Vans Infuse Snowboard Boots Review

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

Demo Info

Boots: Vans Infuse 2025

Size: 10 (US Men's Sizing)

Date: December 18, 2024

Boot to Boot Fit

In-House testing: Overall they fit my feet really well - and with the amount of adjustability in these boots, they should be able to accommodate a good amount of foot shapes, assuming you get the right size. 

On-Snow testing: All round felt really good. All round snug, with very even, well spread out pressure. 

Length Fit:

In-House testing: My toes were just brushing ends but with no pressure. Would want to keep my toenails nice and short though! Toes pull away just a touch when leaning forward.

For tops of toes, again keeping that big toe nail cut would be worth doing (if its your longest toe) even more so in these than other boots. There is still some wiggle room, which is good, but certainly less than my control boots. I would say similar to 32 TM-2, or maybe slightly less room. But pretty close to the TM-2 (which I tested on the same day).

On-Snow testing: Length felt just right. Toes right near the end, but without ever getting pushed against the end. 

Width Fit:

In-House testing: In my control boots I can move my forefoot side to side just a little bit. In the TM-2, I couldn’t really move it at all. In the Infuse, I can just move it a touch with effort, but very little. The toe box, while being quite tight on the top of it, actually has a bit of room to the sides. I would say a touch more than the TM-2 – though without being able to move forefoot at all in TM-2, it’s hard to say for sure. For Infuse I would say medium, maybe even bordering on medium-wide.

On-Snow testing: Medium at narrowest. Mid-wide at widest. They fit my feet (which are average width) just right, with no real space but nothing that felt too tight around my forefeet or sides of toes. 

In-Step:

In-House testing: They felt pretty snug on the in-step but the pressure was nice and evenly spread out for the most part. There’s a tiny bit more pressure right at the point the instep meets the ankle. Loosening the BOA relieves this a little bit, but also relieves the heel hold a little bit. When it’s tight the instep pressure isn’t enough to have to sacrifice heel hold for, IMO. It's pretty subtle.

On-Snow testing: Again, just nice even spread out pressure. Didn't notice any discomfort while riding or even just sitting on the chairlift.  

Around Ankles:

In-House testing: I felt a little bit of pressure on left inner ankle bone just forward of the top of the inner ankle bone. And a tiny bit on the outer ankle bone, but not as much as the inner bone. The inner bone pressure wasn’t bad though. It’s slightly uncomfortable but not enough to think it would be a problem down the road and no more than normal for me with any new boots. 

On-Snow testing: Just like the rest of the boot, they were snug around the ankles, without any discomfort. I found that the BOA harness sat right in the perfect spot on my ankles, so that I could crank it down nice and tight for great heel hold, but without getting any hot spots on my ankles or tops of my feet. 

True to Size?: 

In-House testing: I’d say true to size. I would go bigger before I went smaller. I don’t think I could get into the 9.5, especially my left foot which is longer. But I am happy in the 10 so far and it should only get more comfortable from here.

On-Snow testing: I'd say definitely true to size. Any smaller and they'd be too tight, IMO. Any bigger and they'd have a chance of packing out too big. Just right in the 10 for me.

Boot to Binding Fit

Heel width: In my control boots there's a bit of space between the boot's heel and the heel cup of my control bindings (Malavita) – around a 1/2" (1cm) I would say. The Infuse's heel is wider. It gets in but it’s touching the sides of the heel cup when it’s back as far as it can go. But  doesn't have to squeeze to get in there, but there’s no space, as such. 

Toe width: The width at the toe strap, there’s a little bit of a gap with the Infuse. Overall around the same as my control boots. 

Ankle Strap: The ankle strap position is surprisingly not that far off of how it sits on my control boots, before adjusting it. It would need to lengthen one hole to be in the same position as my control boots. The reason I say it's surprising is because the Infuse looks to the eye to be quite a bit bulkier around the ankle, so I would have expected more of an adjustment would be needed.

Toe Strap: The toe strap will need to be lengthened by one or two holes to get it to sit in the best position for the infuse. This is sometimes to do with length, but sometimes it's just the shape of the boot. The Infuse is pretty low profile, so it's likely the shape. That said, while the difference to mondopoint measurement is similar on the Infuse and my control boots, my control boots are a 9.5, so overall are still shorter. 

