Rosemount Ski Boots introduced one of the earliest all-plastic ski boots for the downhill skiing market, competing with Bob Lange for the "first" title. Rosemount's design is easily distinguished by the use of unusual "side-entry" methods to put boot, which is rare at the moment and is no longer in use.
Boot was introduced by Rosemount Engineering, better known for its aerospace instrumentation. They refer to either the boot division as the Rosemount Consumer Products Division or the Sport Technology. Rosemount sold the factory to Bass Sports in 1968, but it retained the Rosemount name throughout their production. Many design variations are introduced over the next four years, adding ski bindings and ski poles as well. The rest of Rosemount becomes Rosemount Inc. when it was purchased by Emerson in 1976.
Bass Sports was bought by Raichle in 1972, ending Rosemount's boot production that supported their own design the following year. Ironically, one of the few other side-entry boot designs is the Raichle Fiber Jet (aka Red and Red Hot), another non-manufactured fiberglass design.
Video Rosemount Ski Boots
History
Leather boots
The skiing drops as a specialization of the previously generic skiing. Before the ski lift era, skiing always involves cross-country passages, and downhills tend to be short, slow, and should slide back.
Equipment during this era is designed for cross-country sections. It usually consists of wooden skiing, leather winter boots, and binding wires to keep them both united. This combination of equipment is far from optimal for downhill skiing. During the downhill section the skiers are rotated by rotating them to their edges; in traditional cable bindings, the heels are free to lift from the skis to allow striding gestures, and the system offers little support for edging.
The introduction of ski lifts, especially after World War II, led to the declining specialization as a separate sport, and new equipment evolved to meet this market. One example is the "Kandahar" style cable bundle, which adds a small metal hook near the heel. When the cable is passed under the clip it is locked in place and offers better edge control. In the mid-1950s it joined with a number of new binding systems that allowed toes from the boot to release during the fall.
The skiing style allowed by new bindings demands new shoes that are much more rigid too, and a number of designs boiled in oil or soaked in glue became common in the 1950s. They were initially very rigid to be very uncomfortable, but softened after a period of rest. The convenient period is short enough, because the breaking (or down) process will continue until it becomes too soft to offer good control. A typical pair may last a season - or just weeks for the racer. The skin is far from ideal in other ways as well; it will absorb water or snow and then freeze, making them very difficult to live or die while also offering little warmth.
Rosemount Engineering
A number of experiments with composite designs were performed by various inventors until the 1950s, but all faced what appeared to be catches-22; boots that are strong enough to provide good rigid front-to-back rigid controls to allow for natural leg flexing that occurs during bends or on bumps. Early examples of using plastic or fiberglass always proved too rigid to pass up.
Frank Werner, president of Rosemount Engineering, had been skiing in the late 1950s when it declined to become a major sport. He took it himself to develop a new boot that offers a perfect blend of future rigidity and flexibility, handing these twin demands to his engineering staff.
They respond with a simple solution that is now universal; The boot is made of two separate parts, the shoe that covers the legs and the heel, and the separate parts that form the cuff around the lower leg. The two pieces join together with the hinge near the ankle. Their design is unique in the details of its construction; in modern design the upper and lower boots overlap in front of the ankle, in Rosemount's designs are both completely separate and held together with large stainless steel plates. Flex front is completely unrestricted, because the two parts do not rub against each other. As long as the hinge is mechanically strong enough, it will provide infinite lateral stiffness.
Rosemount selected material is fiberglass reinforced epoxy. It is mechanically strong, lightweight, weatherproof, and can easily be shaped into the required shape. It was powerful enough that the metal hinges could be glued directly to it. However, fiberglass that is thick enough to bear this load is essentially stiff, and can not be opened or closed in a conventional way - split it at the top of the boot and pull it closed with a rope. This is a concern, because the fiberglass cuff that fits the lower legs tight enough for the control will not allow the larger part of the legs and heels to pass through while wearing them.
Rosemount's solution is to build boot in two parts, covering most of the legs and feet, and the smaller part that hangs along footwear, spinning sideways. To turn on the boot, the moving parts are rotated out, allowing the foot of the skier to be inserted through the open boot side. The moving parts are then turned upwards, back in place, and held there with two buckles, one on the legs and one in the cuffs of the feet. The layer is then sealed from the snow with elastic material stretched across the front of the boot.
Forward flex is controlled by three neoprene bands connected to the cuff through a rope that mounts the back of the boot. The bands are located under a single removable liner, and can be replaced to change the stiffness. For convenience and suitability, the boot is adjusted by inserting a series of small leather pads in various sizes. The cushions contain one or more plastic bags filled with small plastic beads. Pockets can be hand-formed into the required shape, and the natural movement of the foot will keep them in the form of estimates needed for comfort. The initial setup is very time consuming, and presents problems in the ski shops.
Rosemount's first production of 900 prototype boots was shipped to ski shops in 1965/66. At this point, Bob Lange has sent a number of shoes made of ABS plastic "Royalite"; this is not very successful, but do they pre-date on the Rosemount example as the earliest plastic shoe.
