Rome Black Label 2022-2023 Snowboard Bindings Review - Whitelines Snowboarding

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Rome Black Label 2022-2023 Snowboard Bindings Review

Tested and selected for our top 100 snowboard products of the year: the Rome Black Label

  • Price: £490 / €590 / $590
  • Sizes: S, M/L, L/XL
  • Flex: 8/10
  • Entry System: Classic

Why We Chose The Rome Black Label: Rome make some awesome binders, and the Black Label is their all-singing, all-dancing flagship. We know it, you know it: this thing is badass.

Imagine, if you will, being the person in charge of binding design for a major manufacturer. Much of your time is spent staring at CAD software, juggling existing components to fit the target customer’s riding ability, and of course their wallet. It’s an exercise in compromise. Then, one happy day, the boss comes over and says, “Lance – “ (I don’t know why but I figure binding designers are usually called Lance) – “Lance, it’s time to work on Project X.” Project X is the codename for their flagship model. Something a bit special. Something lightweight, and spaceage. Something high performance, beautiful, and eye-wateringly expensive.

Something like the Rome Black Label.

“While it’s lightweight and agile you can still poke out a front three or attack a carve with the style of Stale”

Who Is The Rome Black Label For?

Aggressive all-mountain rippers whose money don’t jiggle jiggle; it folds.

MORE INFO:
ROMESNOWBOARDS.COM

 

Baseplate

At first glance, the Black Label looks much like the Rome Katana or the Rome Vice elsewhere in the Rome range. And yes, it is built around a two-part baseplate and heel hoop. The difference is in the materials, most notably a 30 percent carbon base that shaves weight faster than Paddy the Baddy, and which stiffens up the underfoot platform for faster edge response. Carbon isn’t the most shock-absorbent of materials, so the bottom of the baseplate features a layer of premium Duracush dampening to soak up impacts and protect your deck. It’s made from expanded thermoplastic that won’t turn hard even as the temperature drops below zero. A squishy footbed on top completes an expensive carbon sandwich.

Rome’s aluminium AsymWrap chassis runs the full length of the inside of the binding but prioritises freedom over power on the outside of the foot. That helps to balance out the more aggressive materials used throughout the design, so while it’s lightweight and agile you can still poke out a front three or attack a carve with the style of Stale Sandbech. Unlike a lot of stiff bindings, the Black Label suits not just beardy backcountry shredders but pipe riders and advanced kicker slayers too – basically anyone who loves precise control and demands the best.

“The Black Label suits not just at beardy backcountry shredders but pipe riders and advanced kicker slayers too – basically anyone who loves precise control and demands the best”

Straps and Highbacks

Response continues to be the watchword when it comes to the Black Label’s PowerGraft highback, which blends polystrands in the upper section (for rapid energy transfer) with traditional nylon in the lower section (adding a touch of flex). You can rotate it left and right, and even adjust the canting, so that it’s perfectly in line with the back of your boot, delivering super efficient heelside turns.

The ankle strap is also incredibly customisable thanks to a PivotMount Max system. Position it lower down over the foot for greater tweak, higher up across your ankle for maximum support, or differently on either side. Rome have been pushing this tech for a few years now and we’ve gotta say it’s rad to be able to experiment with the fit – even if there’s a temptation to keep fiddling around with your set-up while your mates are enjoying lunch.

Both the ankle and toe strap deploy Rome’s famous AuxTech material that can only have been designed by a computer or a person very high on psychedelics seeing fractals. It works via a geometric network of plastic hinges that expand over the boot – simultaneously gripping – without stressing the material. The fit these straps provide is seamless, and with no bulky padding the whole rig is lightweight and bombproof.

The buckles have been upgraded for 2022/23 and are now fashioned from one-piece forged aluminium, with a wider profile for buttery smooth grip on the ladders. Last up, the new Fast Entry tech makes the straps fall naturally to one side when they’re undone, thus eliminating one of the few remaining annoyances with snowboarding and fuelling the continued debate as to whether step-in bindings are pointless. Good work!

“Rome’s famous AuxTech material can only have been designed by a computer or a person very high on psychedelics”

Roundup

Not to be confused with a cheap and nasty British lager of the same name, the Black Label instead represents the pinnacle of Rome’s binding design. Its stiff flex will put off some folk; its eye-watering price will deter many more. But for those riders lucky enough to boast both the skills and the budget, you won’t find a better platform for high speed all-mountain shralping.

Pros:

  • Lightning fast respsonse
  • Super customisable and premium components throughout

Cons:

  • They’re pretty damn expensive
SHOP ALL SNOWBOARD BINDINGS ON

 

Tester’s Verdict 2022/23

Coming soon…

Trade Secrets

Matt Stillman – Marketing Manager / Team Manager, Rome SDS

“Do you know anyone who is a whiskey drinker? Like a real whiskey drinker, not like ‘oh sure I’ll have a Jack and Coke’, but a real whiskey connoisseur. The kind of person who describes the peatiness or the thick lustrous finish of a neat glass of single malt. That is who the Black Label is designed for, the discerning rider who knows what they’re looking for in a binding.

What really sets the Black Label apart from everything else on the shelf, is its industry leading Polystrand composite highback. This material is then overmolded into a nylon lower region which connects to the AsymWrap platform. This creates unpresented heelside power transfer but thanks to the unique material properties of the Polystrand composite, the Black Label is still torsionally playful and tweakable.

Round things out with our legendary AuxTech strap package and you’ve got a recipe for next level all-terrain destruction.”

Topics:

Buyers Guide 2022/23 Buyers Guide Bindings 2022/23 Rome Reviews 2022/23 The Whitelines 100 2022/23 The Whitelines 100 Bindings 2022/23

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