New ski boot company??

soooo.... what about Salomon, Nordica, Technica, Rossignol, and Head?  go bounce on an overturned barstool.

What's wrong with Salomon and Nordica?

its probablly hard to compete with major ski companys making boots

Well I think boots are the most important part of your set up, the most technical, and most personal. Also I think that ski boots are a lot more complicated and would take a lot more work to produce than snowboard boots. With so many companies already offering high quality/solid ski boots(salomon, rossignol, nordica, etc), if a new company were to come out offering boots, people would be skeptical to drop their boot that works, for a new company because it is such a crucial part of their skiing.

I've heard boots are the most expensive piece of gear to produce, something like $100,000 for the molds just for one size of model of boot. People can build skis in their garage, and bindings seem to take a much smaller investment - Line could afford to try it, and every once in a while some guy puts an new design on the market but never makes a big splash. These are coming out next year - http://www.kneebinding.com/

Just convincing the engineers to join a boot startup would be tough. I think those guys expect big salaries.

It would be sick but the amount of money that has to go into R&D and testing and everything, not to mention manufacturing, could only happen if there was a lotta cash behind it.

And plus, the freeskiing community's tiny, so you don't know how many people will buy it. It's not gonna fit everybody, and I'd prefer to buy a boot that fits good rather than a boot that is designed for freestyle.

off their site:

"You can't afford to hurt your ACL.

But you're at risk. Injuries to the Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) are now the #1 injury in skiing. Most are caused by a certain type of fall that ordinary bindings cannot protect against.

Now, there's KneeBinding - it provides all the retention and release of ordinary bindings PLUS it's the only alpine ski binding with pure lateral heel release. That's right - the heel of the patented KneeBinding releases directly sideways when - and only when - a fall could otherwise damage your ACL.

KneeBinding has interchangeable brakes to fit skis of any width, and stepping into the binding takes 1/2 the effort. And KneeBinding provides dual cantilevered AFDs and heel pads to give you a unique level of edge control.

Powerful retention.
Knee-Friendly.
Proven.

Kneebindings!"


haha i don't know why that made me laugh. it sounded like a commercial for some new kitchen appliance or something. lateral heel release though, thats legit.

kneebinding.com    another fail?

They coulda been more creative with the name.  What's next?  Footholder boots?

that shit looks preety legit... do they have any team riders? yet?

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^ just kidding

ski boot molds are INSANELY expensive...INSANE. thats why full tilt uses the old raichle or whatever they were, molds. snowboard boots are much cheaper to make i would think. could be wrong but i do believe so

on the knee bindings. heels that reales latterly is nothing new the fks and a few head bindings have it as far as i know (or i just made a fool of myself)

right you are. think about it...snowboard boots: mostly soft, inexpensive, pliable, easily available and easy to work with materials. ski boots: hard, expensive materials, and if the mold isnt perfect, the ski boot is kind of fucked.  Those molds cost a shit ton, which is the majority of the cost of the boot.  Also, a lot of work goes in to the liner...as much if not more than a snowboard boot itself. Put the two together and the cost adds up quick. It's not easy to just start up a boot company.

yea..it would be hard to compete with the already well established boot companies....and there's already a lot of options that there really isnt a need to have a freestyle specific boot company...there is no economical niche for it....

actually all the old school ski boot companies have patents on everything, and there have been several companies that have thought abut it but eventually the infringements were too risky and expensive , so that I think has been the biggest road block to a new boot, h

why would you use full tilt and dalbello?
i think most people use all the other boot companies, those are legit but i wouldn't call full tilt a major boot company. it's all about the market, companies can make tecnica attivas for gapers and they're gonna make fewer boots like a spk and rampage because there's a smaller market, that's the big problem with freeskiing right now

Wasn't there a thread about Amplid doing boots now?

I have no real knowledge but I would guess that the reason there are more 'core' boot brands in snowboarding is that snowboard boots are easier and cheaper to design. It's not like you can just expand your crocheting and tshirt company into producing ski boots (not saying you can crochet or screenprint a snowboard boot, but you get the idea).

The molds are super expensive. Try financing 100,000 per boot size, and you will run into some serious difficulties.

Those kneebindings look like they would prerelease a whole hell of a lot. Frankly, I don't want my skis to come off that easily.