Carving/Slow Speed Response

The Infuse were noticeably better than my control boots for carving, particularly with all the tongue stiffeners in. 

When it came to slow speed turning, they weren't quite as good as my control boots, but still really decent. 

Heel Hold

In-House: Very minimal heel lift. Just a hint of lift. But honestly, if there wasn’t a hint, it may affect comfort too much. These have really good heel hold. A little better than my control boots, and my control boots have really decent heel hold.

On-Snow: As mentioned in the fit section above, I found that the ankle harness that is tightened by the BOA, sits in the perfect spot over my ankle. This meant that I could crank it tight without hot spots. This really helped to get really good heel hold. And that really helped these to perform really well when riding in them.

Adjustability

Upper lower separation: Traditional lacing, so you can get really dialed in lower and upper tightness.  

Ease of tightening the inner boot: The Infuse have a BOA as well as traditional lacing. This BOA tightens a harness that sits on the shell of the boot, rather than the liner, but it's centered around the ankle. This great for heel hold and it's also super easy to give that BOA a bit of a turn, without having to open the boot up, to get a little more tightness around the ankle, on the fly.

Other factors: The Infuse have 4 tongue stiffeners (two per boot). You can have both in, both out, just the medial side in or just the lateral side in. This allows you to alter the flex feel of the boot, which is pretty cool.

Flex 

Which brings me to flex. 

In-house: With all tongue stiffeners in, I felt the Infuse at a 7/10 flex, maybe pushing 7.5/10, but I'd say 7/10 is the most accurate. 

With all the tongue

On-Snow: With all tongue stiffeners in I felt the Infuse at a 7.5/10 flex. Without Tongue stiffeners, more like a 6, maybe 5.5 at softest.

While Vans has a range of 5/10 to 9/10 for this boot, that is an exaggeration of how much difference those tongue stiffeners make to flex, IMO. They don't change the flex by 4 levels! They do make a difference, but it's more like 1.5 to 2 flex levels, by my feel. 

Comfort

In-house: After wearing them inside for over an hour, with the Infuse on my right foot and my left control boot on my left foot, the Infuse were still feeling nice and comfortable. In fact, I was getting the same amount of discomfort (as in very minimal) from the Infuse as I was from my well broken in control boots. 

On-Snow: Really comfortable overall. Really not much to complain about here. Felt like I could ride in them all day.

Shock Absorption

In-House: Noticably more shock absorbing in stomp test vs my control boots. My control boots are well used and have likely lost some cush, I imagine, but still, there’s a considerable difference there - more so than most boots I test in the stomp test.  

On-Snow: I felt they did a slightly better job at absorbing shock from landings and chatter than my control boots. They felt nice and damp. 

Board Feel

That dampness didn't affect board feel too much though. Not the ultimate boots for board feel, but also not too bad. Initiating ollies, butters etc was fine and overall, while they felt damp, they didn't feel like you didn't have good contact with the board or anything. 

Traction/Sole Quality

Tread depth is some of the deepest I’ve seen. There’s some pattern variety there too. Not oodles but definitely some. Assuming all the brown parts of the sole are rubber, which it feels like they are, the traction should be really good and it should be durable.

The very end, the dark brown bit around the toe, feels more like it’s plastic, but it’s a hard, sharp plastic. Wouldn’t last as long, but that part of the sole is unlikely to come into contact with the ground, most of the time. It would likely only engage when walking up steeper terrain or kicking out a snow step, kind of thing.

Reduced Footprint

I measured the Infuse to have a nicely reduced footprint. They have an average amount of toe and heel bevel, but being only 2.1cm longer on the sole (from estimated heel contact point to estimated toe contact point) compared to its Mondopoint, it's one of the shorter sole footprints out there. 

Entry/Exit

When filming for demonstrating tying these boots up, I didn’t undo the very bottom laces and that made for a tight fit. I was able to force my foot in, but required a twist and a good push down. Once in they felt nice and snug, but not too tight.

When I put them on at other times I was able to open them up quite a bit more and was considerably easier to get foot in. Still had to give it a bit of a push, but nothing major. Average.

By the time you untie all the laces, loosen the BOA and then have to pull the liner lacing harness, tighten the BOA, tie the tradional lacing, zip up the shroud and tighten the power strap, it takes a good bit of time. But it's pretty easy to do and all of that gives you great adjustabilty.