The first generally available plastic boots were introduced in 1965.  There was the Lange boot, a familiar name today, but there was also a less familiar name: Rosemount!

The Rosemount company located in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, was (and is) a high tech company that in the 50’s and 60’s specialized in making sensors for supersonic jet aircraft and missiles.  The company’s President in that era was Frank Werner who like many of us got hooked on skiing.  He was an inventor and recognized an opportunity for technology to produce a better ski boot.  Since the company was looking to diversify into more consumer-oriented products, Werner somehow was able to convince them to make a plastic ski boot.

Rosemount Boots
Rosemount Boots

The Rosemount was not like any other ski boot and it did not look like any other ski boot.  It incorporated some ideas that were ahead of their time: easy side entry, built-in cant adjustments, and flex adjustments.  Granted that last one literally involved elastic bands – there were different sets of elastic bands for soft, medium, or stiff forward flex. 

However the way you had to fit the boot to your foot perhaps wasn’t ahead of its time.  There were pockets inside the boot where you could place pillows filled with a secret flow material.  Once you got the pillows right, the fit was good, but getting them right was a trial-and-error process.  Oh, and rumor has it that you didn’t get enough of the pillows with the boot to guarantee a fit.  So the company sold a not-cheap fitting kit that included more pillows.

Rosemount Pockets and Pillows
Rosemount Pockets and Pillows

The Rosemount was not like any other ski boot and it did not look like any other ski boot.  It incorporated some ideas that were ahead of their time: easy side entry, built-in cant adjustments, and flex adjustments.  Granted that last one literally involved elastic bands – there were different sets of elastic bands for soft, medium, or stiff forward flex. 

However the way you had to fit the boot to your foot perhaps wasn’t ahead of its time.  There were pockets inside the boot where you could place pillows filled with a secret flow material.  Once you got the pillows right, the fit was good, but getting them right was a trial-and-error process.  Oh, and rumor has it that you didn’t get enough of the pillows with the boot to guarantee a fit.  So the company sold a not-cheap fitting kit that included more pillows.

Rosemount owners tended to have a love/hate relationship with their boots.  Benny Wax of Inner Bootworks remembers sitting beside a trail at Hunter Mountain with his Rosemount boots off and his sock-covered feet stuck in the snow because they hurt so much!  But he actually liked the boot once he got the fit correct. 

From a business perspective there was another problem with the Rosemount: the cost of making a pair of boots was twice the selling price!  This led to Rosemount selling its ski boot division to G. H. Bass in 1968.  The boot name stayed Rosemount, but was no longer part of the Rosemount Company.   Bass continued the line until about 1973.

Rosemount Ski Boot at Inner Bootworks, Stowe, VT
Rosemount Ski Boot at Inner Bootworks, Stowe, VT

You can see examples of Rosemount boots at the Vermont Ski Museum or at Inner Bootworks where Benny Wax has a pair on display (no, they aren’t the same pair he almost abandoned at Hunter Mountain).