Speaking of Lange girls, reminded me of a part of John Fry's book, "The Story of Modern Skiing" I read the other day about Robert Lange.
Lange was trying to make boots for the average or worse skiers. At the time, prestige and money went with the hottest racing gear. Working at his home while making a living selling insurance, he worked on a plastic replacement of the leather boot, often exaggerating his progress to "wring"money from investors.
One racer, Dave Jacobs, wrote to Lange with 15 suggestions for changing the boot to make it a better race boot. Lange incorporated the changes into his design and showed up at Mt. Hood in June of 1966 with 5 pair of boots for the Canadian ski team. They worked so great that by the end of the Grenoble Olympics 5 gold medalists wore Langes!
Lange was now ready to start mass production but needed to work out the issue of a comfortable liner. Lange decided to go with a putty like synthetic "thixotropic" flo material inside a vinyl liner. However, he did not actually test the material.
The Lange-flo boots shipped to ski shops the autumn of 1970. But soon the boots self-destructed since the flo material contained a corrosive ingredient that ate the liners leaving the flo to ooze out like toothpaste. 20,000 pairs were returned under warranty for repair and Lange lost over $1 million in warranty costs. Stock price went from $26 to nothing.
Lange was financially ruined. The company was acquired by fishing equipment makers Garcia.
Lange dedicated 25 years on developing his boot but would "never share in its commercial success." His original design, "a lower shell riveted to a hinged clamshell overlap or cuff" is still used today.
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