot has been around since the 60s. Developments in boot design and technology have focused on delivering dependable downhill results. They’ve evolved in tandem with all mountain skis to the point where the contemporary port of skiing is unarguably much easier than in the past.

Alpine boots feature some variation of a forward stance, which helps skiers engage with their boots while a stiff spine supporting the lower calf generates power. They’re designed to make skiing easier, but this makes getting around while you’re not wearing your skis a little more challenging. Though nowadays, most resort boots have some kind of walk mode to make getting from your car to the lifts less awkward.

A good pair of alpine boots should be comfortable enough for you to wear all day and capable of keeping up with your performance demands. Comfort and performance demands are subjective and hinge upon your experience level and personal style as a skier. For people just starting out their ski journeys, comfort should probably take precedence, while a bit more seasoned skiers might value more responsiveness.

Touring

Where alpine boots are designed to get you down the hill with as much comfort and accuracy as possible, touring boots must contend with additional complications of uphill travel. Backcountry boots are lightweight and have a considerable amount of travel in their walkmode to help skiers conserve energy as they slog uphill.

The tradeoff is touring boots don’t ski as well as their heavier, more stable alpine counterparts. They’re made from considerably less materials and often feature more brittle, lightweight components. You may occasionally see a dedicated touring boot skiing the resort, but they’re certainly not the ideal choice for these situations.

Hybrid

Hybrid boots aren’t going to be as lightweight or comfortable as dedicated touring boots, but balance this with a considerable uptick in their downhill performance. There are a couple of reasons to be interested in a hybrid boot, chief among them is the pursuit of a single boot quiver – or only one boot for resort and backcountry. With the rising interest in the backcountry, skiers are seeking a do-it-all boot. Put another way, they want a boot that performs dependably downhill for inbounds days, with the capacity for uphill travel in the backcountry.

The other angle you can approach a hybrid boot is from a freetour perspective. Many serious riders favor these more durable boots for the backcountry because of the performance results that they deliver on the descent. I personally dial back my riding in the backcountry but still favor the additional security of a burlier boot despite the additional weight.

Boot Breakdown

Sizing

Beyond style and intention, finding the right boot is mostly about finding something that fits your foot. The two standardized measurements that we use to figure out which shell you should buy are the last and the mondopoint.

Last= measurement of the widest point of the boot in millimeters

Mondo= measurement of the length of the skiers foot in centimeters

Adult boots typically come in size runs ranging from 24-34cm, different models and manufacturers will have a little variation in size options if you find yourself on either extreme of the spectrum.

One of the harsh realities about boots is that tighter boots work better, if faced with the choice it’s always better to err on the side of sizing down. But tight doesn’t always have to mean uncomfortable. 

Experts in the industry estimate that three quarters of skiers on the resort have boots that are significantly too big for their feet. Boots are designed to be worn in a ski stance, and someone standing straight up in a shop with a brand new pair of unpacked liners is going to feel their toes much more than they will after a few runs.

If you need more volume around the top of the foot, you may want to consider a wider last. Boots are casually referred to as being “low-volume” or “high-volume”, this is a way of indicating how much lateral room there is in the boot for your foot to move around. The most aggressive boots will be lower volume, but given how far boots have progressed it’s possible for people with clunky feet to get a performance fit if they visit the right fitter.

How Should a Ski Boot Feel?

We can talk about lasts and mondos all day but ultimately that doesn’t do much to help you know what a boot should feel like on your feet.

Ski boots aren’t like running shoes, they’re supposed to be snug, but not so much that they cut off circulation or are painful to wear. It’s tricky because a well-fitting boot will feel differently while you’re skiing as opposed to standing in a ski shop. When we get new boots we’re trying to factor in for your liner getting packed out as the season progresses, or in other words you’re buying a boot for how it will feel after a season of use rather than how it feels out of the box.

If you’re worried that your toes are touching the end of your boot a bit too much, try driving your knees forward and flexing the front of your boot like you would while skiing- you should feel your toes suck back from the front of the boot a little bit and ease any pressure that was bothering you, and get a better feel for how your boots fit while in use.

