Nitro Team BOA Snowboard Boots Review

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

Demo Info

Boots: Nitro Team BOA 2025

Size: 10 (US Men's Sizing)

Date: December 18, 2024

Easy of Entry/Lacing Up

I found it took a bit of time/effort to open out the boot. There are a lot of BOA cables (which are more rope than cable) and you can really open up the lower cables, which are controlled by the side BOA, but because that side BOA doesn’t self coil, it takes a bit of time to get that lower half done back up after opening it out. But that does allow you to then get the tongue nice and out of the way and my feet slid in nice and easily. You could always open them up a little bit less and have more of an effort putting your foot in. If you owned these boots, you’d figure it out.

The liner uses a slightly different system to the traditional lacing harness with toggle. There’s nothing special about the lacing harness itself, but the way the laces lock into a clip that’s attached to the front of the liner’s tongue allows you to lock the laces in and then pull them tighter while they are already locked and you can just keep pulling and it self locks as you pull. Similar to Ride’s boot liners, but I found that Nitro’s was a little easier to work with as there was no piece you have to hook up – it’s all there attached to the liner. 

The shell is a typical Double BOA where the front BOA tightens the upper BOA cables and the front BOA tightens the lower BOA cables. 

Foot to Boot Fit

Length Fit:

My toes were just brushing the ends when standing straight and pull back slightly when leaning forward into them. So, just right for that first try on. 

The tops of my toes had a little bit of wiggle room but only really at the tips of my toes. At the base of my toes there was no real room to move. The top of my big toe hits the boot without much movement, but it’s nothing so restrictive that it really bothered me.

Width Fit:

I would say medium/average width-wise. I couldn't really move my forefeet side to side at all, but it also didn’t feel like they were being squeezed or anything either. 

In-Step:

There was a bit of pressure on my in-steps, particularly my right (which is typical for me), but it was nothing major. The pressure was right up where the instep meets the ankle. 

Around Ankles:

A little bit of pressure around the ankles too. It ran around from the top of the instep onto the top of my inner ankle bone. A tiny bit on outer ankle bone too, but very little there.

On Snow: On the on-snow test day, they fit mostly the same, but I didn't notice the in-step pressure anymore. Could still notice the ankle stuff, but it wasn't bad. I felt my toes had a bit more room on top and a bit more width for my forefeet than it did when I first tried them on.

True to Size?: 

I would say true to size. I rode the 10 and I'm typically a 10. I feel like the 10.5 would be too big, particularly after 10-20 days riding in them, but the 9.5 would be  too tight. 

Boot to Binding Fit

Heel width:  A tiny bit of space. Just enough that I can squeeze a pinky finger in there. A little less space than my control boots, but while I could barely move the heel of the boot side to side, before strapping in, I didn't have to force the boots back into the heel cup or anything. 

Toe width: Good amount of space between the sides of the boot and the bindings at the toe end. But not so much that it feels like the boot is swimming in there - and no movement after strapping in. 

Ankle Strap: I found the Team BOA was noticeably bulkier around that ankle area vs my control boots and my ankle straps needed to be lengthened by 2 holes to get a good fit. 

Toe Strap: The toe strap was closer to being a good fit where I have them set for my control boots, but lengthening them by one hole did make for a slightly better fit. 

Carving/Slow Speed Response

The biggest stand out feature for these boots, for me, was their carving performance. They were noticeably better for carving than my control boots and made my whole setup feel pretty significant better for carving. 

Their slow speed response wasn't as good, and wasn't as good as my control boots, which is typical of boots that feel this good for carving. Not like they were hopeless for short/sharp turns at slow speeds - definitely doable, but took a bit of effort and didn't feel as natural and effortless as they did for higher speed carves. 

Heel Hold

The Heel Hold was really decent and felt very similar to my control boots. Not quite as good as the Vans Infuse, which I also rode on the day, but close. 

Adjustability

I found they had really good adjustability. 

At first it was quite hard to tell at first if the BOAs were fully independent, with the amount of cables on these things, but after looking at it closely as I was tightening them, I discovered they were fully independent.

Ease of re-tightening the liner: It's nice and easy once you get in there. And you only really have to open up the top BOA of the shell and ease the tongue out a little bit to get access. And then since the liner lacing is already locked into the liner, you can just give it a couple of tugs, so that was a pretty cool function of these boots and made it nice and quick and easy to get that liner a little tighter on the fly. 

Comfort

They were overall comfortable and would likely only become more comfortable. By the end of testing them, I had a little bit of shin bite. Not uncommon with stiffer boots. But nothing that was too bad. And that bit of ankle pressure mentioned earlier. 

Shock Absorption

Stomp Test: They felt very similar in terms of dampening to my control boots in the stomp test.  They have “air dampening” in the sole and you can actually see right through the sole from one side to the other at one part. 

On-Snow: On snow they didn't feel quite as good as my control boots. Close and still decent, but not top-tier in terms of shock and chatter absorption on snow, in my experience. 

Board Feel

Not very good for board feel. Not really the kind of boot for that. 

Traction/Sole Quality

The sole looks and feels really nice. Feels/appears to be predominantly rubber, apart from in the raised arch area, where it may not be but may still be. Looking at specs, it says the outsole is made with “Vibram® ECOSTEP™ Compound” which is 30% recycled rubber.

Tread depth is normal with a good pattern variety. Overall feels and looks high quality and durable.

Reduced Footprint

I found the Team BOA to be nice and low profile. With an outsole that's 2.7cm longer than its mondopoint, it's a little bit shorter than the average boot, but what helps to make it more low profile is a huge toe bevel and above average heel bevel.