Union Ultra Bindings Review

Union's Ultra bindings are some of the best freestyle/all-mountain freestyle bindings you can get - and we'd go as far as to say the best that we've ridden in the medium flex range. 

In this review I will take a look at the Ultra as freestyle snowboard bindings.

As per tradition here at SnowboardingProfiles.com I will give the Ultra a score out of 100 (based on several factors) and see how they compare with other freestyle bindings.

Overall Rating

Bindings: Union Ultra 2026

Price: $329 (USD recommended retail)

Style: Freestyle

Flex Rating: Medium (6/10)

Flex Feel: Medium (5/10)

Rating Score: 90.4/100

Compared to other Men’s freestyle Bindings

Overview of the Ultra’s Specs

Check out the tables for the Ultra’s specs and available sizes.

Specs

Who are the Ultra Most Suited To?

The Ultra are best suited to riders who are looking for mid-flex bindings that are going to allow them to explore all sorts of freestyle and all-mountain freestyle riding - whether it's smaller features, flat-land tricks, creative butter tricks or bigger air/features and whether you want to do that all over the mountain or in the park. 

If you value shock absorption, board feel and sharp, explosive agility, then they are likely even more suited for you. 

While I wouldn't quite say beginner friendly, they should be fine for low intermediate and up. While larger riders or stronger/more athletic riders might be fine with their flex as beginners, the way they have a sharp attack at the start of a turn might be a bit much for a beginner, who is likely to get on better with a more even consistent response.

Best matched to boards in the 3/10 to 6/10 flex range. Even better for 4/10 to 5/10 flexing boards, IMO. 

Test/review details for the Ultra

O.k. let’s take a more detailed look at what the Ultra are capable of.

Demo Info

Binding: Union Ultra, M

Date: March 12, 2025

Mounting

Overall a nice easy process. 

The disc cover attaches to the disc, so once you get the cover off, there's nothing to get in your way as your mounting them to the board, which is always nice. You've got to move the straps to the side, but that's easily done. 

And unlike with some other Union bindings (e.g. the Strata), there's not screw on the disc cover. It just snaps on and off. 

Setting up your angles is straight forward, as always with Union discs. 

Because Union's mini disc doesn't span 4cm (1.57"), you typically can't setup precisely on reference stance, but you can still get very close. On a twin, if you want to be perfectly centered, you have to widen or narrow your stance width just a touch (by 5mm (0.2")). Otherwise, to maintain the reference stance width, you would have to setback a little (but would be the equivalent of being setback only 2.5mm (0.1") on effective edge, which is unlikely to be noticeable).

In my case, the reference stance on my control board (YES Greats) is 545mm (21.5") (centered), but I usually ride it with either a 585mm (23") (centered) or 565mm (22.2") with a 10mm (0.4") setback stance (it's an asym, so I wouldn't want to set back any more than that). In this case I rode it with a 560mm (22") stance in the 10mm (0.4") setback position. I don't personally notice a 5mm (0.2") stance width difference.  

Flex

First we'll take a look at how the flex in hand felt, then how it felt overall on snow. 

In Hand:

The in hand flex below will include comparisons to the Burton Malavita (my control bindings) and other Union bindings I had at the time (namely, the Ultra, Source Pro and Atlas Step On). 

Highback Twist: The Ultra didn't feel ultra flexy overall on a twist, but also not super hard to twist them. Middle of the road twist flex, overall, I would say. My control bindings (Malavita) have a very rigid (not flexible) twist flex. 

After the Malavita, the Atlas Step On had the stiffest highback twist flex – just a little more twist than the Malavita. Then it was the Source Pro – just a bit down from the Atlas, then the Strata. Though I’d say the Strata was very close to the same as the Source Pro. Then the Ultra. Ultra also not massively softer flexing twist-wise vs the Strata, but enough to be noticeable.

Highback Pull-back: Zero on the Malavita, Source Pro and Strata. A tiny bit on the Atlas Step On and then noticeably more on the Ultra. Though still not heaps – and it’s more that the middle of the highback flexes, than the whole thing actually flexing backwards. Quite hard to pull the top of the highback backwards – like almost can’t at all, but just a little bit, but you can push in in the middle of the highback quite a bit - has this like flexible panel in the middle. 

Ankle Strap: In terms of the strap (not including any outer pieces that float over the strap), the Strata and Source Pros straps are similarly stiff but not quite as stiff as the Malavita. The Strata is more of a one piece deal but the Source Pro and Ultra, have the strap that touches the boot, then a harder plastic “skeleton” over top. The skeleton on the Ultra and Source Pro are similar, but I’d say the Ultra's is a little stiffer. The actual strap part on the Ultra is super soft though. Overall the Source Pro was stiffer than the Strata and similar to the Malavita. The Ultra was the softest overall, but not by a huge distance.  