Repair
The boot design quickly proved to have a number of problems. The most serious is that the layers between the two boot sections can not be easily sealed, and water and snow can be forced into boots through hinges or layers where two parts meet in front or behind.
This led to a modification for the 1966/67 season, moving the hinge from the bottom of the foot to the back of the foot, allowing the flap to move back to the side. The buckles and flap fabrics are combined into one system, a larger piece of cloth that wraps around the front of the boot and the buckle is closed on the back of the boot. Two cables, each at the top and bottom of the flap, enter the groove on the front of the boot to prevent the flap from moving.
A separate piece of elastic cloth is added at the top of the foot cuff, sealing it around the foot and preventing snow from entering at the top. Separate neoprene pieces can be inserted between the cuffs and feet to adjust the front flex pattern of the boot, and the hinges can be adjusted to modify the "cant", lateral angles between the legs and feet.
However, even a little flexing that occurs in the shell allows the joints along the side of the foot to open slightly. Part of the connection along the bottom of the boot, just above the ski where the hinge used to be, not covered by the cloth cover. The clip should keep this closed, but it is considered useless. During the turn, the snow can jam against the connection and will melt in the trunk; wet feet are a common problem.
Bass Sports
In 1968 the company had sold their factory to the G. H. Bass shoe company in Maine. The original owner, George Henry Bass, has been producing conventional leather boots since the 1940s. Now run by his son, Robert "Bunny" Bass, an avid skier and co-founder of the Sugarloaf ski resort in Maine. Bass continues the Rosemount brand and continues to improve the design.
Further modifications followed for the 1969 season, enlarging metal hinges on the medial side (in) to cover most of the boot side. Larger plates are designed to clamp into metal flanges that run along the boot side just below the opening. Closing the boot is a two-step operation, the lid is swung shut and then the metal plate is pushed down until it is cut into the flanges. Judging by contemporary reports, this seems to have solved the leak problem.
Another change, in some models, is the introduction of a separate adjustment for the natural forward slope of the boot. In previous models this is arranged through a shoelace on the front of the cuff, in the new "Fastback" model, the screw jack on the back of the boot allows seamless adjustment at all times.
Other products
Bass Sports also introduced a number of other products under the name Rosemount. This included a series of fiberglass skiing poles, relatively new at the time, and a new design that binds skiing.
Ski bindings evolved from the 1950's binding cable system, which was circular behind the boot and behind the only rear. Many boots from the 1950s and 60s included a semi-circular curve in his palm to provide a better fit for the wires. Early bindings released are designed to fit into this groove or above the palm, such as wires, often using metal-sized cable rollers, the heel of the "Gran Prix" Look Nevada release being a typical example. When plastic boots are introduced, they also provide the same single extension for binding installation.
However, as there is no standardization of this mounting location, designing the binding that works with any boot is difficult. Even worse, in leather boots, the installation point will change as the skin declines, or even because it flexs during the day. One solution to this problem is to use small metal fittings that are screwed into the boot, to provide a known and unchanging mounting point for bindings. Such a solution is a feature of the first safety bindings, Hanson Ski Binding and Cubco, while the 1970s popular design uses metal plates extending along the entire shoe sole. Bindings are clipped onto these plates in lieu of the proper boot, providing a much more reliable release.
Rosemount's solution is something that blends this design. The hard soles of the boot serve as plates, with tiny metal clips formed into the legs and heel flanges to provide an attachment point for their bindings. The attachment points are adjusted for SE-1 toe and SE-2 on their own heels, but their position leaves the flanges free to use with conventional ties in an era, even wires. Mechanically, SE-1 and SE-2 look and operate like contemporary designs from Salomon like 444. However, they do not have extensions and metal fingers that resist the boot, replacing this with clips on the boot itself.
Advertisements for bindings appeared in 1970, and Rosemount shoes featured metal clips that year. However, subsequent designs from 1972 had no clips and no further advertisements could be found.
Together with bindings, the Rosemount LOTORK system was introduced in 1970. It consists of a metal plate affixed with adhesive to the top of the skis underfoot. The plates have cushions inside which allow it to rotate sideways. It has been found that the friction between the ski boots and the ski boots is much higher than imagined, enough to prevent the foot cut off in certain conditions. LOTORK is the solution to this, allowing easy rotation under any circumstances. Similar products from other companies typically use teflon bearings instead of the rotation mechanism.
Raichle
Rosemount is one of several companies that Bass purchased at the same time; the others include the Hexcel ski factory, the Splitkein nordic ski and the skiwear line. Ski-related companies are set up as Bass Sports, or Sports Technology, separate from the shoe company. This was one of the previous ski conglomerates, followed some time later by Garcia and K2 Sports.
In 1972, Raichle opened a US subsidiary under the management of Butch Wieden. Raichle is basically a boot company but wants to expand, and they buy Bass Sports. They were not interested in Rosemount, and ended sales for their own design, which included their own boot side-entry.
Maps Rosemount Ski Boots
See also
- Rosemount Inc.
References
- Quote
- References
External links
- Rosemount's ad image, taken on July 18, 2009
- Rosemount Sidedoor Boots
- Greg Morrill, "Ski leather boots: I see two pairs on the mountain", Stowe Reporter , January 20, 2011
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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