DelBello Veloce Space 120 Dual Ski Boot Review

I was hemming and hawing on the chairlift at Kirkwood this spring. Knowing that I’m not BOA’s biggest fan, and that my feet are quite narrow, I continued to stare at the shiny new Delbello Veloce Space 120 Dual BOA This left my toes a little disappointed.

Ski boot testing is hard work. You analyze the ischemic pain, sloppiness and shin injuries caused by improper fit of the boot which is just as bad. Next, find out who the brand created the boot for and who it will serve.

And yet, after I spent three eternities cranking both BOA dials all the way down, I was pleasantly surprised by falling into The Wall. While wading through muddy bumps, I felt my heel catch in the back of the heel pocket. This is no small feat for my choice of 98mm and below.

I started getting into the flow. Catching wind off the back of one mogul, I found the transition to the steep side of the next. I was generally having fun. The cuff wraps held me securely in place as I throbbed and descended toward the base area.

Once on the piste, I was even more pleased to realize how well the stance matched my preferred skiing style. Whenever I wanted to hit the gas and shred the remaining corduroy with gusto I tapped into the instant power transfer straight from the cuff.

In short: 2026 Delbello Veloce Space 120 Dual BOA ($830) was updated with the Double BOA treatment, which helps fit its already popular comfort. For those unfamiliar, the OG Design is a classic mid-volume, all-mountain ski boot with four-buckles, cushioned liner, and affordable price point.

See how other ski boots compare to this pick in our best ski boots buyer’s guide.

Dalbello: They make Cabrios, right?

Veloce Space DelBello’s relatively recent foray into lightweight four-buckle all-mountain shoes is a revolutionary redesign. The brand has long been a staple, if not dominant, of the plug race market, producing strong World Cup shoes in the form of the DRS WC.

But on the entertaining side of the business, the brand’s Cabrio offering holds more prominence. DelBello took a step back about 4 years ago toward traditional overlap boots that you can pick up without hiring a personal trainer.

Crypton and Il Moro built a large number of dedicated followers from the freestyle and freeride world. But the brand clearly wanted to go even further.

When I worked as a bootfitter at Mammoth, those boots were a revelation to our customers. The first generation came with soft, damp plastic and exceptionally padded liners – those sets were basically sold by themselves.

So, DelBello piqued my interest when they redesigned the Veloce into a more high-performance flagship boot.

What is in a name?

The new Veloce shares basically nothing with the old Marshmallow other than the name which flew off the shelves. This is not a bad thing.

Most obviously, not a single buckle can be found on this thing. But adding a BOA to the boot doesn’t just change the closure; You will have to create a completely new final. This allowed DelBello to rework every part of the shell and liner.

One of my favorite things is the Zeppa (boot board) which is purpose-built for grounding – a real cryptid in the age of cost and weight savings. DelBello added depth holes to help bootfitters measure their grips to adjust skiers’ stance laterally and both fore and aft.

Skiers who remember having their boots worked on in the 90’s and aughts probably won’t be impressed, but it’s nice to have some customization back in the recreational market. It looks like it’s standard across their high-performance all-mountain, freeride and freestyle boots this year.

The Liner is also an impressive upgrade over the previous Veloce. I particularly like the tongue, which has stiffness on the outside but a fair amount of foam toward the calf. The bootfitter in me knows that the soft foam will wear out soon. But I found comfort in the ankle BOA – bending it down eliminates the fear of the shin slipping when the tongue volume eventually reduces.

The asymmetric ankle bone pockets are nice, and all the hand stitching on the toe box looks premium.

crank it up. or below

Let’s get down to brass tacks at BOA. I have never hidden the fact that I think the lower BOA is a fundamentally flawed system. Many people (mostly boot designers who create BOA shoes) have argued with me in the past about the wrapping function of BOA’s scapho (the lower clog of the shell). But when the dial tightens the cable my small, narrow step is the first to feel the pressure, which tells me the whole effort is kind of pointless.

My steps aren’t particularly sensitive: I spent 300+ days in the last generation Technica Mach1 LV 130Notorious for his extremely low step. But Scafo BOAs make sense to me, which means I don’t understand how they are presented as a solution for people with tall, problematic stature.

But I will admit that I am impressed with the upper cuff BOA. I think the way the upper cuff wraps around the ankle and calf is a real performance benefit. So, I’m very happy to see the mullet BOA (dial upper cuff with two-buckle scarf) gaining popularity in the market.

On a wider boot than I’m used to, I was able to use the tension of the upper BOA to my advantage to lock my heel in place, while keeping the lower dial loose enough that I didn’t feel numbing pain up my foot.

I find the upper dial works particularly well for making fast turns on the piste, where the mechanism provides more stiffness and support at speed than your average 120-flex buckle boot.

ground level

So who is this ski boot for? Well, technologists, for one. Anyone who’s excited by features will look distressed looking at the spec sheet Veloce Space Dual BOA. It has dials and instruments outside the vase.

This iteration of the Veloce is endlessly customizable: a bootfitter’s dream. Dalbello mapped the shell with more malleable plastic – even including visual indicators – to make pulling and grinding common problem areas like the navicular and sixth toe incredibly easy. There is cuff alignment on both sides for bow-legged or knock-kneed skiers who require adjustment.

Dual-way cuff alignment accommodates bow-footed or knock-kneed skiers, while a grindable Zeppa allows a bootfitter to precisely adjust your ramp angle and lateral foot position for a customized stance.

For all-mountain skiers with medium to high-volume feet who care about comfort and performance, take a closer look at this ski boot. It’s comfortable and warm, plus it’s capable of providing real precision and power when getting on and off the piste.