Helping skiers ski to their fullest, all day, every day, season after season.
Handmade in Italy
ZipFit liners are handmade in Montebelluna, Italy by the world’s best artisan boot makers. Using the highest quality materials, a complete understanding of foot morphology in skiing, and our proprietary OMFit cork, we craft ski boot liners that are uncompromising in their performance, fit, and durability.
The price of a pair of ZipFits reflects the labor of our master boot makers, the cost of premium materials, and a construction that has no planned obsolescence.
The value of a pair of ZipFits improves with every day of skiing in comfortable boots. Skiers who ski in ZipFits say it best.
ZipFit heritage: the Sven Coomer story
ZipFit Founder, Sven Coomer was selected to the 2021 class of the US Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame for pioneering the art of boot fitting and for making plastic boots comfortable and skiable. His influence is universal and timeless: boots he designed 50 years ago set the pattern for all race boots right down to today. Sven is a true innovator, shaping our sport for over 60 years. Sven knows a lot about ski boot liners as he designed the first boot that featured one.
Committed to the craft
He continued improving his designs, always seeking balance between comfort and performance, the ultimate fit liners. He sought perfection, developing the first foam injected liner and then abandoning that project, developing Superfeet orthoses and still wanting more — ultimately developing a super material he called OMFit cork while working on his masterpiece, the ZipFit liner. He’s not done either. Sven still works on new liner designs with ZipFit and continues to craft the perfect combination of footbed, innerboot, and ski boot. That's a life committed to making skiing better for everyone.
1961
After six years of international modern pentathlon competition and learning the ins and outs of foot biomechanics, Sven tried alpine skiing on a spring break trip to Are. This experience changed the course of his life - he was hooked.
Mastering Technique
Always the student, Sven learned to ski from the greats on the National French Team and soon thereafter taught ski clinics worldwide on boot fitting and skiing form. His dynamic ski style was often featured in magazines as exemplary ski style.
Discovering the Innerboot
Sven tested the first plastic boot for SKIING Magazine's ski reviews. Most importantly, Sven learned that the inner-boot is essential as a protective medium from unforgiving plastic shells, as well as the "unseen powerful energy transmission system" for skiers.
1965
Just four years after learning how to ski, Sven is part of the first team ever to ski across the Alps, 1000km in leather boots and pin bindings.
Gear Testing
Sven became the respected voice in ski boots for over a decade, not only working on design to make plastic shells more comfortable, but testing every boot on the market to hone in on performance and design.
1969
Sven designed the Nordica Sapporo, widely known as the last great leather boot and the first to feature a high back spoiler and high tongue.
1972
He translated the Nordica Sapporo design into the Astral, the first two-piece plastic shell with a separate liner. The "Banana Boot" as it was called, made all other performance boots seem obsolete and placed Nordica at the top of the ski boot industry.
1975
In 1975, Sven struck gold with his design of the Nordica Grand Prix - a two-piece, four buckle boot with near perfect dimensions. This boot has survived and been copied ubiquitously for close to 50 years and it's what we know of today as the modern ski boot.
Footloose!
In the 1980s, Sven moved to Mammoth and opened Footloose, a ski shop where he continued to build the toolbox for the art of boot fitting and designed Superfeet orthosis. During this era, Sven designed the first three-piece boot in the Raichle Flexon, and made the first foam injected liner for Koflach. He didn’t like working with the caustic foam and sought a natural alternative, landing on OMFit cork composite.
The Legacy Continues
Sven and his wife Mary operated ZipFit for over 20 years with the trusted help of Mountain Peak Designs and some of the best boot fitters in the world. In 2020, they asked Mary’s grandson Chris to take the helm of ZipFit, keeping the business in the family and in the Roaring Fork Valley. Chris and the current ZipFit team work closely with Sven, the manufacturing team, boot fitters, and skiers alike to continue Sven’s legacy and deliver the best liners to skiers. In 2021, Sven was inducted into the US Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame for his contributions to boot design and his role in developing the art of boot fitting. In 2023, Sven released his memoir called Sea to Ski, with the help from his dear friend Seth Masia.