Stomp Pads- Do We really Need Em?

Stomp pads always cause controversy in any conversation about snowboarding gear! here's a quick lowdown with a couple of conflicting points of view to help you make your mind up. 

why do they exist?

i'm gonna start off controversial here... advertising! yes they are a useful tool but by sticking a manufacturers stomp pad on your board you are basically giving them free ad space, not that thats a bad thing.. Snowboarding is a sport that is supported by amazing brands and showing your allegiance to Burton or Union or whoever is great, why not. 

Humans are super tribal and not only do we like to join our favourite teams from apple-android to ratchet vs step-on (big arguments coming this way soon I can see) but we also like to show others what team we are on too.. so along with bombing the top side of your board in stickers.. a nice fat branded stomp pad goes a long way in acheiving that. but what do they do.. technically?

well.. put simply, a stomp pad helps traction between your boot and your binding when you are riding with one boot unclipped. so, moments of high stress such as getting on/off a chair lift are assisted by a thick spongy piece of rubber that stops your boot slipping about on the deck of your board while you are trying your best not to fall over or crash into that group of four skiers that stopped all in a line to adjust their goggles the second they got off the lift. (standard)

there are also some stomp pads such as Union's boot scraper that do the twin job of keeping your foot in place whilst also allowing you to use to to scrape unwanted snow off your sole before clipping in, a nice idea. 

do we really need em?

I'm gonna say, it depends.. for the most part if you take your unclipped boot and press it against the inside of your binding, it will give you the support you need and stop if sliding about when you've got the hang of it. I've never used one but thats because I'm OCD about design. my wife has one because she loves the way it looks on her board, the grippy practicality of it comes second for her. 

but the main reason are the visuals for some people.. I like a minimal clean board, the manufacturers spent a tonne of time designing the gorgeous graphics of our boards, it seems a shame to cover them up. because lets face it, we all choose boards depending on the graphics. we may say we don't but i'm 99% sure that given the choice between an OK board with sick graphics or a sick board with OK graphics.. the graphics will win every time. (might be a moot point these days as you really have to try to find a bad snowboard, technology has moved on a long way)

but other people like to customise and sticker-up their boards and thats fine.. there's a reason that manufacturers all try to design the coolest possible stomp pads they can..( for my money Lib-tech's Banana or Crab grabs mega claws are the winners here) and the reason is, we all love cool stuff.. why the hell not. if we were only interested in function.. we'd all have those ugly black rectangles of rubber in the middle of our boards like they have on rentals, yuck. 

so love them or hate them, stomp pads have become a massive piece of our aftermarket products.. Buy one, don't buy one.. whatever floats your boat.