Tecnica Mach1 130 C.A.S.

The new Mach1 series represents the biggest (and we think coolest) changes made to Tecnica’s line since the company ditched the swinging hinge on its upper cuff. The Mach1 represents a return to Tecnica’s performance design roots. The key element here is the acute attention paid to matching the shape of the human foot and lower leg, starting inside the boot and working out.

The new C.A.S. liner (Custom Adaptive Shape) sports a squarer toebox shape, room for the pesky navicular bone on top of the foot and anatomically correct ankle and heel pockets. The liner is closely sculpted around the shape of the foot using a fairly stiff, heat-moldable exterior material Tecnica calls Microcell. The contours are plainly visible in the perforated orange exterior layer. The new Mach1 shell is similarly fashioned to match those curves meaning that liner and shell shape are well integrated from the start. The shell's upper cuff is also shaped to better match the skier's lower leg profile. At 15mm higher than the cuff employed on its predecessor Demon, it provides better power and leverage to the ski.

None of this would be much more than marketing spew if our testers hadn't overwhelmingly loved this boot and by virtually unanimous vote pushed it up onto the top tier of the All-Mountain Traditionalist category podium with a select few others in this competitive group.

The Mach1 definitely sits on the generous side of the medium fit spectrum—another joining the current manufacturing trend to hedge toward the roomy side of medium fit. Not that this is a bad thing. Testers with a variety of foot shapes liked the fit but noted more length, toebox and forefoot width and instep height than the average medium width model. A few even downsized for testing with no gripes. Across the board they liked the contained heel and ankle fit. They said the contoured grip was ready to go out-of-the-box.  Ski performance was bombproof and precise, according to testers who gave it evenly matched top scores for power, agility, balance and comfort.