Facing inward towards the ski and footwear departments it looks rather like a pulpit except that its broad curve provides
Facing inward, towards the ski and footwear departments, it looks rather like a pulpit, except that its broad curve provides enough room for half a dozen preachers. But instead they silently assume a look of intense concentration – and stand stock still for the following 10 to 15 minutes. If there are signs of strain on their faces that is because they are pulling down as hard as they can on crutch-like devices which protrude from the floor of the platform.These people are clearly suffering. But they are enduring a few minutes of discomfort in order to enjoy pain-free skiing for the lifetime of the boots they are about to buy.Before I last purchased ski boots, I made a few phone calls, hoping to find some horny-handed artisan in London who could craft a pair in a shape which would bear some relation to my knobbly feet But the best advice I got was to go to Snow+Rock. There, one of the company’s top fitters bent and battered a pair of production-line Nordicas into a shape which kept me comfortable for more than five years.Only later did I discover that boots which, if not strictly made to measure, do at least maintain lineal links with cobbling tradition are available from a company based in the Arlberg mountains.
With my Nordicas now so old that when I last needed new, rubber heel-tips I had to fashion some myself out of shoe-heels bought from Woolies, I took advantage of a long weekend in Lech to replace them. In the resort my first stop, on a Friday morning, was at Strolz, established as a ski-boot maker in 1921 and – by its own proud admission – now the smallest manufacturer in the world.Ambros Strolz was a canny fellow. A local cobbler when Lech was a poor farming community, he became involved in skiing not so much in its infancy as when it was new-born. He made his first ski boots before lifts existed, a rugged, hob-nailed, black-leather pair for bindings which left the heel free to move – so that skiers could climb up the slopes. When a former Mercedes-Benz engineer arrived in Lech with a plan to build ski-lifts, Strolz was one of the first to put money into the scheme (as a result, his family remains a part-owner of the resort’s lift system).
And when the village’s mayor, aware of the potential benefit that skiing might bring to the local economy, offered new premises rent-free on condition that they housed a sports shop, Strolz agreed – and began a retail operation which now consists of seven shops in Lech and Oberlech, plus another three in neighbouring Z?and Stuben.Today, the retail side is run by three of Strolz’s grandsons. The boot-making business was handed over to their uncle, Martin (who became famous for his ski-racing successes in the early 1950s, including a second place in the downhill world championship), and then in turn to their cousin Hannes, now 39 years old. He maintains production at a level of only 12,000 pairs per year, because that is the maximum output of the Strolz-owned factory in Italy which makes the polyurethane boot shells. Commercial realities also demand that only three types of ski-boot shell are made, and that the designs last up to 10 years: amazingly, the cost of producing the moulds for each boot – for men and women, in 14 sizes – is £29,000 per pair. At a fitting, the first issue is the appropriate shell-type: Racing (for aggressive skiers), Sportiv (for the less aggressive) or Favorit (for those with unusually small or large feet). The rigidity of each shell can be tuned by the insertion of “wedges” of different materials above the heel. The separate “cuff” – the upper part of the boot which grips the lower calf – also comes in three styles.
