A SHORT HISTORY OF SKI BINDINGS
Ancient skis had four holes drilled vertically through the ski – two on each side through which corded horse hair or leather straps were threaded creating a hoop through which a boot or shoe was inserted. Later the hole was drilled laterally though the body of the ski to create the hoop or toe strap so that the binding was not dragging on the snow on the ski bottom. Such simple bindings were around for almost 4000 yrs. and it was not till the 1700’s that a heel strap was introduced.
The early heel straps called osiers were made from pleated birch roots and later from leather. The first mention of the heel binding was in 1733 and led to increased stability and the start of ski jumping in 1765 and racing in 1767 but the heel binding did not take until Sondre Norheim’s jumping display in 1866 in Telemark. It became obvious that with Norheim’s new binding and the telemark ski that was constricted at the waist and broadened at the tip, skiing became more controlled. Leather replaced the birch roots in 1894 and a snap buckle was added in 1897.
The next additions to the osier system were metal toe irons attached to the sides and later to the top of the skis with a toe strap over the top which gave lateral stability to the toes of the boots.
In 1913 Olaf Selmer invented the iron “Bergendahl” binding which did away with the heel binding and clamped the sides of the boot sole down onto a plate which had vertical pins that stuck into the boot sole. It was the forerunner of the modern cross country ski bindings and was on the market for at least 30 years. The binding was named after Norwegian, Lauitz Bergendahl, a national icon who won the 50 km race at the Holmenkollen five times between 1910-15. He became the first ever “star” to have his name attached to a product.
From the Bergendahl heelless system, bindings proliferated with lighter aluminum models and the introduction of a bail system. The Norwegian ski racer, Bror With disliked the Bergendahl binding because it destroyed his boots so in 1927 he hammered the steel frame from a bicycle seat into a wishbone-shaped bail or lever. The ends of the bail were anchored in holes drilled into the sides of the metal toe block and the front anchored down with a leather strap so that the boot sole was pressed down onto pins on the binding plate. Crown Prince Olav of Norway asked With what the device was and he answered that it was just a “rat trap” that he found in the local hardware store – i.e. a ”rottefella”. This off-handed comment let to the Rottefella branding that dominated the binding market for 50 years and still exists today.
The Rottefella system morphed from a split, adjustable 4 pin binding to an integrated 2 pin binding bail system and all made to specific norms – hence the Nordic Norm system.
In 1975 a major break from the nordic norm pin bindings occurred with the invention of the Addidas system introduced by the shoe company to accompany the new light and flexible addidas boots – flexible plastic soles were key. Several other adaptations appeared and even a model made by Toko – the wax company. The addidas era lasted for approximately 12 to 15 years after which two dominant brands emerged and remain to this day – the Rottefella NNN and the Salomon SNS systems.
Reference: Jean Bristow