If you've ever tried to walk in ski boots, you know they're designed for one purpose only: shredding the slopes. In fact, modern boots are marvels of design. They've changed immensely since their invention, just over 100 years ago. Today's ski boots combine high-tech materials with time-tested designs to support and protect your feet and ankles while you barrel down icy hills at breakneck -- but not break-ankle -- speeds.
Before Boots
Scandinavian hunters and warriors used skis before they started recording their history, so nobody knows just how old the sport is. For millennia, brave Vikings strapped their boots to their skis with a strip of leather that fastened around the toe. Modern cross-country ski boots still use a similar design, and in fact very little downhill skiing went on in those days, as it was much too easy for boots and skis to be separated.
Boot Beginnings: 1900-1940
The first downhill ski boots appeared at the beginning of the 20th century. They were thick and heavy, made of leather, and more like hiking boots than the ski boots we know now. The style was short at the ankle and boxy at the toe, where they attached to the ski. In the 1930s, fixed heel bindings meant skiers were moving faster and needed more ankle support. Boots were reinforced with steel shanks, and tied to the ski with six-foot leather strips known as Longthongs. Elite skiiers began to order custom boots from bootmakers such as Peter Limmer, one of the earliest craftsmen.
Post-War Boots: 1945-1957
World War II led to development of new synthetic materials, which led to lighter, sleeker, more durable ski boots. Boot manufacturers were wary at first, attempting to combine leather and synthetics with questionable results. The first buckle boot was introduced in 1955, but the buckles' pressure tended to deform the boot itself, and the foot inside.
Plastic Epiphany: 1957-present
In 1957, a weak-ankled Harvard grad named Robert Lange designed a hard plastic boot that supported the foot from the rear and both sides, but left the front flexible enough to steer a pair of skis. The original boot was stiff and brittle, but Lange quickly perfected the design. By 1969, nearly every boot company had introduced a plastic model. Since then, boots have changed very little. Today's boots are taller than they were in the 1960s, and they make use of new forms of plastic as well as better inner linings.
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