Editing Ski boot (section)

===Front-entry===
Front-entry (or "top-entry", rarely "overlap" or "Lange") boots have been the primary boot design for most of the history of downhill skiing. The design evolved from existing leather boot through several steps.

In 1956, the Swiss factory Henke introduced the buckle boot, using over-center levered latches patented by Hans Martin to replace laces.<ref>{{cite web |first=Luzi |last=Hitz |url=http://skiinghistory.org/history/history-swiss-ski-technology-and-instruction |title=History of Swiss Ski Technology |publisher=Skiinghistory.org }}</ref> Laces spread the load across a number of eyelets in the leather, whereas the buckles concentrated the load at only a few points. To spread it back out again, the boots featured C-shaped flaps that stretched over the opening where the laces would be, to the side where the buckles were located. These had the added advantage of also helping block snow from entering the front of the boot.

Beginning around 1960 [[Lange (ski boots)|Bob Lange]] experimented with ways to replace leather with plastic. Early examples used a lace-up design, but in 1964 he combined a new, more flexible [[polyurethane]] plastic with the overlapping flap and buckle system from Henke to produce the first recognizably modern ski boot. Production examples appeared in 1966, and when [[Nancy Greene]] started winning races on them, the plastic boot became a must-have item. Replacing leather with plastic dramatically improved stiffness and control, along with durability and warmth (leather boots had a way of soaking through, which led to wet, frozen feet).<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YlgEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA13 |title=Skiing Heritage Journal - Google Books |via=[[Google Books]]|date= September 2001|access-date=2012-08-25|last1=Association |first1=International Skiing History }}</ref> Over time the cuff around the leg evolved upward, starting just over the ankle like leather boots, but rising to a point about halfway to the knee by the 1980s. Only minor changes have occurred to this basic design since then.

Almost all modern front-entry boots consist of two sections, one around the foot, and another around the lower leg. These are joined by rivets/rotating joints near the ankle that allows the leg to pivot forward, but not to the sides. This allows excellent control by transmitting even the smallest lateral movements of the leg to the ski. However, the rigid cuff also makes them very difficult to put on and take off. Additionally, because the boot clamps across the foot, pulling the sides inward, it is difficult to produce a single design that fits a range of foot shapes and sizes. This leads to shell modification services, when the boot is stretched to fit the skier's foot, typically by heating the plastic and pressing it into place. This is also known as "blowing" ("punching", "pushing"). Sometimes material will be ground off the boot to provide more room. This is normally used only with front-entry designs, other designs normally include much more room in the foot area as they do not clamp down the same way.

[[File:Salomon SX92.jpg|thumb|Salomon's SX 92 Equipe was the penultimate development of their SX series of rear-entry ski boots. The boot on the left is in the "open" position.]]