Hot Take: StepOn bindings are here to stay!

I've seen a lot of StepOn hate all over the internet, mostly from people who have never used them or demoed them for 1 or 2 days and formed and opinion based on that. So I thought I'd chime in with a controversial take: StepOns are here and they're the future of snowboarding.*

I was once a StepOn hater. I saw them and immediately thought "Wow, that person must really suck if they can't balance on an edge long enough to strap in a binding". Then I demoed them for a day and thought "getting out of these on my toeside sucks! I hate these!".

Then I had to teach some kids who showed up to a lesson with brand new StepOns (I'm a part time instructor), and I didn't know how to help them get in/out of their bindings. Then a few months later, I had to teach an intermediate lesson to someone with stepon bindings, and they were NOT a beginner. In fact, they were getting into their bindings and riding away much faster than me, which is NOT a good look when you are an instructor. So, when the bindings on my teaching board finally needed to be replaced, I decided that it was time to get some StepOn bindings. I told myself "I'll only use them for my teaching board.". Now it's 3 seasons later and every. single. board I own has StepOns on them, INCLUDING my splitboard (yes, they make splitboard StepOns). And I love them all and will likely never ride trad bindings ever again.

Why? Because my mountain's entire rental fleet is moving to StepOns next season. That means that the next gen coming up in snowboarding is going to learn on them. They're going to know how to use them and they're going to look at trad strap bindings and say "Grandma, what's this weird strappy thing on your old board?". Because that's how progress works.

So haters - get ready, cuz StepOns are the TRUTH and the FUTURE.*

*Disclaimer for the people who need it: This is my strongly held opinion and people are welcome to disagree with me in the comments, but not welcome to be rude or disrespectful. ALSO This isn't to say that everyone has to ride StepOns, or that StepOns are right for everyone, I just think that they're going to be a much bigger part of snowboarding as time goes on. ALSO ALSO I do not work for Burton and I am not being paid to write this post.