Finally, one step forward in ski boots!

Attempts to create a cable closure system in ski boots are not really new. Raichle had it in the late 60s, improved it a bit on its plastic boots and later, Ed Chalmers’ Osprey boot based its lower shell closure on it, but never reach market. 

As the rear-entry boot design was sent to ski industry’s hell, most cable closure systems pretty much disappeared from ski boots and it was the return to the antique four-buckle closure system. 

In 2001, Gary Hammerslag, a snowboarder and surfer entrepreneur who had moved to Steamboat, Colorado, envisioned to dramatically improve the snowboard boot lacing systems by creating BOA, a micro-adjustable, precision fit that would ultimately equip K2 and Vans in 2001. 

The two brand partners that took a chance have now become over 300 snowboarding brand partners using BOA. The system was later applied to trail running, bike shoes, randonnée boots and next season it will be transferred to alpine ski boots made by Atomic, Fischer, K2 et Salomon.

Will the system be strong enough for stiffer, lower shells? How hard will they be to tighten manually? Will it last as least as long as the venerable buckles harking back to the 60s? 

Many questions that remain to be answered, but for once, a tiny bit of innovation in a product that has seen no major breakthrough in more than half a century!