Hello again to all - this is John Springer-Miller, Chairman of KneeBinding, Inc. with an open letter to all NewSchoolers.
I have previously posted some factual information here (at NS) about our bindings. My goal has been to clarify what we do, and why we do it. In the interim, we have heard from many of you, individually, through our website, through e-mail and even by phone. For the most part, these conversations have been solid, constructive discussions, and we greatly appreciate them. Your questions, as well as your conclusions, tell us a lot about the things you care about. Please keep the feedback coming.
KneeBinding’s mission is to make the sport safer without compromising performance. The company came into being specifically because the knee injury rate has become such an epidemic, and because none of the other binding companies have done ANYTHING about it for thirty years.
This is a tall order - especially when confronting all of you. We work constantly to try to get the right balance between release and retention. And so do you. When you decide to crank your heels up one more setting, you are choosing to move toward increasing retention at the expense of release. In most cases, this is at the expense of safety. You have CHOSEN to increase the risk to your knees in order to get just a little more retention. But you really have nothing but “gut feel” to help you choose when you have too much retention. It can be very frustrating when your bindings release during a trick – especially when you can’t feel any reason that they should release. So, you crank ‘em higher. What else can you do? A great many of you do this – and so, as a group, you experience a significantly higher knee injury rate.
Given our mission, you NSers represent an enigma. First, we're not sure if it's smart business to market our "safety" product to you when we know you tend to have a higher injury rate because you adjust your equipment in a way that defeats (or diminishes) our safety features. On the other hand, since your injury rate is higher, we also know we can bring the highest level of benefit to your part of the sport.
Generally, one binding set at a DIN of 9 will release with the same overall force as another binding set at a DIN of 9. And - the DIN setting is really the only tool YOU have to increase retention. But there is a LOT more to retention than the DIN setting. But we would argue that you have to increase the DIN on most ordinary bindings (all brands other than KneeBinding) in order to overcome design weaknesses in those bindings. We engineered a binding that doesn’t have the same pre-release issues that ordinary bindings have. In doing so, we created a binding that would allow you to ski at safer DIN settings.
Elasticity is a big factor. Some bindings are engineered to have a “sudden” kind of release, while others have more elasticity. Elasticity is like a shock absorber – you can take a jolt, and the binding will give a little, but then pull your boot back in. The degree to which it can “give,” and the gradient of force involved in that “give” is one of the ways we minimize pre-release. By combining industry-leading elasticity with a floating mount system (the only one in the industry) along with our boot platform system, we have dramatically increased performance AND reduced unwanted release.
The KneeBinding boot platform has a lot of advantages. It is the ONLY one on the market that is, front and back, the full width of the boot sole. While others are curved, uneven, moveable surfaces, ours is hard, flat, and straight. It gets you up off the snow – with the highest rotation point for brakes in the industry, and brake ends that fold in higher than any other binding. We also have the widest screw platform in the industry – even more important as skis get wider. We offer a true toe-height adjustment, eliminating the kind of slop found in “automatic” toe height adjustments, and a variety of other engineered advantages. All of this dramatically improves leverage edge grip, and reduces unwanted release. And THAT means skiers can ski at lower (safer!) DIN settings, without coming out unnecessarily.
As always – we aren’t hard-selling. We’ll tell you what we’re up to, but you’ll make your own choices. It isn’t easy to start a new binding company. It is especially difficult in the current economic climate. But we have succeeded.
Please take a look at some of our latest material. The link below launches a video featuring Alex Levin – the Captain of the University of Vermont Freestyle Team - who ALMOST got hurt, but didn’t because of KneeBindings. And there are other videos, including one that demonstrates why other brands of bindings DON’T release when facing lateral force, while KneeBindings do.
http://www.KneeBinding.com/NS
Again, we look forward to all of your feedback.
Yours,
John Springer-Miller
Chairman, KneeBinding Inc.
jsm@kneebinding.com
