DODGE Ski Boots team. (left to right) Duffy Dodge, Terry Sheahan, Bill Doble, Peter Dodge, Dave Dodge

What a great day!

We had a Board meeting for DODGE Ski Boots today with all but one of our members and I’ve gotta say it was great.  I write all the time about Dave & myself, but there are some other people who are every bit as important to the success of  DODGE carbon fiber ski boots.

While Dave & I might be the ones who are designing, building and selling the boots, we have an incredibly strong and supportive team of people who believe in us and in the future of the DODGE carbon fiber ski boot.  It takes a lot of financial, emotional  and intellectual support to tackle a new technology like changing the way ski boots are made.  There is no way Dave & I could ever do it by ourselves.  (As much as we think we’re pretty hot sh*t, we have learned over the years we can be even better if we surround ourselves with, and listen to, a great team.)

Our team has some of the best.  Duffy Dodge brings 83+ years of life experience, smarts and no-B.S. approach to our team.  Beside the fact that he’s Dave’s dad, he’s a sharp businessman, ski racer and “conscience”.  Terry Sheahan is a college roommate and friend, one of my wedding groomsmen and a guy I trust implicitly.  He’s a successful businessman, great person and someone who can call me an as*hole and I’ll agree.  Peter Dodge is someone I’m proud to call my friend since we were 12 or 13 years old.  His skiing credentials are beyond reproach and his counsel is terrific. Not pictured, but without question important to our team is Joe Segura, who has worked with Dave since the mid-`70s at Rossignol and then at Burton.

After some good company planning and reviews, and a fabulous lunch prepared by Bonnie, we took a few moments to capture the moment for posterity, showing off the DODGE carbon fiber ski boots in front of the “factory” on a lovely Vermont summer day.

Tomorrow is back at it to get everything ready for New Zealand and then Chile.

10 more days and I’m off to NZ.

Bill

Made it back to Essex after waaaaay too long a drive on Friday.  You’d think after too many years of doing the drive, I’d know better than to drive across the Cape and Massachusetts on a Friday afternoon.  Only redeeming part was a 20 mile stretch in NH hooked up with a guy in an S4 avant and we both were making some serious time. Some work around the house and then Dave came over and we re-opened Moondawgs for a week-end debrief. Bonnie joined us with some snazzy hor d’oeurves and it was good to get caught up.

We’ve been getting emails and phone calls from racers wanting to try the DODGE carbon fiber ski boot in New Zealand. The word is out on the DODGE Ski Boot and even the top racers don’t want to be left staring at the back of the boot as it blasts past them.  (Though I will say, the back of the boot is very nice looking.) It should prove to be very, very interesting once we hit the slopes in NZ.

Tomorrow it’s back to making boot parts for the NZ boots after repairing some machinery. And, once some of our other components arrive later in the week (I hope), it’ll be assemble and pack everything up.

Stay cool.

Bill

Every year Bonnie & I go on a camping trip with 3 or 4 other couples for a once-a-year get together. It’s a terrific time with some good friends and something I look forward to.  When the kids were little, we all camped and enjoyed many of the fabulous state parks.  As we got older, we expanded the definition of camping to include summer camps and then to include vacations.  (I think it might’ve started with the Phish farewell concert in Coventry when we stayed at a house on Lake Memphremagog and biked to the concert.)  This year we’re enjoying the ocean and sand.  Nice.

But it doesn’t mean I’m not taking time for work on DODGE carbon fiber ski boot business.  I’m busy trying to arrange things for a trip to New Zealand to work with our star racers and do tests of some tweaks that will make the DODGE Ski Boot even faster.  People who might’ve seen or even tried boots as recently as a few weeks ago will be in for a shock at how much better and faster the newest version is.  I won’t be surprised to see some dropped jaws after the New Zealand races.

If you will be in NZ, let me know.

Off to the beach.

Bill

I’m pushing to make a bunch of boot parts for 245s and 255s before the New Zealand camps that start in August.  I need to have them done today so Dave can work on them next week and we can have boots ready to be on a plane August 2nd.

Making boot parts requires carbon fiber composite laminate material and HEAT! Ugh.  Worse still, the material is placed in an oven to dry it and that creates even more heat.  When I left the shop last night, it was over 90°.  I don’t think it cooled down at all last night.

I’ve always said that every DODGE carbon fiber ski boot has my fingerprints on it.  The ones being made this week will also have my sweat and, hopefully not my tears.

Dane Spencer has been skiing on the new “WC” flex boot at Mt. Hood and sent me a text after the first day saying it’s a big improvement for him over the earlier flex.  It is allowing him to run even straighter and spend less time in the turn.  He says he’s sorry the DODGE Ski Boot wasn’t available earlier … he might not have retired!  Dane’s a great guy and we’re proud he’s chosen to ski on DODGE boots.

Enjoy summer.

Bill

Our new sole plates for DODGE carbon fiber ski boots arrived and I’m psyched!  What’s the big deal?  Well, the DODGE Ski Boot requires a sole plate to ensure proper binding compatibility and up `til now we’ve relied on someone else’s plates. They worked fine but not the way we want for our high performance boot.

Our new plates (which by the way will work on other boot brands) feature a dual-density material that is hard and slippery at the binding AFD contact points, but softer for good walking traction everywhere else. Lift height is 5 mm.

The samples look good, as I said, but we think we’ll use 2 colors to better distinguish the different materials.

Anyone who wants to purchase these should contact us through the website http://DodgeSkiBoots.com.

That’s the “sole” truth and nothing but the truth.

Bill

(I think the heat is getting to me.)

We molded some cuffs for the 245 size DODGE Ski Boots using the new molds and the new cuff material and WOW! do they look great!

The new molds worked like a charm.  They’re made of a new material which allows us to have more sharply defined lines.  And, we made some modifications to the press so it’s easier to operate the process.  I’m looking forward to a large run of parts to see how it all shakes out, but based on the test run, it’s looking super.

We tested the new cuff material and that’s terrific as well.  We decided to go with the silver material and it molds really nicely and trims very cleanly.

Dave has the new “employee”, Motoman3, partially hooked up at least so he could test cut some parts and that is a far, far better operation than the old robot.  I’ll be glad to have everything fully operational so we can get into the full swing of production.

Waiting on some new injection molded parts to come in which will be a big improvement over earlier pieces.  (Crossed fingers … any day now).

Our new inventory of carbon fiber is on the way.  Yeah, I’m getting excited!

On top of that, Dave & I spent a good amount of time admiring our new race liner/innerboot and had an “Aha” moment when we discovered our liner is 25% lighter in weight than seemingly identical liners from two of the major boot marketers. Yeah, baby!

Off to Maine this afternoon to visit with Ellen and her boyfriend Larry.  A gorgeous day for a drive on one of Northern New England’s high-speed, multi-lane, West-East highways (yeah, right).

Have a safe holiday weekend.

Bill