In the head of a ski-boot guru…

Bikes, skis, and a lot of other sport equipment can be measured in all kinds of way in order to be understood, improved and further developed as products. 

While footwear can also me measured in two- and three-dimensions, ski-boots seldom are developed in a rational way, because of the subjective nature of their comfort and the limitless number of anatomy-related variables ranging from dimensional to sensitive perceptions, all the way to individual power. 

So as a ski technician has rules to follow, angles to work on and dimensions to fine-tune, its ski-boot counterpart ends up being more of a magician, or guru, as we generally call that individual, because there are no two feet the same, no sensitivity to pain or power transmission remotely similar on our ski planet. 

Today, I was reading an article by Peter Lange, in Ski Racing magazine, about Hubert Immler, an Austria who started his career as a ski test glider, working for Kästle and went on to work for Lange as a boot service technician for the Austrian Team from 1994 through 1996. 

That year, he was hired by Atomic to lead the development of the company’s Tritech boot that was quite successful, but not widely accepted. As a result, Immler developed a boot that would work for everyone, the RT, that remains the basis of the Atomic boot used today. 

In 2002 Immler went to Technica/Nordica to work on the Technica Diablo, before jumping ship in 2006 at Head, to take care of Bode Miller and Didier Cuche as he allegedly designed the Raptor model. According to the article, Immler was about to develop a new boot for 2019 when he left to work for the German ski team, and recently our boot guru has been asked to join Van Deer, Hirscher’s new ski venture. 

Even though Hubert Immler seems to have revolutionized the boot-fitting niche of the ski industry, according to the article, no where can I find an account of the tangible features or improvements he brought to the various boots he’s been working on. Is there even a documented trail left? 

I presume it must have been kept secret as it always is with such gurus, perhaps some kind of ski-vaporware or an ethereal collection of magical tricks. 

Now, will there be a ski boot to go with the Van Deer ski? Who know? Only a guru like Immler might be able to tell...