OLYMPICS: 12 Medallists Wearing Slovenian Cross-Country Boots
Škofja Loka, 19 February - A number of Olympic medallists have won their medals wearing Slovenian-made cross-country ski boots at the Sochi Olympics. Shoes made by Alpina have been worn by twelve medallists, among them Slovenia's biathlete Teja Gregorin and cross-country skier Vesna Fabjan, both of whom claimed bronze.
The Alpina Racing Elite Esk Pro boot has been worn by a number of athletes competing in cross-country, biathlon and Nordic combined at the 2014 Winter Olympics.
The Škofja Loka-based Studio Miklavc, which designed the award-winning boot for Alpina, said in a press release on Wednesday that the model worn in Sochi was the fifth generation of the boot designed in a 15-year long cooperation with Alpina.
The racing boot is designed so as to enable direct force transmission from the foot to the ski, virtually preventing energy loss, Jure Miklavc of Studio Miklavc said as he listed the characteristics of the boot.
He added that the designers of the boot were all trained in Slovenia, graduates of the Ljubljana Academy of Fine Arts and Design.
The Alpina footwear company was established in the 1940s in the town of Žiri (N) with a merger of several shoemaking shops into a plant which has grown into a company with 131 retail shops in Slovenia and abroad.
Alpina has become a leading manufacturer of sports footwear, and has received several design awards over the past years, among them the prestigious Red Dot Award for several cross-country ski boots.