Cross-country ski boots for men

Classic boots buying guide

Do you need a pair of classic boots? This buying guide will help you choose the right model.

What is a classic boot?

A classic Nordic ski boot is designed to be very flexible on the front to promote the roll of the foot while ensuring an effective heel support to allow you to direct your classic ski in a precise and safe way.

How should I choose my classic boot?

Your choice of boots for cross-country skiing depends primarily on your level of skill. To make it easier for you, we have identified three categories.

The first category is "Leisure". Boots in this category are designed for people more interested in comfort than performance. They offer ergonomic and comfortable footwear while ensuring stability and good ski control.

The second category is for regular skiers. It includes performance footwear that is nonetheless comfortable. They are mostly from race brands before carbon boots appeared. They offer good technical quality to help you learn the classic technique and improve.

The third category, "Race/Expert", is for skiers looking for a cross-country ski boot that can help them get to the ultimate technical level for incomparable skiing sensations. These boots are more rigid and hold the foot to perfection, for precise and direct support. Demanding skiers will find easily the boot that suits them in the latter category.

Are the boots I have chosen compatible with my Nordic ski binding?

This is an important question to ask before buying as some boots are only compatible with a specific binding. Nordic ski boots which use the SNS Pilot standard are a very good example because they can only be associated with bindings that use the same standard. The remaining brands, Rossignol, Fischer, Atomic and Salomon Prolink, are compatible with both NNN and Prolink bindings.

If you need further information, please see our tutorial on different binding standards.