The Ultra is stiffer on the Lateral side vs the Strata, but softer on the medial side (subtly but its there). 

Toe Strap: The Ultra’s toe strap felt the softest, then the Malavita, then the Source Pro and then the Strata's being the stiffest. 

On Snow:

On snow, they had an overall medium flex, but maybe bordering on mid-soft, but without any of the sloppiness that some softer flexing bindings can have. I felt them a little softer than the Strata (which is opposite to how they are rated) and very subtly softer overall vs my control bindings. 

Responsiveness

The Ultra has this real spring/explosive response which helps to make short/sharp turns at slow to moderate speeds pretty effortless and speeds up edge-to-edge transitions. 

Not as good for high speed carves, but there's enough support going on that they can take some speed and provide support for moderately aggressive carves. But they are certainly more favored, in my experience to explosive edge-to-edge turns at slower speeds vs high speed/aggressive carves. 

Board Feel/Butterability

Really high-end in terms of board feel, in my experience. Whatever downsides you get from the mini-disc are more than made up for, if you value board feel. Not all of their incredible board feel is because of the mini disc (see shock absorption section for another factor that I personally think also plays a big part in its board feel) but I can only assume that this plays a significant role in it.  

Pop/Ollie Power

Gives just a little more, I would say, than average. There's not a lot of variance between bindings for this, in my experience, but I do notice some subtle difference. The board has a lot more influence over this though, IMO. 

Adjustability

Heel Cup: Yes - which is great for boot centering.

Stance Width: Some adjustments can be made here, but it's pretty limited and, as described in the mounting section above, you sometimes have to subtly adjust your stance width to accommodate the mini disc.  

Highback Lean: No  

Ankle Strap Position: No

Toe Strap Position: Yes, 2 positions. 

Ankle and toe strap length:  Tool-Less. 

Gas pedal/toe ramp extension: No. 

Highback Rotation: Yes 2 positions (independent of heel cup adjustments).

Compatible with: 2 x 4 | The Channel (Union's mini disc isn't big enough to span the 4cm gap in a 4 x 4 pattern)

Shock Absorption

Physical Inspection

Good padding heel and toe on the footbed. Then the underside is completely padded and feels really springy – dense but springy. And the toe and heel areas is all just padding – you can bend them quite  a bit, nothing solid in there at all. Solid down the sides and around the disc but the middle of toe end and heel end are really moveable.

This explains some of why they are good shock absorbers, but likely also extends to their board feel. I would be surprised if this construction didn't have a meaningful positive impact on board feel. And is likely to also play a part in their overall flex feel and their responsiveness feel. 

On Snow

Unsurprisingly they absorbed shock and chatter really well. I wouldn't go as far as to say as good as the best I've experienced, but not a million miles off either - and the way they're able to couple that shock absorption with the board feel they produce, is a rare combination. 

Entry/Exit

Ankle/Toe Ratchet Smoothness: Nice and smooth. Not the smoothest-ever, but as smooth as you'd ever need, IMO.

Process:  There's nothing special going on here - just typical two strap entry and exit. But it works and it was smooth. Easy to remove the straps on the move, etc. It's a little more effort to get the straps out of the way before you strap in vs something with hinged straps, but it's a pretty miniscule difference. I do like the hinged straps, but see it as more of a nice-to-have, rather than anything that I would consider a must-have, personally. 

Comfort

Overall really nice and comfortable. 

Ankle Strap: The ankle strap feels nice and soft and flexy and conforms well. It has the hard skeleton on the outside of strap, which offers more support, and I guess that allows the strap to be flexier.  Main thing though - no pressure points.

Toe Strap: Not my favorite toe straps in the industry, but also nothing that really bothered me. No issues, no pressure points. 

Canted Footbed: No

Padded Footbed: See shock absorption section above for more, but yes, plenty and good quality. 

Highback: There is padding that covers entire highback – and they have that squishy/flexy center to the actual highback as well, as described above in flex section. But again, the most important thing is pressure points/calf-bite and there was none of that going on for me. 

Ankle Support 

With how soft and flexy the ankle strap is, you'd think they wouldn't be great for ankle support, but that's only if you somehow missed the stiff plastic skeleton on top. 

Now, I'm only making the assumption that the skeleton (not sure if that's what they call it, but for some reason that's what I think of it as) is what allows it to still have the decent ankle support that I felt it had, given that the support was more than what I'd expect out of the strap alone. 

Score Breakdown and Final Verdict

Check out the breakdown of the score in the table below.

The Ultra are, in our opinion, the best mid-flexing freestyle/all-mountain freestyle bindings currently available - or at leas that we've tested - and we've tested a lot. They were just a joy to ride in and tick all the boxes - and a lot of those boxes with flying colors!