Salomon Strive 14 Multinorm

The Strive 14 Multinorm is Salomon's low-profile all-mountain binding built around genuine multinorm compatibility — meaning it accepts Alpine ISO 5355, GripWalk ISO 23223, and ISO 9523 touring soles all in one piece, without an adapter. That matters more than marketing: if you ski on a GripWalk boot today and switch to a lighter touring setup next season, you are not buying another binding. The DIN range runs 5–14, which puts the toe and heel squarely in advanced territory — calibrated for skiers from a strong, established intermediate up through a hard-charging advanced rider, with enough hold for aggressive carving and charging variable snow but not a race-room ceiling. The 47 mm of toe elastic travel is the headline here: the toe spring deflects substantially before releasing, which means edge chatter, ruts, and hard landings get absorbed rather than triggering a pre-release. The low-profile toe piece — Salomon's official stack height is 19.6 mm, so you are sitting under 21 mm at the toe — puts your boot closer to the ski, which translates into crisper edge feel and less leverage-robbing height between your foot and the snow. Brake widths come in 90, 100, 115, and 130 mm, so matching the brake to your ski's waist is straightforward: choose the narrowest brake that still clears the waist by a few millimeters, and no wider than about 15 mm over.

This binding is built for the advanced end of the all-mountain crowd — skiers who want sole flexibility without giving up an on-snow feel that reads as direct and connected. The multinorm toe uses a manual height adjustment — unlike the auto-adjusting toe on the GripWalk-only Strive 14 GW — so when you swap between boot types you set the toe height by hand. It takes about thirty seconds, but it is worth knowing before you pull up to the boot room in a hurry. Who should not buy it: if your DIN setting runs higher than 14 — think heavy, expert, or genuinely aggressive skiers flirting with DIN 13–15 — step up to the Strive 16 MN (DIN 7–16), which adds a metal heel piece and a higher ceiling. Conversely, if your setting sits at DIN 4 or below — lighter skiers and newer intermediates — the DIN 5 floor means this binding cannot release correctly in a fall, and you want a lower-DIN binding such as the Strive 12 GW (DIN 4–12, if you do not need touring-sole compatibility) or another DIN 4–12 alpine binding, set by a technician. One caveat on that down-step: the Strive 12 is GripWalk and Alpine only, so it gives up the ISO 9523 touring compatibility that defines this Multinorm model. And if you have zero interest in touring soles and want to shave about 15 grams per binding, the Strive 14 GW does the same job for pure Alpine and GripWalk boots at 980 g versus 995 g.