SPK vs. Ghost FS 90 vs. Ghost 110

Ok so yes the spk is gone and to be honest it was done really a a boot. It wa pretty old and did not ski as well as other boots.

The ghost fs is the replacement. It keeps a lot of the padding of the original but comes down to a 100mm last which is a better starting point of the wide but low spk. The shell is much better and there is a flex adjustment option so you can up the flex to 100 if you like.

The ghost 110 uses te 98mm last from the xmax. It wa designed more a a freeride boot but it's the boot most of te salomon team wear. It does not have all the padding of the fs but does get a better liner and a few other upgrades.

Overall it will come down to what flex will work best. If your younger and still growing or just not that aggressive the fs will probably be fine. If your a bigger guy or aggressive skie you will prefer the added stability of the ghost 110 or even the 130 (that is what I am wearin this season for park/all mnt)

Let me know if you have any questions.

Firstly you should go get fitted by a good fitter and actually try on the boots.

The SPK 100 and Ghost FS 90 have a 4mm last difference which is significant, SPK 100 was 104mm last and FS 90 was 100mm. The Ghost is still a low volume boot like the SPK but it has the smaller last. The Ghost 110 has an even narrower last of 98mm and I doubt you'd be able to go from a SPK 100 to a Ghost 110 without work being done. I believe you can actually increase the stiffness on the FS 90 to 100 though because on the back of the boot there is space for another bolt. I maybe wrong though.

Really though go to a boot fitter if you actually need new boots (don't just buy new boots for the sake of buying new boots) and try them on as well as other boots because the last difference is significant. You may even find that a different brand of boot fits you better then the Salomon's.

@tomPietrowski: the SPK, soft and mushy as it may be, is the only boot that doesn't make my foot feel like it's in a vice. Full length footbeds and Booster straps have solved most issues I've encountered.

@Negromancer: been to bootfitters, worn several pairs of SPKs with custom footbeds for like 5 years now, just got a new pair of full-length beds molded last summer at Hillcrest. My pair from last year is pretty packed out, and the heels/toes are pretty donezo after 120ish days. I actually have a new pair waiting in the wings to swap the footbeds over, but I'm also getting a couple new pairs of skis this year that will likely last longer than my current boot-stash. Just planning for the future ;)



So there's a difference in last between the three, but what about BSL and forward lean comparisons?

Dammit I got ninja'd by Tom

I think you will find that if you fitted the spk then the ghost fs will still work. The spk was a weird fit. It was wide in the forefoot but low over the instep and mid volume in heel. So overall not a high volume boot just wide in the forefoot. If your interested this was done because salomon belief when the spk was introduced that a wider last would allow the foot to deform better under impact. Anyway, the new ghost fs is actually not that differnt to the spk other then in last. I think you will find that the instep infact has a more natural feel. It's easy to widen a shell 4 mm in the forefoot so don't worry about the last. You may actually find tht adding the volume all to the lateral side helps more then the even widening of the spk.

In regards to forward lean the new ones do have a bit more lean. I don't hav exact angles I'm afraid but try it and see what you think. It's not much more and if you really don't like it you could remove the rear spoiler to give a more upright stance or even hav the cuff ground to give a more upright stance. But try it. I wore the spk for years and would not ski anything else. Then I got given some overload's. The overload has a similar forward lean to the ghost an I thought I would not like it a I was use to the spk. That was not te case. I found I could actually drive the skis harder and if anything my pop increased as I could power forward slightly more before popping as my knee was already slightly bent. So yeah try it but I think you will like it.

Go to a bootfitter?

Oh and boot sole length was I think the new ones are 2mm shorter but the internal length should be pretty similar.