The Scottish Mountain Heritage Collection
891.2011.1
Koflach ski boots
20/01/2011
Hermione Cooper
20/01/2011
Small pair of black plastic and leather ski boots. Front opening with three metal clips. Plastic soles.
leather, plastic
25(l) x 7(w) x 19(h) cms
1 pair
On sole " KOFLACH MADE IN AUSTRIA " Inside " 1 6 29950 " On side inside an oval " KOFLACH"
black
Koflach
Austria
Koflach - the bootmakers - take their name from Koflach the small city in Austria and seem to have begun making boots way back in the early 1900's for the Koflach coalminers. They started making ski boots in the 1920's and have continued doing so right up to the present day though the company ownership has gone through several chameleon like changes over the decades.
Koflach plastic mountaineering boots took the world by storm in the late 1970's and you'll find examples elsewhere in the collection. A decade or two later mountaineers returned to the trusty leather boot,though Koflach kept a small market in the plastic mountaineering boot, with ski boots now absent from their portfolio.
Dating from the 1960's, the boots we have here in the collection are 'bog standard' for the time; with the vicelike clamps coupled with equally rigid bindings of the era leading to what became known as 'boot top fractures' when skiers fell over - fortunately things have improved.
This pair were kindly passed on by the Glencoe Folk Museum.
Donated by Glencoe Folk Museum
20/01/2011
20/01/2011
Spectrum : UK Museum documentation standard, V.3.1 2007
20/01/2011