![]() I did no work to the boots initaly, just took them out of the box, exchanged the insoles with my footbeds and headed up Whistler. Overall there are slight differences, but I do think the overal fit has been improved, which should apeal to new users without forgetting about existing customers. The heel and ankle are similar, with the Ghost being just slightly narower. The top of the boot is much more curved and in most cases gives a much better fit to the top of the foot compared to the more squared off box fit of the SPK. Instep-wise the actual height is pretty similar, however it is much more 'foot shaped' on the Ghost. The final area of the fit I looked at was the instep, ankle and heel. The top of the clog is around 20mm lower compared to the SPK, so the cuff also fits slightly closer on the Ghost, giving it more forward lean. The power strap is at roughly the same height as the SPK and the cuff height is very similar, while fit-wise the cuff is a little different on the Ghost and the clog (foot part of the boot) comes up much less. ![]() The foot buckle is similar, but the cuff buckle is around 15mm lower on the ghost. Whilst shell checking the boots side by side it's easy to notice the different buckle placment. All this was good news in the absence of the soft toe. In the Ghost the toe box fits a little wider thanks to a more anatomical shape, which meant I could get my toes right to the end of the shell. Although the SPK's forefoot is wide, the toe box narrows pretty quickly and I found my big and little toes touched the sides long before my toes touched the end. So although the Ghost has a shorter BSL, it also has a longer internal length partly due to the toe box. However, I found there was around 24mm space behind my heel in the Ghost compared to 22mm in the SPK. The SPK has a BSL of 307mm (in my size, 26) with the Ghost being slightly shorter at 305mm. Something surprising was the intial length in the shell check. I was tempted to punch the big toe area of the Ghost before I even skied it, but after shell checking and in the interest of giving an out of the box review of the fit, I decided against it. The reason for its absence is due to the technical nature of incorparating it into the new shell, but I was told it may not be gone for good. The SPK's soft toe was a feature I always really liked and losing it on the Ghost was a disapointment. Shell checking the Ghost and the SPK side by side, I did find that the SPK was quite a bit wider in the forefoot however skiers with wider feet can rest assured that the shell can be easily expanded to give a similar forefoot as the SPK. ![]() There are a number of reasons for this redesign, but a big factor was to open the Ghost FS up to users who before found the SPK too wide. This is probably the one of the biggest changes in the new design, with the forefoot being narrowed down to 100mm. One of the things which made the SPK popular was the relatively wide last of the boot at 104mm. I had been a huge fan of the SPK and the SPK Pro, riding them almost exclusively since I got my first pair in 2006, so I was really interested to see what this new boot could do. Some were disappointed that the wide last was gone, while others questioned why some key features from the SPK were missing from the new version. Last season when Salomon announced they were replacing the SPK with a new boot, reactions were mixed. It became a favourite with park riders who enjoyed the cushioning and padding not available in other boots. Over the years the design evolved, adding new features such as the soft toe and the leather covering on the SPK Pro. When Salomon first introduced the SPK in 2006 it was something really new in the world of park boots.
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