Flex

Most of the progress in ski boots historically has been a matter of mechanical design, but recently the focus has shifted to tinkering with the actual materials the boots are made from. This has led to the rise of lightweight alpine boots, and has also impacted the way we think about how you bend the boot, or its “flex”.

Flex is a tricky thing to talk about. Despite companies using a similar format to rate their flex (e.g. 100 flex, 110 flex, etc.), there’s no standardized “flex rating”. Most boot manufacturers have their own means of measuring stiffness, so a 110 flex from Salomon could feel way different from a similar model from Rossignol.

With this in mind, here’s a chart to help you get a rough estimate of the flex range you should be looking at. We’ve opted to combine the usual distinction between men’s and women’s sizes, because flex is mostly concerned with your weight and your ski style.

Soft Flex

50-80

Beginner skiers or those who want a more comfortable and casual ride

Medium Flex

70-100

Heavy beginners and intermediate skiers who want to ride steeper and ungroomed terrain

Stiff Flex

90-130

Intermediate/Advanced skiers who want a boot that can handle any terrain on the mountain

Very Stiff Flex

130+

Heavy expert skiers all the way into professional skier territory

Discrepancies in flex are another great reason to rely on the sage wisdom of your local boot fitter. I started out in a 120 flex boot recommended to me by an experienced fitter, and was able to learn comfortably without wasting money on a boot that I would’ve quickly overpowered with my considerable bulk.

Overlap Boots vs Three Piece Boots

Overlap boots( also known as “four buckle” boots) make the majority of what you’ll see on the mountain. They’re made up of two pieces- a tube around your foot which “overlaps” with another tube around your shin. These boots are known for their precision and driving power, and can steer a big burly ski much easier than a three buckle while excelling at executing high speed turns on hard snow. The downside is they’re less forgiving than cabrio boots and much more difficult to get on your feet.

Three piece boots, or “Cabrio” boots are made up of a shell, spine and tongue. My current boot is a three-piece boot with a removable tongue for ski touring. Cabrio boots have a much looser side to side feel, balanced out by greater fore/aft control. The result is a much more playful and “jibby” ride. Cabrio boots are also notoriously easier to get on your feet.

Put in other words, overlap boots capitalize on more of a forward oriented traditional ski stance to execute high speed, high accuracy maneuvers on firm snow while cabrio boots seem to favor a more centered newschool approach.

Features and Aftermarket Boot Products

There’s a saying that you’ll hear floating around boot shops, “Date your skis, but marry your boots”. Aftermarket boot care, at the very least some kind of heat molding, is pretty standard for anyone who skis more than the once yearly vacation or the occasional weekend.

Here we’ve listed a few of the biggest things that you can do for your boots,as well as some nonessential features to look for in your next pair of boots. Skis come and skis go, and a solid boot can see you through many pairs.

Features

Walk Mode

Ski boots have either an upright or forward canted stance by nature of their design. While this is great for your riding, it can make things like navigating the parking lot, stomping up stars in the ski lodge, and enjoying an apres break after riding treacherous and uncomfortable.

Fortunately, a functional walkmode is now one of the standard features you’ll find in resort boots– though their range of motion and ease of operation vary. Some are as easy as flipping a switch, while others have more involved mechanisms. In either case, a walk mode can make your day on the hill a little more comfortable, just make sure you switch back into downhill before you get on the lift.

Soles

As someone who spent years skating around ski resorts in untextured alpine soles, what you’re walking on makes a big difference in your day to day experience at a ski resort. I’d argue textured soles make a bigger quality of life difference for recreational skiers than a walk mode.

Where traditional alpine soles are flat to maximize contact with bindings and get the most return on your ride, textured soles trade a negligible amount of performance response for traction and a more natural stride. The most common example of these nowadays are GripWalk soles, which are somewhat analogous to Vibram soles in hiking boots.

If you decide that tractioned soles are for you, keep in mind that not every sole is compatible with every binding– that said, GripWalk will work with most.

