Testers who had no love for the Cochise 120 in the past loved it this year. Even testers who somehow didn't like the narrower, stiffer Pro this year still loved the Cochise 120. Everybody loves the Cochise 120, it's like a rave. Well, testers raved about it at any rate. They like the new fit, the new flex, the new liner and the newfound range of motion in its hike mode.
The easygoing medium-width fit is shared with fraternal twin, non-hike Mach1—the characteristic bulge for the navicular on the arch side of the shell, the wider and more-square toebox shape, asymmetric ankle contours--those are all family traits. The heel is also tighter but more carved out along the path where the Achilles tendon rests. All this goodness is wrapped in a revised Ultra Fit liner, closed within the anatomically redesigned upper cuff and connected with the Mobility Cuff release mechanism (a tester favorite).
Neither the cuff release switch itself nor its metal-to-metal linkage is new, but the way the cuff rotates fore and aft when released is. The range of motion and the quality of the movement are both improved due to the changes in shell and cuff shape as well as the use of new Triax 2.0 in the lower shell. Testers were amazed at how much better the cuff range was this year.
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