by Steve Cohen and Jeff Rich, MasterFit University
Just like auto makers, ski boot factories have their own “parts bins” that they dig into when creating boots. These signature features and design platforms are integral to the way the company builds its boots and provides unifying characteristics throughout a model collection. Here’s a look at some of the most clever design elements you can find in each company’s lines.
Pre-Wired Boot Heater Insoles
Atomic, like Dolomite and Dalbello, has hooked up with an aftermarket boot heater company (Therm-ic) to pre-wire the insoles in several models to accept battery packs — at no additional cost to consumers. The benefits over after-market installation are numerous. While skiers must still purchase battery packs separately, the cost is considerably less than purchase price of a complete unit. Skiers also skip the cost of installation — $25 and up. Liners are less prone to leakage since there is no need to slice them open to channel the wires. OEM units are also less susceptible to damage since the wires are recessed into a channel beneath the insole. The trade-off: you can’t use custom insoles.
Pre-Wired Boot Heater Insoles
Dalbello, like Atomic and Dolomite, has hooked up with an aftermarket boot heater company (Therm-ic) to pre-wire the insoles in several models to accept battery packs — at no additional cost to consumers. The benefits over after-market installation are numerous. While skiers must still purchase battery packs separately, the cost is considerably less than purchase price of a complete unit. Skiers also skip the cost of installation — $25 and up. Liners are less prone to leakage since there is no need to slice them open to channel the wires. OEM units are also less susceptible to damage since the wires are recessed into a channel beneath the insole. The trade-off: you can’t use custom insoles.
Dolomite Twin Tongue Liner
It has been hundreds of years since cobblers first started using tongues in shoes to help them flex better and hug insteps more closely. It’s taken all that time for someone to think about adding a second tongue. Dolomite’s Rage collection employs an industry-first Twin Tongue Liner, splitting the collar in the rear to create an auxiliary tongue. By mounting an aft tongue, the liner is able to provide closer shaft envelopment and reduce gapping during flexion.
Pre-Wired Boot Heater Insoles
Dolomite., like Atomic and Dalbello, has has hooked up with aftermarket boot heater company (Hotronic) to pre-wire the insoles in several models to accept battery packs — at no additional cost to consumers. The benefits over after-market installation are numerous. While skiers must still purchase battery packs separately, the cost is considerably less than purchase price of a complete unit. Skiers also skip the cost of installation — $25 and up. Liners are less prone to leakage since there is no need to slice them open to channel the wires. OEM units are also less susceptible to damage since the wires are recessed into a channel beneath the insole. The trade-off: you can’t use custom insoles.
Full Custom Frame
Hey you with the pencil-thin AAA foot. And you with the elephantine EEE hoof. You know why you can’t find ski boots that fit? It’s because there aren’t enough skiers in this world. That’s right. It’s one of skiing odd little paradoxes.
There aren’t enough ski boots sold worldwide to make it financially feasible for boot factories to churn out models in various widths. And that means people at the extreme ends of the width spectrum can find boots that fit so fewer of them take up the sport.
Manufacturers build to fit the ‘average’ foot and accommodate out of the norm by bolting on macro-micro adjustable buckles and using volume-compensating foam padding in liners. It works, of course, but nothing beats a shell that hugs your foot with the surety of a firm handshake.
Head, though, has engineered an elegantly simple solution to the problem with the first-ever, width-adjustable lower shell. Its Full Custom Frame is a plastic insert that resembles a bobsled in profile and wraps the forefoot and ankle. When inserted and anchored in the shell, it reduces the width of the shell at the forefoot from 103mm to100mm. Being plastic, it transmits turning forces with a surety not achievable with padding. A women’s-specific version of the Frame is also available.
The Full Custom Frame should appeal to those who like to do garage boot fitting as it is easily customized with scissors, a sharp knife or a hand-piece grinder. Heck, we even butchered some effective modifications with a simple pocketknife at our test camp.
Race Double Power & Dynamic Response Buckles
Here’s another forehead slapping solution to a long-time vexing problem, one that particularly plagues women: getting enough leverage to crank cuff buckles tight enough without lying in the snow and gyrating like a contortionist—or requesting embarrasing assistance from a friend. The Double Power buckle features a foldout, spring-loaded lever that permits the buckle to close with finger tip pressure. Head often teams Double Power with its Dynamic Response technology, a clever spring-loaded catch that provides more consistent tension to prevent buckles from flying open during aggressive skiing and smoother flex.
Stretch Toe Boxes
Sometimes the solution to a knotty problem is so simple, you wonder what took designers so long to figure it out. Ski boot manufacturers routinely ‘short last’ liners, making them a bit smaller than the shell cavity to ensure that toe boxes don’t rumple when inserted. That leaves a gap between the inner’s toe and the shell. And that causes skiers, especially those with prominent first or second toes, to experience ‘artificial small boot syndrome.’ ASBS = PAIN.
