Merrell Founder Bought My Ski Boots

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anemic
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Joined: Fri Feb 28, 2014 4:39 pm

Merrell Founder Bought My Ski Boots

Post by anemic » Tue Oct 02, 2018 4:24 pm

First, some quick company history:

Merrell is an American footwear company founded by Clark Matis, Randy Merrell, and John Schweizer in 1981 as a maker of high-performance hiking boots. Since 1997, the company has been a wholly owned subsidiary of shoe industry giant Wolverine World Wide.

I live near WWW HQ which is nearby Rockford, MI.

I loved my Merrell leather ski boots. They were on the soft side. Fabulous for striding. Not as good for any kind of turning, not even my Glittertinds which are relatively narrow. Too soft of a boot sole for turning a ski properly. So I grabbed a similar design but lower mileage and far stiffer pair of Asolos (another favorite brand of mine) which worked nicely on the single outing we shared together prior to the spring melt.

I'd had the Merrell ski boots available for sale perhaps here as well as ebay without a lot of action. My wife was out of town last week and texted me that they sold, so I need to box and ship them (pleasant surprise #1). The shipping address was very close by, in Rockford, so I looked it up and I saw that it was the address of Wolverine's HQ (hmm, curious!). I was thinking of doing a drop off but I decided I better just ship the boots and avoid a corporate hassle. But I texted my wife, saying, "WOW! It must be that they want to evaluate the old original Merrell ski boots for a relaunch! Or a museum display!"

The buyer name was a meaningless nickname that gave me nothing, but the PAYER's name was Clark Matis, which my wife pointed out last night. I think Clark & I need to go skiing together soon!!

Here is the video from Merrell's fb page which my wife found:
https://www.facebook.com/merrell/videos ... 106435013/
Call it Nordic Freeride

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lowangle al
Posts: 2732
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Location: Pocono Mts / Chugach Mts
Ski style: BC with focus on downhill perfection
Favorite Skis: powder skis
Favorite boots: Scarpa T4
Occupation: Retired cement mason. Current job is to take my recreation as serious as I did my past employment.

Re: Merrell Founder Bought My Ski Boots

Post by lowangle al » Tue Oct 02, 2018 11:05 pm

Hey Anemic, what size is he? I may have a pair of heavy stiff Ultras for him.



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Johnny
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Location: Quebec / Vermont
Ski style: Dancing with God with leathers / Racing against the machine with plastics
Favorite Skis: Redsters, Radicals, XCD Comps, Objectives and S98s
Favorite boots: Alpina Alaska XP, Alfa Guards, Scarpa TX Comp
Occupation: Full-time ski bum

Re: Merrell Founder Bought My Ski Boots

Post by Johnny » Wed Oct 03, 2018 8:56 am

Woooah...! That is awesome!

Please write back to him and invite him here, so we can tell him what we want for the future of leathers. Thick duckbills with pre-installed smiley plates, stiff NNN-BC soles with easy to replace bars, tech inserts, neon pink straps and buckles etc... Tell him we want the Super Comp SKIS back too...! 8-)

Maybe he's just buying them all out to raise the market price to make them even rarer and make the Merrell name even more prestigious? ;)

Time for a Merrell tribute picture thread?

BTW, I am looking for a pair of Merrell Fts Flash and a pair of pink Super Comps size 10.5...
/...\ Peace, Love, Telemark and Tofu /...\
"And if you like to risk your neck, we'll boom down Sutton in old Quebec..."



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anemic
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Re: Merrell Founder Bought My Ski Boots

Post by anemic » Thu Oct 04, 2018 11:58 am

Hey guys! Johnny I will let him know we would welcome him here. That would be cool!

Al, I am about a 9 or EUR 42 which is what he purchased, but scroll down for the update...

UPDATE: Clark actually responded to my ebay note!

"Very happy to be able to find telemark boots that I designed years ago! Happy that you have such a good experience! I’m just gathering all models for our library/boot museum so we can show where Merrell came from, as you know we were selling as many telemark boots as as we were selling hiking boots when we started out.

Hoping for a great winter!! We need one!!
"
Call it Nordic Freeride



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fisheater
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Re: Merrell Founder Bought My Ski Boots

Post by fisheater » Thu Oct 04, 2018 12:11 pm

Very cool , perhaps you should take him to Saugatuck Dunes? I will try to make myself available on short notice, lol!



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t-$
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Re: Merrell Founder Bought My Ski Boots

Post by t-$ » Thu Oct 04, 2018 5:04 pm

Hmmmmm, would you guys please keep me in mind if a crew comes together for a ski?? I have been a Merrill fan for years and would love to ski with one of the dudes...and even if he can’t or doesn’t go, still keep me in the loop and let’s hit the dunes this winter!!



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Chisana
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Location: Alaska
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Favorite boots: Merrell ultras
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Re: Merrell Founder Bought My Ski Boots

Post by Chisana » Fri Oct 05, 2018 12:02 am

Wonder if he would be interested in my new still in the box merrel ultras?



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anemic
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Re: Merrell Founder Bought My Ski Boots

Post by anemic » Fri Oct 05, 2018 8:52 am

t$ I look fwd to skiing with you this season!

Chisana I'll point him this way
Call it Nordic Freeride



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greatgt
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Re: Merrell Founder Bought My Ski Boots

Post by greatgt » Sat Oct 06, 2018 7:53 am

"C" Ultras were just about the best boot ever made....I destroyed several pairs and would do the same all over again...TM



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lowangle al
Posts: 2732
Joined: Sat Jan 11, 2014 3:36 pm
Location: Pocono Mts / Chugach Mts
Ski style: BC with focus on downhill perfection
Favorite Skis: powder skis
Favorite boots: Scarpa T4
Occupation: Retired cement mason. Current job is to take my recreation as serious as I did my past employment.

Re: Merrell Founder Bought My Ski Boots

Post by lowangle al » Sun Oct 07, 2018 12:15 pm

greatgt wrote:"C" Ultras were just about the best boot ever made....I destroyed several pairs and would do the same all over again...TM
What does the "C" mean GT? Is it a particular version of the boot, and if so how do you know if you've got them? Tell me more.



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