Liners

Liners are removable foam inserts that hold your foot inside of your boot shell. Liners pack out over time to the shape of your foot, leading to a better fit after days of use, and eventually may need replacing after they pack out enough.

Along with walk modes, heat-moldable liners are one of those features you used to find exclusively in high end boots that’s become more of a standard for contemporary boots. If you want to squeeze more performance out of a boot, new or old, we’ll go into the world of aftermarket liners below.

Micro Adjustable Buckles

Another near standard boot feature, micro adjustable buckles allow you to lengthen and shorten the buckles themselves, allowing a more precise fit than cranking down on ladder notches. If you find yourself wondering why your ski boots aren’t fitting like they used to, one of the first things you should do is fiddle around with your buckles to make your boots either longer or shorter. 

Aftermarket Bootwork

Custom Footbeds

No piece of gear or product is going to improve your comprehensive ski experience like a custom footbed. It’s hard to give a concise explanation of the history and importance of the custom footbed, but the thrust of its influence cannot be denied. Unfortunately, they also come with a considerable price tag.

It’s hard to stomach shelling out the extra money after you’ve already spent so much on a new pair of boots, but most boot problems that arise while skiing can be fixed with a custom insole. 

Every foot is different, and the nature of ski boots is to tell you exactly how your foot is unique in painful, unsubtle ways. A real master boot fitter is somewhere between an artist and a scientist, the idea is to work with the skier that can deliver a product that considers their physiology, their ski history, and the direction that they would like to take their riding in the future.

Getting a custom footbed is an impressively intricate process, and the best way to go about doing it is going to change depending on who you ask. It can be in some cases as involved as a full digital scan of a client’s foot. If you’re willing to make the investment, you’re likely looking for a solid return.

Power Strap

Ski boots typically come with a power strap situated around the cuff. Power straps are used to give you a tighter fit at the top of the boot, but stock straps simply don’t do as good of a job as some of the aftermarket options.

The biggest benefit they offer over stock models is how much tighter you can crank them down. Many models use a cam strap or some kind of ratchet system that, when fully engaged, frees up enough space that you may need to make some micro adjustments on your buckles for the extra volume in the shell.

Booster Strap is the biggest name in the game, and their products are woven with elastic to give a little more of a progressive flex feel to the boot. They’ve been recommended to me by everyone from budget skiers trying to squeeze a little more life out of their packed-out liners, to full cert ski instructors looking for the most precise means of skiing possible.

An aftermarket power strap is the cheapest and least invasive way to get more out of your boot. The flex they offer on impact also goes a long way towards reducing shin bang, but don’t take that as an invitation to land anything too backseat.

Heat Molding/Shell Work

A lot of the work that can be done on boots happens internally. But for the things that can’t be fixed with a footbed or liner mold, getting some shell work done is your only option. Heat molding a shell is simple enough to do at home, though the risk of damaging your brand new ski boots makes it ill-advised.

Beyond this, stretching, grinding, punching or otherwise manipulating the plastic of the boot shell is a great way to deal with problem spots on your feet; all it takes is scheduling an appointment at your local shop.

Aftermarket liners are also moldable from home, and it’s a much less involved process with much less at stake.

Aftermarket Liners

An aftermarket liner is a good way to breathe new life into a packed-out boot, and to add a little performance specificity to a new shell. Stock liners are increasingly customizable, and for the majority of skiers they’ll be adequate for a casual season of skiing. But for others, aftermarket liners tend to add a little height above the cuff of the boot, and if you combine this with a solid cuff strap you can get more surface area to leverage against the flex of your boot.

There are two different ways to go about liners, you can choose the flex pattern that you want to emphasize. For raw power, look at a wrap liner. They’re a little trickier to fit correctly, but having two layers of reinforcement along the shin is quite beneficial for people who ski in the most aggressive, forward styles.

If you want a smoother, more flowy ride you should consider a tongue liner. Tongue liners are generally considered better options for touring, but some people prefer the wrap, making a similar trade off for the downhill performance benefits as you would with a free touring boot.