Basecamp Podcast: Zay boot manufacturers Karen and Rex Deitesfeld

The Zay boot that will debut this season replaces the two buckles on the forefoot with a cable tensioning system. (Zay Products)

“Date your skis, but marry your boots” is a popular saying when it comes to skiing. It stresses the importance of having the proper boot.

It does not matter what kind of skis you are on, if you are in a boot that isn’t the right size or pinches a certain place, you are going to have a miserable ski experience. Conversely, if you are in boots that fit properly, you will ski whatever ski you are on to the best of your ability.

While there has been a significant amount of change in ski design in the past 30 years, with the switch from long and straight to parabolic to fat waists, the same cannot be said for boots.

Rex and Karen Deitesfeld of Zay Products in Longmont, Colorado, are looking to change that. Their molded outer shell is an elastomer, not plastic, so it has better pliability at colder temperature than the traditional plastic boot. The two buckles on the forefoot are replaced with a cabling system designed to give you a more stable and comfortable fit than the current four-buckle boot.

Except for the liner and the two sets of buckles on the cuff, everything is made in the United States.

It will make its debut this season at select resorts around New England with three different flex options in limited sizes, with future offerings to follow.

Have a look.

(Keith Pearson is the editor of the New England Ski Journal. He can be reached at [email protected].)

Watch the pod

Highlights

How it keeps the foot stable (minimizes heel lift)

“As you go into a turn, the cables tighten, and then when you’re not in a turn the opposite boot relaxes. It’s constantly tensioning during the turn and it’s holding your foot comfortably instead of being locked in in position, so that’s why we call it an automatic tensioning system.”

The difference between a Zay boot and a BOA boot

“A BOA is still a static system in my eyes that would be comparable to a buckle boot. The reason I say that is, once you dial in the tension you want on your foot, it stays at that tension level. Whereas with the Zay boot, as you apply pressure to the cuff or the tongue of the boot, it automatically tensions around your foot. It’s constantly tensioning, loosening, tensioning, loosening.

“The professionals that have skied in both a buckle boot or a BOA boot, really don’t notice a whole lot of difference except maybe the BOA system is a bit less tension on the top of the foot and provides a little comfort with less impingement points or pain points in the ski boot.”

What goes into a comfortable liner

“We ended up incorporating Tempur-Pedic type foam throughout the entire liner, so with the heat of the foot it would warm it up and mold directly to the foot structure that was being put in it.

“Once you get in the boot — and it goes from very narrow-lasted people to very wide-lasted people and everything in between — there is a comfort level that people, when people first put their foot into the boot, they can believe how comfortable it is without pinch points, and that’s not only because of the shape of the shell but also because the type of the foam that we use in the interior.”

Listen