The Benefits of the Split Shell & Memory Foam Liner System
- Easier to get on and off
- More comfortable liner
- Walk-able & waterproof liner with a sole
- Less customization needed
- Reduced manufacturing cost
- Learn more by watching the video demonstration
Story of SplitFit Boots and the Founder/Inventor
Born in beautiful Steamboat Springs, Colorado, he grew up skiing, starting at the age of 3. At the age of 12, his family moved to Arizona, where he graduated high school and attended college for a short time at ASU. He realized that he did not want to pursue the typical professional degree and needed to live somewhere with the four seasons again. He decided to move back to his hometown Steamboat and get an Associate Degree from Colorado Mountain College in Ski and Snowboard Business. That is where the idea first started in a class about innovation, he thought why not use memory foam in a liner that could mold to the foot every time it was put on. It was just an idea and it sat for years not being put into reality. While attending school in Steamboat he worked as a ski bootfitter in a specialty ski shop. After living the dream as a ski bum for years, he met his wife and she convinced him to go back to school. That is when he and his wife moved to Fort Collins to pursue bachelor degrees from CSU. While going to school he continued to work at a local specialty shop as a bootfitter. One day, after attending many business classes and hearing the same customer complaints over and over about ski boots, he remembered the idea about a memory foam liner. He decided he would make it; he took an old liner and cut it open to see how it was constructed. He then took a memory foam pillow and cut it into the shapes needed to reconstruct it and sewed it back up. The problem was when he went to try it with a traditional ski boot shell; the foam bunched up and never really settled right. This is when he came up with the split shell design, allowing the user to put on the liner first, letting the memory foam settle nicely around the foot. Then when the user slides the liner into the shell, closing the two halves of the shell around the liner, the memory foam compresses, giving a really tight, but super comfortable fit. He filed the patent in 2011, it took four and half long years, but the patent issued in 2016, he filed for a continuation patent in 2016 and it issued in 2019. He has built several prototypes over the years perfecting the designs. He has skied the original design, which is demonstrated in the video on this website. You can see both designs in the video demonstration on this website. He is looking for a partner to work with to bring this patented ski boot system to the market.