Both Head and Nordica have smartly solved this problem by stitching a panel of stretchy, water-resistant material to the front of the liner’s toe box. Head calls its design Comfortoes. Nordica calls its design Flex Toes. The feature comes on many higher end models from both companies.
Cantable Soles
There’s no hotter topic among advanced skiers these days than stance alignment. If your ski doesn’t sit flat on the snow when your body is in a relaxed position, skiing at an expert level is close to impossible. Canting — changing the angle at which boot meets ski — is the final step in the stance-alignment process, after crafting custom footbeds and adjusting cuff angle. It is a crucial adjustment for skiers with significant bowleg or knock-knee.
Lange’s Cantable Soles — angled toe and heel lugs that easily screw on to replace the stock pieces — elegantly perform the canting trick. The soles interface with Lange’s World Cup, Comp, Freeride and CRL lines.
The cantable soles eliminate the costly procedure of installing plastic wedges between the binding and the ski top, or planing boot soles, an effective but delicate operation. For now, the Lange soles are available only with 1.5-degree cant. Skiers with greater needs will still have to stick with canting or sole planing.
Energy Driver Power Strap
Over the past few seasons, skiers in the know have been mounting elasticized Booster power straps to their cuffs. They’ve discovered that the stretchy straps better bond the calf to the boot, providing quicker turn initiation and increased rebound power. They also eliminate the need to crank buckles excessively tight to secure the cuff. Nordica licenses the Booster technology and integrated the stretch power-strap concept into several models, calling its OEM version Energy Driver.
Stretch Toe Boxes
Sometimes the solution to a knotty problem is so simple, you wonder what took designers so long to figure it out. Ski boot manufacturers routinely ‘short last’ liners, making them a bit smaller than the shell cavity to ensure that toe boxes don’t rumple when inserted. That leaves a gap between the inner’s toe and the shell. And that causes skiers, especially those with prominent first or second toes, to experience ‘artificial small boot syndrome.’ ASBS = PAIN.
Both Nordica and Head have smartly solved this problem by stitching a panel of stretchy, water-resistant material to the front of the liner’s toe box. Nordica calls its design Flex Toes. Head calls its design Comfortoes. The feature comes on many higher end models from both companies.
Salomon Spaceframe Assymetrical Softening
If you double your edge use will you double your fun? That’s the current conventional wisdom at the highest levels of skiing where two-footed, four-edge turns are the name of the game. With the extreme edge angles and strong lateral forces that are generated by shaped skis, the uphill ski is in play as a genuine turning instrument and not merely an outrigger for balance.
To maintain power to the uphill ski’s turning edge, however, the ankle must flex inward, a difficult movement given the joint’s limited mobility in that direction.
Salomon eases that subtle movement in its new Course racer with what it calls Spaceframe Assymetrical Softening—a honeycombed matrix of holes that pierce the lateral side of the lower shell.
So does less shell really yield more control? Our testers thought so but just for the heck of it, we took an old boot and drilled a series of half-inch round holes in the shell same spot as the Course to see what would happen. We don’t suggest you do this with your boots as you can easily weaken the shell and cause stress cracks, but darned if we didn’t experience improve uphill edge contact.
3D Buckle
Boot fitters know that the instep is one of the trickiest areas to fit. Its shape varies from crevasse steep to a bulbous hump. Yet instep buckles have always cut at a constant angle. If you wanted it moved—and boot fitters make good coin every season doing just that—it had to be drilled out and screw-riveted back into a new spot. More often than not, skiers either lived with a sloppy fit or endured a hot spot. Not anymore. Salomon’s 3D instep buckle screws into either of two slots on a fixed plate to custom tailor the wrap angle. The 3D buckle is available on all Course, X-Wave and Evolution 2 models, and the Verse CF and AF.
Traction Soles
Salomon has integrated high traction soles crafted from soft rubber, with molded treads into many of its recreational model boots. They provide better grip on slippery surfaces. The heel is rockered to dramatically ease walking. The toe has an integrated Teflon pad that mates with the binding’s anti-friction pad for added safety in all release modes.
Dual Pivot Cuff Alignment
Dual-cuff alignment is a worthy feature in any boot. When you can move both sides of the cuff, you can more precisely match the shape of the lower leg.
Tecnica goes one better with Dual Pivot, a twin-cuff alignment system that uses offset hinges to rotate the cuff in a slight circular motion as well as left to right. That lets the boot better match the flex-arc of the cuff to the skier’s lower leg shape. And that permits pinpoint steering accuracy while providing an exceptionally broad range of cuff-angle adjustment options.
Rapid Access System
The problem has frustrated boot designers for years. How to make it easier for skiers to get their boots on and off? Tecnica came up with an ingeniously simple solution: Open the door. Its hinged Rapid Access System cuff makes sliding feet in and out of liners exceptionally easy. There’s a performance benefit too. By splitting the cuff into two pieces, Tecnica can mold it in a tighter radius so it more accurately wraps the shin.
