Nordica XBi CT

Released in 2003, back when brands were struggling to perfect a free-flexing binding system that didn’t interfere with the would-be perfect parabola of a weighted ski making a turn, Nordica’s XBS binding system featured two crossing cantilevers. They eliminated the dead spot in a flexed ski created by traditional, screwed-in heel- and toepieces and helped you regain balance if you slipped into the backseat. The next iteration, XBi, anchored the same system directly onto the ski’s core, improving skier-to-ski energy transfer and further gluing the ski’s edges to the snow.