Tech Talk | Best Foot Forward: The History of Ski Boots

Few items of footwear have evolved as dramatically as the ski boot. From leather to space-age composites in under 50 years, Ski Equipment Buyer Steve Wells and Creative Director Dave Whitlow talk us through its rapid transformation and the history of ski boots.

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When did Ellis Brigham start selling ski boots?
There wasn't much of a commercial ski boot market until the 1960s. Prior to that, skiing was primarily an aristocratic or military activity. You went to your ski boot cobbler in Gstaad or wherever; it was more of a cottage industry. But as air travel started to be more affordable and ski holidays became more of a thing, the market stepped up. The first boots we sold were basic leather and lace-up affairs from brands like Koflach and Caber.

How did they work?
The bindings weren't releasable in those days, so you just literally slotted your leather ski boot into a metal and leather strapping type system. It was a development of Nordic equipment which had been around in Scandinavia for quite a while.

And how did they begin to evolve?
The laces went and you started to get leather boots with clips, which stiffened them up. Then they started to laminate or stitch plastic to the outside. Bob Lange – the founder of Lange Boots – was the first to crack this. They weren't the two-piece ski boots as we know them now; that came later.

What were the disadvantages of those old boots?
It was difficult to steer your skis with floppy leather boots. And they also got wet, no matter how much you looked after them and waxed them. The beauty of leather is that it softens with age, but in this case the more comfortable they got, the less able they were to drive your skis.

So what came next?
The next evolution was separating the inner and the outer, so you had plastic outer shells and a separate leather-and-foam liner. That meant they could use very hard plastics and take the levels of stiffness and control even higher. This was in the 1970s, and for all intents and purposes the concept has not changed a great deal since then.

They must have looked incredibly futuristic at the time – like something out of Star Wars!
They really did. And the 1970s [fashion] played into that as well. You know, ski wear was very ‘out there, man’. There was a flood of crazy one-piece ski suits along with these space-aged ski boots.

And then rear-entry boots became all the rage for a while, didn't they?
Yes. The downside of plastic ski boots was they were very difficult to walk in, and quite difficult to get in and out of. In around 1977/78 Brigham’s got some Scott and Hanson boots in; these were the first rear entries. It was a development from America that looked even more space age. The Hansons had wax in the inner that moulded to the foot after you warmed it up, and they were super, super tight to the leg. It was a really funky look! The Scott had large elements of fibreglass in the outer, which was very stiff, but both of those boots were rear entry.

The ones people will remember were made by Salomon, right?
Well, Scott had quality issues because unfortunately the fibreglass cracked, and Hanson just literally ran out of money. But Salomon had seen these innovations, and they were very good at making innovations mass market. So that's what they did. They made sure everything was absolutely bang on, and in 1979 they launched the SX-90 boot. It was a huge success, and lots of different ski boot companies followed suit. Every rental shop around the world suddenly wanted rear entries because they were just a dream; they didn't hurt people's feet.

Who else is worth a mention here?
The Italian brand Nordica went to some bizarre lengths with rear entry design. They even had a knee-high model called the Polaris. It was supposed to accentuate the leverage over your skis and give you massive drive. They were short-lived, but they were hilarious!

Where did the rear entry dream go wrong then?
I think the racers never felt like they had the control that a four-clip boot was giving them. A four-clip is going to wrap around the foot and hold it better. The spine is also stiffer er so they could put more power through the ski. Naturally, if the top athletes and instructors – you know, the influencers of their day – are using four-clip boots then people are going to want a piece of that. 

Is this where we start talking about overlap versus cabrio?
Well, a ski boot is about how the liner fits you and how the shell fits you. And with the rear entry boot being one piece over the foot, you're not changing the shape of the plastic. You can adjust the liner but that’s it. That's where the cabrio design [with a third tongue piece incorporated into the outer] starts to put a little bit of pressure on rear entry because you're going to get a bit more comfort and control. Raichle were doing quite well on the World Cup circuit in the 80s, and their Flexon model became quite a cult boot. It had a corrugated tongue which was copied from the arms of a spacesuit. In the end, though, different types of plastic that weren't so rigid came to market, and four-clip [overlap] boots became more of an option for your average consumer.

So the cabrio design died too?
Dalbello have remained committed to cabrio and K2 actually bought the factory moulds from Raichle, because a lot of freestyle skiers still want that kind of flex. They renamed it Full Tilt. But yes, the Cabrio concept became a bit of an outlier. 

How did things progress as we hit the millennium?
Through all this time we can't really ignore the liners; they are getting more and more comfortable. There are a lot more stitched elements and they're now heat-mouldable. Then in 2008, Salomon came out with a customisable shell which used a softer plastic in two specific points around the metatarsals. Again, the shop will put it on a heater, and it will mould to the shape of your foot. In reality, there was a limit to how much it could be adjusted, but it really caught everybody's attention. 

Where have things been evolving recently?
The hybrid market is now massive – these are boots that can do a little bit of touring. And the focus since about 2010 has been more anatomical design. 20 years ago, if you took a boot and flipped it upside down, it's pretty much an oval shape. But if you take a boot from 2020, it actually looks somewhat like a foot. There are restrictions to how far you can go because of how it has to integrate into a binding, but the fit is much more dialled in. And then there’s GripWalk, which adds a very slight rocker on the toe to allow the foot to roll a bit more when you’re walking. You know how every snowboarder loves to watch the skiers carry their chips and Coke across the wooden decking at lunchtime? GripWalk ruins that sport a little bit! It sounds like a really simple thing, but all the bindings have had to have a redesign because it changes the height of the ski boot slightly.

So what’s the very latest tech buzz?
The big one that's hitting the shelves this season is BOA. BOA lacing has been seen on soft footwear for ages, and some ski boots have used it on inners, but what they’ve done now is incorporate it into the forefoot of the shell using five tension points. The cable is ridiculously strong, and as you tighten the one dial, you're pulling across five separate points, whereas before you were pulling on just two clips. So it improves the fit because it wraps more. The big thing that the industry and customers have to get round is that it looks weird; it’s not what they’re used to.

Technology never stays still though, does it?
It doesn’t. In fact, it’s funny how it can evolve and come back around. For instance, rear entries are back – and in quite a big way. Three years ago Nordica launched a boot called the HF – ‘HF’ stands for ‘Hands-Free’. You unclip it, open it out and just pop your foot in it; then it's just one lever at the back to do it up and away you go. As soon as we put it into the shops, we got loads of people walking in. There are so many skiers out there for whom pure performance is not the priority.

Is there a holy grail?
What all the brands are still working on is how to customise a boot to someone's foot as easily as possible, whether it's the liner or shell. We've probably reached about as light as we can get. Now it's about making it comfortable without losing any performance