At Blister Summit 2024, we got a state of the union on the present and future of ski boot design from 3 people with a wealth of experience in this world: Eric “Hoji” Hjorleifson (Dynafit athlete & renowned boot tinkerer), Matt Manser (Atomic ski boots global manager), and Greg Klein (president of Willi’s Ski & Snowboard Shops).
The conversation includes their thoughts on how BOA ski boots have been received and performed so far; Hoji’s new Dynafit Ridge Pro Boot; sex and ski boots; when weight is and isn’t a major consideration in boot design; what to do if your feet get cold in your boots; whether we’ll see BOA dials on the upper cuffs of boots, and more.
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I want to know why Dynafit is making such wide boots (only). How about some normal/narrow boots for the rest of us (like the great old TLT5, or at least the TLT6)?
Does anyone have a solution to adding cuff alignment to touring boots?
it would be great to have these on a podcast channel so I can listen in the car. I don’t care about the video aspect.
Let’s get Matt Manser and Tom Pietrowski from K2 on a Gear:30 to talk about contrasting approaches to BOA and current ski boot design. They briefly interacted over on SkiTalk a bit back and we’d all like to see them continue that discussion.
Should speak to THE man himself – Sven Coomers. We have him to thank for most of the design elements of the plastic boot. Including cabrio style. He had some ideas about the future when I took him and Mary to the Jerome for lunch.
BOA is a great option. Proper boot fitting is essential by those people who sell boots. It is up to the manufacturers to properly educate and train retail employees. Many, many ski retail sales people do not know what they are doing when it comes to boot fitting. It is up to the manufacturers to train, train, train retail sellers.
Certainly agree that brands can do more, but it’s not just on the manufacturer to train the retailers- it’s a two-way street. Boot brands and independent boot fitting companies (i.e. Masterfit University) offer training to retailers. If retailers don’t come to training that is offered or refuse brand-specific training because they have their own philosophy, then that is on the retailer. Ultimately, the responsibility is on both- brands need to do more in the way of education and retailers need to invest time, travel, training for their staff as well.