Burton's Tribute to Mid-Priced Boots

I write this review in a little bit of a somber mood. You, the reader should be a little somber, too, because my local hill closed a few days ago meaning this will be the last snowboard product review until December at least. :(

Anyhow, the product being reviewed is the type of product that is very helpful to have a review on. Their called the Burton Tribute snowboard boots. The reason this product raised my eyebrows is because it's Burton's lowest priced boot, and Burton isn't really a company known for producing low priced equipment. However, in the past, I had ridden a lower-end Burton board and mid-priced Burton bindings and liked them just fine, so I was a little curious to see if their boots held up to the same value standard. The model I selected was the Tribute, which was a poor choice really because the model wasn't made past the year of the boot I used (2005).

The boot is made primarily for freestyle use, meaning hitting jumps, rails, ect. These boots are actually very similar to the Freestyle model boots Burton produced in 2006 and 2007. The characteristics of a freestyle boot is generally light weight and with good padding for your foot to protect them when landing on big jumps. The Tribute excels in one of those categories; weight. These boots are one of the lightest that I have ever put on.

However, the lack of padding and even insulation is a little bit shocking. You feel almost every little bump and imperfection in the snow and landing on anything other than a perfect downhill slant results in a little pain in the feet. This results in a set of two tired and sore feet at the end of the day. The boot really lacks insulation too, and my feet were freezing in weather below 25 degrees even with multiple layers of socks on.

The boot is mainly mediocre as a freestyle boot, and does similarly as a freeriding boot. The lightweight frame is very responsive and the boots inner was well designed to the point my foot didn't slide around in there. For about half the day, until the repeated beating gets to your feet, the boots feel pretty good. They have a thin, soft fleece lining on the inside (not that you really feel it with your socks on).

Final Thoughts

This is a decent pair of boots at a pretty good price. I was torn between three and four stars but went with four because you get a good value with the Burton Tributes. They are very ideal for a rider that is fairly new to the sport and really doesn't push it that hard and is content with cruising down the hill.