Editing Ski boot (section)

===Three-piece===
Three-piece (or "open-throat") boots were first developed by Mel Dalebout (around 1969), who introduced a rigid magnesium boot shell in that year (Brixia did the same thing with their aluminum shell at around the same time). The big advantage was that the main shell was a single piece that was convex at all points, meaning it could be easily produced using a plug mould. Conventional boots with overlapping flaps required more complex moulding processes. Engineers at Henke, Heierling, Sanmarco and Caber saw the advantage for high-speed moulding, and plastic three-piece boots were on the market by 1972, when Roland Collombin won the Olympic downhill in the Henke Strato.

Boot designer [[Sven Coomer]] later improved the design with a corrugated tongue, and this technique was commercialized by Comfort Products, an Aspen, Colo. company owned by the ex-ski racer Erik Giese. Giese licensed Coomer's concept to the Swiss company Raichle-Molitor; the company introduced it in 1979 as the [[Raichle Flexon|Flexon]], which became very popular among downhill racers and mogul skiers.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://skiinghistory.org/history/origin-three-piece-ski-boot |title=Origin of the Three-piece Boot |publisher=Skiinghistory.org }}</ref> The Flexon was extremely popular among professional skiers, especially for [[mogul skiing|moguls]] and [[freestyle skiing|freestyle]], but a series of business blunders put Raichle out of business in the late 1990s.<ref>Seth Morrison, [https://www.espn.com/action/freeskiing/news/story?id=4589945 "Morrison Hotel: Boots Made for Stalking"], ESPN, 3 November 2009</ref> Several companies produce three-piece designs today, often referred to as "cabrio" boots (after convertible-top cabriolet vehicles<ref>[[Cabriolet (carriage)]]</ref>{{Circular reference|date=December 2015}}), and they are once again becoming popular models.

The design closely resembles a conventional front-entry design, with separate foot and leg sections riveted at the ankle. However, the overlapping flaps of these designs are cut away, leaving a slot-like opening running down the front of the leg and over the foot. A separate plastic tongue is positioned over this opening on the front of the boot, and buckled down to close it. The open cuff (the "throat") makes the boots easy to get on and off, and the shaping of the tongue allows complete control over the forward flex. A single shell can be used with different tongues to provide any needed flex pattern from racing-stiff to freestyle-soft.