Building a quality boot starts from the ground up. Without a good support system underfoot, a day of snowboarding can lead to agonizing foot pain. If you’ve ever ridden a boot with a spongy sole, you know the feeling, and it ain’t fun.

Snowboarding environments have a tendency to be slippery, and just like snow tires, a good outsole will have traction lugs with sipes in them, which help to grip on everything from snow to icy parking lots to slippery floors inside the lodge. Speaking of snow tires, on their highest-end boots, Ride implements a proprietary hybrid rubber that has been developed with Michelin, a compound made up of thirty percent recycled rubber. 

Just like most things, you’ll find higher quality materials in more expensive boots, but on their more budget-conscious boots, Ride has developed their own FUSION Rubber compound to help with traction and durability on and off the mountain.

Next up is the midsole, and this is arguably the most important layer, as it supports, absorbs, and insulates all at once. Midsoles take a lot of abuse, acting as the intermediary between your tender tootsies and everything that the base of your board comes into contact with. Here, you’ll find a proprietary +SLIME material that offers increased rebound and support over standard midsole foams. 

The next is a heat reflective foil tape, found in all Ride boots, which reflects your body heat back toward your foot. The thin foil does the work of a thicker, more lofty material, without trading insulating factor for responsiveness. The assembly of the sole components are then paired with a supple, heat-moldable Intuition liner, complete with a supportive, anatomically correct +SLIME insole. Put them all together, and each layer works in chorus to give you the support, warmth, and traction for an awesome day on the hill.