Ads Past: Italian Twins

This ad, which first ran in SKI and Skiing in the fall of 1974, repeated regularly into the spring issues. It
admitted what most skiers suspected: that the ski-boot factories in and around the small town of Montebelluna, Italy, had little compunction about imitating successful products. It made sense: Every family in town had members working in competing factories, so there were no industrial secrets. When Nordica figured out how to make plastic boots that fit well, commercial survival required adopting the new technology. In this case, Munari ran a year behind Nordica’s Astral Racer design, already discontinued by the time this ad ran. At the top of the line, Nordica had already introduced the classic Grand Prix and the GT, which Munari (and several other brands) cloned for 1976. In 1982, with his American distributor Hart Skis in financial disarray, Munari owner Domenic Caporicci sold his factory to Brixia, a manufacturer of mountaineering boots founded in 1911. In 1989, Brixia acquired San Marco—then sold the whole enterprise to HTM, the parent company of Head skis. And thus were Head ski boots reborn. —Seth Masia

Coming Up In Future ISSUES

Lange’s Missing Link

In 1970, 16 World Cup teams buckled up Lange’s SuperComp boot. It was never sold to the public.

Skiing on the Silver Screen

Sometimes skiing has a lead role in movies. But even when it’s a cameo, the sport has influenced cinema. Jeff Blumenfeld takes a look.

PLUS
Deer Valley Expansion: Everett Potter explores the slow pace of change at Park City’s skiing-only resort.

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