by Jackson Hogen | Sep 1, 2023
Over most of Head’s storied history as a ski brand, lighter weight hasn’t exactly been top of mind. They’ve been better known for building battleships as opposed to skiffs. Two pivotal shifts, one global and one local, have made lightweight design a priority, if not...
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 1, 2023
When K2 waltzed into the boot market roughly a decade ago, part of the story heralding its arrival was that its team required only 18 months to create a better boot line. There was a whiff of hubris to the claim, as if the marketing juggernaut was predestined to...
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 1, 2023
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...
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 1, 2023
Lange has traveled a long way as a brand without ever leaving home. The motherland for Lange lies between the boundaries indicated by the start and finish of a World Cup race. The plastic boot that truly revolutionized modern Alpine design, Lange long ago established...
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 1, 2023
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,...
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 1, 2023
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...
