2025 Kästle Boot Brand Profile

2025 Kästle Boot Brand Profile

Why would a relatively small ski company decide – seemingly out of the blue – to absorb the absurd expense of becoming a boot supplier?  The answer to this question isn’t the usual brand-extension story, although that must be part of the overall strategy....

2025 Atomic Boot Brand Profile

It’s unlikely that Atomic management foresaw just how much its boot brand would come to depend on a modest line of recreational boots it launched some 15 years ago. Called Hawx, its unique feature was vent-like creases on both sides of the forefoot, perceived as a fit...

2025 Dalbello Boot Brand Profile

No other boot brand has done more with the 3-piece, external-tongue shell design than Dalbello.  Dalbello didn’t just copy the Raichle design they adopted; they improved on it.  They optimized its performance properties by playing up its strengths: a stout spine and...

2025 Salomon Boot Brand Profile

I was one of the many midwives who attended at the birth of the Salomon boot in 1979.  I translated Salomon’s encyclopedic Boot Bible into English and later condensed parts of it into one of the first bootfitting manuals.  I trained the North American field force,...

2025 Tecnica Boot Brand Profile

Roughly a decade ago, Tecnica was at a point in its evolution where it had to change. The brand still had market mojo, but the line was due for an upgrade. Once a brand decides it needs new molds, all ideas are on the table until eliminated in the R&D cage match...
2025 Kästle Boot Brand Profile

2024 Kästle Boot Brand Profile

Why would a relatively small ski company decide – seemingly out of the blue – to absorb the absurd expense of becoming a boot supplier?  The answer to this question isn’t the usual brand-extension story, although that must be part of the overall strategy....