After winning ISPO Gold Award 2021 in the Outdoor Equipment Mountaineering Boot category, Salewa®’s Ortles Couloir will make its appearance in stores from Fall 2021. Among the cutting-edge materials used to realize this boot, there are also Xenia® Materials’ thermoplastic composites. The toecap is, indeed, produced on a polymeric base supplied by the Italian company leader in the engineering and production of thermoplastic composites reinforced carbon fibre. This carbon solution offers and guarantees both stiffness and flexibility.

The processing of last generation’s carbon reinforced thermoplastic composites and the injection moulding process allow the standardization and realisation of structures with improved and optimized thickness, which would otherwise turn out to be very expensive and difficult to achieve through the traditional lamination process. Thermoplastic composites are, furthermore, easily and efficiently recyclable.

The compact, solid and agile design, characterized by a narrowed toe area, provides the Ortles Couloir with more precision while climbing both rock and ice. The boot’s frame has been brilliantly designed in carbon fibre in order to offer both lightness and stiffness. Moreover, its hinged joint closure ensures greater comfort while walking and more grip while climbing.

«This new boot was inspired by the Dolomite Mountains, our home, – explains William Starka, Senior Product Manager Footwear & Equipment of Salewa® – the absolute innovation in the alpine boots market is represented by its neat design, which allowed us to obtain great precision, total freedom of movement and an excellent stability for rock and ice climbing. To ensure a long-lasting performance, we selected durable and high-quality performing materials. The Ortles Couloir boot has brought the development of alpine boots into a completely new dimension». «Working with Salewa® and its partners has represented a great and exciting challenge. We began by developing a specific customization process which led to the selection of the polymer and a well-defined percentage of carbon fibre. This tailor-made project made us so happy and pleased» adds Enrico Mancinetti, Xenia® Materials’ Sales Manager.

To study and design together with the outdoor footwear brands the best applications of the thermoplastic-based composites, Xenia® Materials has recently started Xenia Footwear Materials Lab project which offers a turnkey service to the footwear industry companies and supports them step by step; from the choice of the material and co-design phase until the testing process and simulation of the footwear in specific circumstances.