Boots can be a pain, but Coomer made them better

That’s still true today, despite the lifelong efforts of Sven Coomer. Coomer died March 10 at the age of 84. Most of the features we love — or hate — about modern ski boots trace back to Coomer.

Coomer was born in Australia in 1940 to a Swedish mother and Australian father. He was a natural athlete who made the Australian Olympic team at the age of 16., not as a skier, but as a pentathlete. For those not familiar with the modern pentathlon, the events are equestrian, fencing, swimming, pistol shooting and running.

Coomer would get his introduction to skiing when he went to college in Sweden to study mechanical engineering. He recalled his first skiing in Ȧre, where he was coached by the lift operator. After each run, the operator would give Coomer something new to try on the next run. Coomer was an apt student and quickly got hooked on skiing.

During the early 1960s, he was an instructor at Innsbruck and then trained with the French ski team which included Jean Claude Killy.

In 1965, Coomer got his first real job with Puma adapting the design of running shoes for optimal performance on the new artificial track surfaces. Coomer applied his engineering background to the field of biomechanics, in particular treating footwear and the human body as a system that work together to achieve a goal.

However, skiing was still his primary love, so he moved to the United States to head up the ski school at Solitude, Utah. In 1967 Doug Pfeiffer recruited Coomer to be one of his testers in the first ever ski and boot test. Everyone at the test was impressed with Coomer’s technical knowledge and analysis of both skis and boots. The head of Beconta, the mega-distributor of skiing gear, including Nordica ski boots, hired Coomer and shipped him off to Italy to work with Nordica on a better ski boot design.

Let’s set the stage a little. In the late 1960s, ski boots were making the transition from leather to plastic. While everyone knew plastic had better characteristics for ski boots, there were still challenges. Some challenges were left over from leather boots and some were new. Does the term “Lange bang” ring any bells?

The first boot Coomer designed for Nordica was its last leather boot, the Sapporo. It featured a higher, stiffer back — the spoiler — and a higher plastic-reinforced tongue. Coomer then designed the plastic Astral Slalom or Banana Boot, which would dominate the market. Nordica at that time captured 30 percent of the worldwide ski boot market.

Coomer can claim credit for the four-buckle, two-piece overlapping shell that is still the prevalent design seen on the slopes. Other Coomer design features include removable liners and the power strap. Coomer was also the first to design women-specific ski boots.

But he didn’t stop there. He also originated the three-piece shell design called the Comp-3, which first appeared in the Raichle Flexon series. Today that design is used in the K2 FL3X ski boots, which are very popular with freestyle, mogul and backcountry skiers.

Coomer was the first to introduce customized footbeds, and he founded ZipFit which makes re-moldable liners. His last ski boot design was in 1999 for Atomic: the flexible-sole iFlex boots. These were the basis for the Redster race boots used by both Mikaela Shiffrin and Marcel Hirscher.

Yes, ski boots can still be a pain, literally. But thanks to Sven Coomer, they are significantly better today both in function and comfort. This is particularly true in the hands of a good boot fitter. And that’s the moral to this story: every serious skier needs to know a good boot fitter.

I loved one line near the end of Coomer’s obituary. I’ve left out the names mentioned, but it’s the final part, which states he is survived by “everyone still skiing.”

Whaleback ski area in New Hampshire has been in the news lately. So, this week’s trivia question is: what was the name of the ski area before it was renamed Whaleback? Post your answer at www.retro-skiing.com.

Greg Morrill is co-chair of the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum, a retired computer programmer and college professor. He lives in Stowe.