Scott Ends Telemark Boot Production, Leaving Free-Heel Skiers Scratching Their Heads

Just like they mellowly carried on producing telemark boots for the better part of thirteen years, Scott Sports is quietly leaving free-heel behind. 

As of mid-November, telemark consumers began reporting that Scott customer service was divulging that the brand had ceased producing telemark boots. And Scott USA winter sports brand manager Jacob Quirion confirmed as much, saying also over email that “there are currently no plans for new product development in this category.” That was corroborated by Franz Marsan, ski hardgoods product manager for Scott Sports SA. “Scott has discontinued all ski boots production,” he noted in an email. “We previously held a strong competitive position in the touring segment, which allowed us to maintain limited production runs for Telemark models. However, since COVID, most major ski brands have added touring ski boots to their portfolios, while overall market growth has remained limited. As a result, market share has been fragmented, and we are no longer able to sustain a viable business case for our Ski, Touring and Telemark boots.”

Scott’s telemark boots–derived from legendary maker Garmont’s options–hardly ever scratched the volume of competitor and telemark cornerstone Scarpa. But the brand nevertheless had a following, and for years Scott mellowly played second, maybe even third fiddle behind Crispi, in the telemark boot realm. Still, Scott’s boots long filled a niche within a niche, giving many telemark skiers an alternative. That comes to an end as the suspicions long held by many–that the huge ski brand was positioning itself to finally axe their free-heel options–has become reality. 

But Scott’s hushed exit from the ascending free-heel world marks not only the end of their perhaps half-in dance with telemark; it’s the conclusion of the legendary footwear brand Garmont’s long telemark arc, whom Scott purchased in 2012, the megalith’s first foray into things free-heel. 

After co-conceptualing Scarpa’s first plastic telemark boot, the late telemark polymath Paul Parker helmed Garmont’s ski footwear division beginning in 1996 before staying on with Scott until 2018 in a similar capacity after the acquisition. From those halcyon days, the company-spanning boot line was long a distinguished part of the modern free-heel movement. On the back of products like the Gara, the first telemark boot to employ now standard multi-injection, Garmont’s sales may not have come close to majority status, but their prestige sat right alongside Scarpa during telemark’s rise throughout the 90s. Models like the Excursion, a low-cut, two buckle option marked the zenith of telemark’s flex-first, technique-heavy backcountry ethos of the era. And options like the G-Rex–a kid’s version of the Excusion–was a rare option for young telemark skiers. 

All that–and a slew of other footwear like running shoes, alpine climbing boots, and alpine-touring ski options–were available from Garmont, founded in 1964 by maker Calzaturificio Morlin, a five-generation, family-owned bootmaker hailing from Volpago del Montello, Italy.

Scott Sports, the behemoth outdoor producer, acquired “Garmont USA…as part of a larger acquisition of its Italian parent company in a deal that could bolster both companies’ brands in North America,” SGB Media wrote in typical fluffy fashion in September of 2012.

Like the wider telemark world, Garmont had then seemed to come to a quiet, fitful crossroads as participation and sales fell. Moreover, Garmont had moved away from the wider fit that differentiated their boots from Scarpa’s narrower one. In a 2014 review of the Synergy boot, telemark evangelist and writer Craig Dostie wrote on his site EarnYourTurns.com that “three years ago, Garmont gave up on the ski market and sold their ski boot assets to Scott Sports. Sales had been dwindling steadily since 2006 when Garmont abandoned their traditional last shape and adopted a narrower last. Former customers who counted on the wide-lasted boots were forced away and new customers did not replace them.” Scott seemed poised to nudge the boot line into the future, incorporating tech fittings at the toe on their Voodoo NTN boots for compatibility with the new guard both in new telemark norm and telemark tech bindings.

But Scott’s telemark offerings never quite seemed to take off, and, as often befalls a telemark brand owned by a parent company–whether big or small–the massive brand unavoidably focused on other products. Contraction of offerings ensued. Scott axed the Excursion and the G-Rex in 2021 as murmurs spread throughout the small telemark world that all of Scott’s free-heel boots weren’t long for this world.

Now it’s official, leaving just two downhill-oriented telemark brands standing; lynchpin Scarpa, and another perhaps half-in brand that not unlike Scott/Garmont has stood in the shadows while still making well-regarded telemark boots: Crispi. The second of what once marked a triumvirate of Italian footwear makers forging on with telemark, Crispi is known in free-heel circles for their stout boots that have tech-touring hardware both at the toe and heel, allowing for a switch-hitting alpine touring / telemark tech setup. While the brand is otherwise known for making premium hunting, outdoor, and alpine boots, their telemark options seem to get only passing attention from the maker. While Crispi’s entire stable of non-skiing boots come standard with industry-leading features like Vibram soles, their telemark ones do not.

As telemark again rises both in its culture and equipment, marked by the release of myriad bindings and even new boots in Scarpa’s revamped TX Pro and TX Comp, the first meaningful innovation to the sport’s footwear in some fifteen years, it seems telemark is still not immune to contraction, something the threadbare sport long contended with during several decades of stagnation.

Moreover, no matter how much telemark may seem to be emerging from its long retrograde, it stands to wonder if free-heel offerings, ever flush in passion if not cash, can make enough of a dent on the balance sheet of larger corporations to see longevity.

As Josh Madsen noted on his Freeheel Life podcast in October of 2022 when The M Equipment rebranded to InWild to reflect a growing focus outside of telemark, “my concern always is that once you go to that ‘outdoor’ moniker…I always worry about it from the telemark perspective.”

“What I hope is that their focus continues to evolve on their telemark products,” he cautioned.

As the sport grows anew, and as exciting new products like ATK’s relaunched Newmark binding come to the fore from outside the telemark nucleus, other SKUs meet their demise. And the death of Scott’s telemark boots may yet show a complicated path forward for telemark and its gear.