SeniorsSkiing.com recently spoke with Dano Bruno, product manager at Dahu ski boots, about the company and what makes Dahu boots different from the dozens of boot brands available. Prior to helping develop Dahu he was Tanners Hall’s (a free skiing icon with 11 X-Games medals) technician and worked with many of the top athletes at Dalbello ski boots. It only took a couple of minutes into the conversation to realize Dano really knows his stuff.
Dano, how did Dahu get its name?
In Swiss, and European mountain lore you always think of the mountain goat or the Ibex. They’re such strong animals who can ascend and descend the mountains with ease. It’s a mythical mountain goat whose left legs are longer than its right legs so it can ascend and descend in the same direction. I like to think that’s a little bit like Dahu. You can get to and around the mountain more comfortably. Whether you’re on the mountain riding day in and day out or only riding five days a year, you know you’ll be comfortable and stable. I think it correlates pretty well.
Alright, how about some history on how Dahu came about?
So back in ‘09/’10 is roughly when it was first introduced by the original Swiss owner/engineer. I became involved somewhere around ‘10/’11 as an Ambassador in North America. The boot needed more work. In late ‘17 I officially got involved and put a team together to completely rebuild the boot. We made all new molds for both shells and for liners. We basically took the concept, and, in my opinion, we created a true ski boot and launched it in 2019. It had two issues right out-of-the-box. It honestly didn’t fit very well, and it didn’t ski very well either. It was back to the drawing board. We always believed capturing that true out-of-the-box fit was number one. Number two was designing a boot that skied well.
There are two critical parts of a boot. The inner boot or liner and the outer shell. There are three critical components needed for a ski boot to perform well on snow: A stiff sole, a stiff spine, and two stent lateral bands that run diagonally along your ankle bones from somewhere on the cuff or the spine of the boot diagonally through and down into the sole of the boot. If you know those three critical aspects of a shell, you know our boot checks all of those off.
What are the most important attributes of a good fitting ski boot?
There are four pillars for people to consider when buying boots: It’s easy on and off, it’s comfortable, it’s warm, and it skis great. Everyone’s looking for the “best boot”. What they’re really looking for is the most comfortable boot. I think Dahu offers a boot that’s very comfortable and skis really well. I’ve got coaches, ski patrollers, and ski school instructors using our boot. They love it because instead of having their ankle locked in a ski boot and always slightly bending their knees, they’re able to basically be in a winter boot with 200 grand primal PrimaLoft insulation. They sometimes tell me it’s a beautiful thing. On the other hand, there are many people who never take the shell off. They get into Dahu for the four pillars.
Is your inner boot like a snowboard boot?
We are a ski boot through and through not a snowboard boot. We have nothing to do with snowboarding. You can’t take our liner out and snowboard in it since it doesn’t fit the parameters of the snowboard binding. 60% of our owners never take the inner boot out of the outer shell.
Can you walk around the lodge or to the parking lot in your inner boot?
Absolutely. You can 100% walk around in the liner. You can walk from the parking lot to the hill and slide your shells on. I always laugh when I tell the story about how one day, I think it was a big powder day in Vail, I shoveled my driveway in my liners and skied most of the day. On the way home my wife called and asked me to run the market and grab some more pasta or something. I ran into the market in my liners. I think that’s a big advantage.
What goes in to making Dahu liners a superior fit?
We focus on what’s called the last. It’s a foot-shaped form which determines the overall fit. We began by looking at thousands and thousands of 3D images of people’s feet and legs. If you look at a ski boot last generally speaking, compared to the last of winter footwear, the last that shoe is made on is a much different shape. A ski boot last is going to be very narrow and very low volume. When people get into a ski boot the first thing they say is “wow it’s really tight”. That’s because a traditional piece of winter footwear doesn’t feel so tight. We add lots of different, very modern synthetic materials to the outside of the liner so we’re able to build this really, high-quality product. Sometimes this gets lost in the ski shop. As a product manager I attend many boot-fitting clinics and try to get the guys in the shop to really look at the liner and understand that this provides so much of the fit and how the boot actually skis because when you interface this really high-quality liner (built in Italy) with the shell; that’s what makes the boots ski so well. There’s virtually no movement in the system.
We have two patents on our boots. One is called “Tri Lock”. If you look at the soul of the liner, there are grooves that run vertically from toe to heel. When you look inside the shell, you’ll see we don’t have a traditional foot board. There are grooves that run in the shell and when those grooves interface becomes very rigid like a gear in a car. The result is when you pressure the tip of your ski and get it on edge there’s virtually no movement in the system. Remember, we use three-dimensional imaging so the way the rest of the shell wraps around the liner on its own creates a very tight fit. Due to the research and materials that went into the liner you have a more comfortable fit. You don’t have to have your liner so tight because when you step into the exterior shell that’s what really makes the difference in terms of performance. The design of the exterior shell allows the liner to be more comfortable and less constricted. It’s actually the way you blend the design of the liner related to the design of the internal part of the shell coming together to create a very tight link between foot and liner.
Given the unique liner-to-shell interface you just described, how are testers reacting to it?
I sent a pair of boots to a gentleman who has 90,000 people following him on Facebook. I was hesitant to send him boots since I get a little nervous when I do. I kind of know what’s going to happen. The problem with just sending a demo pair out is that you’re at the mercy of the recipient who may not be the most knowledgeable person. He’s actually been a very experienced boot fitter for many years. I know most of the boot testers. We’ve all been doing this for some time. Not long ago I entered several Dahu boots into an annual boot test. The response among the testers was rather funny. They pulled me aside and said, dude what are you trying to do? Bury yourself?
I told them you’ve known me a long time. I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t think the boot would stand up. Why would I enter the test and be worried about losing my job? I could completely bury my company. Well, it was cool when they started to go out and ski on the boot. There was one tester who had his head wrapped around one foot. He went out 120 stiffness model and, no kidding, he came back and signaled me to come over. He asked, what’s up with this thing?
Do you have a 135 stiffness model here? I said yeah, so I grabbed the 135. With his high-performance boot on one foot and the Dahu on the other foot he goes out and skis. When he gets back, he’s got a little bit of smile on his face. “Wow, give me the other one”. He said. So, he put the other boot on and goes skiing with both boots. When he returned, he wanted something a little more aggressive. I did a couple things to the boots and in the end the testers basically said bravo. They didn’t think this boot would stand-up against the benchmarks of other brands in the marketplace. It surprised all of them
Where can readers of SeniorsSkiing.com check out Dahu?
We have test centers around the country. Your readers can visit our website skidahu.com and click on test center to know where to find us. We have test centers in Vail, Beaver Creek, Aspen, Park City and Snowmass and we work very closely with Gravity Sports at Mount Bachelor in Oregon and in the Midwest and we’re opening a Dahu stand-alone test center at Lions Head in Vail.
Dahu is currently owned by the Progression Brands Group, an American company and is still built in Montebelluna, Italy.
