The transition from laced ski boots to metal clips is well illustrated in the two Henke ski boot adverts pictured opposite. The laced version is from 1958, the clip fastener version from 1965, the approximate date of this pair. Swiss company, Henke, claim to be the first to use the Martin clips, though we are not sure what’s special about them. We are sure that the vice like fastenings to all ski boots of this era was a technological jump ahead of the associated quick release bindings, many of which didn’t release very well, resulting in the most common ski accident of the 1960/70’s . … the boot top fracture. On a busy skiing day in the Cairngorms back then, an ambulance would be called by the Ski Patrol for the first ‘break’ of the day and asked to wait for the next one to save another journey! We should point out that this was not purely a Henke thing, more the binding makers, though quite why folk want to clamp their legs into a plastic vice, clamp them to a lump of plastic and whizz downhill at 90 mph is somewhat puzzling.