The Marker Griffon demo set the bar because it skied almost identically to its regular retail counterpart and really became the first demo binding accepted by better skiers.
The Marker Griffon demo was the first demo binding for me that took its purpose seriously, and that purpose was to demonstrate the attributes of the ski. Just as “mid-entry” boots of the 90s had a bad reputation while today's walk mode boots are accepted, now it is demo=good, rental=bad. But as skis started getting wider, these bindings were masking the skis' performance, and we began to see a change. In most applications on a traditional straight ski, that really didn’t matter, and ease of adjustment was still the most important aspect. Weight, height, and other inefficiencies of the binding often created a disconnect between the boot and the ski. Through the years, ease of adjustment remained paramount over performance.
