A ski binding protecting the knee?

If you're a serious skier, you may have noticed ads from the KneeBinding or may have seen it on the slopes.

This device, that differs from traditional bindings in the fact that the heel unit can rotate laterally on one side as well as vertically (as all others do) claims to free the foot during rear-twisting falls that are said to hurt a skier's knee.

The problem with that is that no one knows for sure. Intuitively, a simple backward release mechanism in the toe-unit would seem a much simpler way to address that theory, since the KneeBinding dual function heel piece is not attached very securely on its base and may create some obvious retention problems...

If the product really worked as it claims you would see most world cup skiers on it and the manufacturer would sell them like hot-cakes or would have licensed the technology a long time age. Of course, a much better (and sci-fi) way would be to place a sensor on the threatened ligaments and when a certain threshold of tension is reached, release open the binding.

Naturally, I must be – once more - getting ahead of myself.