ÖSV aces already tested

Will there be a lace-up boot revolution in the Ski World Cup?

Lukas Feurstein has already skied to bronze in the super-G at the Austrian national championships with the "laced boot" prototype from Head.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/GEPA Pictures)

Is a revolution on the horizon ahead of the upcoming World Cup season? As the "Krone" investigated, the Vorarlberg ski and boot manufacturer Head has been working on a completely new closure system for racing for some time. Downhill ace Vinc Kriechmayr and youngster Lukas Feurstein have already tested the prototypes.

What exactly is it all about? Last November, Head figurehead Vincent Kriechmayr competed in the two training runs for the legendary "Birds of Prey" downhill race in Beaver Creek (US) with a ski boot prototype that is not fastened with four buckles as usual, but is "laced" using the BOA Fit - a twist lock system.

Vincent Kriechmayr was already wearing the boot prototype in November 2023 during training for the downhill in Beaver Creek.(Bild: GEPA pictures)

At that time, a twist lock was still on the foot.(Bild: GEPA pictures)

A system that was developed in the USA in 2001 and has since found its way into many areas, from snowboarding to cycling, golf, running and touring ski boots. Some manufacturers are already using BOA Fit closures in alpine mass sports too, but mostly in combination with buckles in the shaft area. The Head prototype, however, completely dispenses with buckles and uses a twist lock for both the foot and the shaft area.

Feurstein already tested in race trim
The revolutionary "lace-up boot" version of the "Raptor" boot has not yet been used in the World Cup. But he did at the Austrian Championships in April 2024, where 23-year-old Lukas Feurstein from Mellau raced to a bronze medal in the super-G behind Raphael Haaser and Otmar Striedinger with a revised prototype and repositioned twist locks.

Lukas Feurstein tested a revised prototype of the Raptor "lace-up boot" at the Austrian Super-G Championships.(Bild: GEPA pictures)

Both twist locks were placed on the shaft.(Bild: GEPA pictures)

When asked by "Krone", the Kennelbach-based ski manufacturer was tight-lipped and refused to comment on the current status and development of the project. The fact is: as long as the new material is not faster than the old one, athletes will probably continue to rely on buckles.