A lot of things in life need to be flexible yet strong enough to provide support, things like a fishing rod, your underwear, bra straps, your bank account or even your girlfriend/boyfriend. It is somewhat (what am I saying, it is totally) the key to life to maintain this balance, to handle whatever situations life might smack you in the face with.
It is good be confident, but also humble. A law needs to be firm, but fair. Slim pants need to be tight, but stretchy. And the perfect baguette needs to be soft on the inside and crispy on the outside. Holy shit, someone pull the emergency break on this rambling maniac before I start talking about fried chicken...
Now, let's get back to the point. The point being an ideal snowboard binding gives you enough flex to do all types of spaghetti grabs and saucy tweaks, but they are there for you when coming in for a heavy landing or a disaster onto a rail. Cue the Salomon ShadowFit District Bindings.
Namely, the concept of a flexible heel cup, which despite not being entirely novel, has never been done this well before. This flexible yet bombproof heel cup, courtesy of the Kevlar QuickWire Salomon used, along with the extra cush straps and longitudinally stiff yet torsionally soft highbacks create a fully anatomical fit, essentially a binding that wraps around your boot like a shadow (hence the name, duh).
Damn, we are so demanding these days!
Seriously though, we do ask a lot from our bindings, we sound like a excessively high maintenance girlfriend that is pissed she's had the same handbag for 3 months and wishes you made more money to get her a new one every week.
But before my train of thought leaves the station again (destination: Nowhere), I'll let the people actually developing these bindings do the "talking" while I go take a nap. The dudes and dudettes that ride these binders are proof that the ShadowFit Districts are all you need to reel in those big bass spots and bag blue-fin tuna hammer shots.
Here are full parts from Louif Paradis, Jed Anderson, Desiree Melancon and a quick park tease from Viktor Wiberg.