Hubert Immler spent more than three decades helping shape alpine race boots. Those who knew him will remember his influence on the sport — and the warmth and friendship of the man behind the boots. Photo: Hubert Immler
Most of the time, we never know the people who helped make our lives better.
Ski racing is no different.
We know the athletes. We remember victories, championships and Olympic medals. Podium moments become part of the sport’s history.
Behind those moments, however, are people whose names most fans will never know. They design equipment, fit boots, tune skis, coach athletes and solve problems that can determine whether a racer succeeds.
Hubert Immler was one of those people.
The Austrian ski boot developer died Sept. 15 after a battle with cancer. He was 64.
For more than three decades, Immler influenced alpine ski racing through his work on race boots. His ideas reached Olympic champions, world champions, World Cup overall winners and generations of athletes who may never have known his name.
Still, those of us fortunate enough to know Hubert will remember something more important than what he accomplished with ski boots.
We will remember the man.
He made people feel important
I knew Hubert personally and had the opportunity to work with him.
He possessed a rare gift.
When you were with Hubert, he could make you feel as though you were the most important person in his life at that moment.
There was always a welcoming smile. More importantly, he listened. His interest in people felt genuine, and he seemed sincerely happy to see you.
You never had the sense that Hubert was waiting for the conversation to end so he could move on to someone more important. Instead, at that moment, you were important.
Anyone who experienced that knows how unusual it is.
Hubert loved the people he worked with, and he loved his family just as deeply. His pride in his children was unmistakable.
There are many technically gifted people in ski racing. Far fewer possess the ability to make others feel better simply because they spent time together.
Hubert did.
The search never stopped
Hubert also possessed an extraordinary curiosity about ski boots.
The right plastic. The right hinge point. A better cuff. A buckle positioned slightly differently. A shell that worked better with the athlete’s foot.
There was always another question.
Good enough held little appeal if Hubert believed something could be improved.
His career took him through Lange, Atomic, Tecnica, Nordica and HEAD. Later, he worked with the German ski federation and Marcel Hirscher’s Van Deer program.
Along the way, his work influenced equipment used by some of the greatest racers of their generations, including Lasse Kjus, Bode Miller, Didier Cuche, Ted Ligety, Lindsey Vonn, Julia Mancuso and Henrik Kristoffersen.
Yet Hubert understood that engineering alone could never produce the perfect ski boot.
Ultimately, the boot still had to fit the athlete. It had to work with that person’s foot, movement and skiing. Just as importantly, the racer had to trust it.
Hubert understood the equipment, but he also understood the person wearing it.
That combination made him exceptional.
READ MORE: [Hubert Immler: The ‘Wizard of Boots’ Who Helped Shape Modern Ski Racing]
In Ski Racing Media’s updated 2022 profile, Hubert tells the story of his career, the race boots he helped develop and the champions who benefited from his work.
His influence reached racers he never met
It would be easy to measure Hubert’s career by famous athletes, medals and World Cup victories.
That would miss much of his contribution.
Equipment development accumulates over time.
One generation discovers something about plastic, fit or boot geometry. The next begins with that knowledge and moves forward. Eventually, an idea developed around a workbench or inside a World Cup service room becomes part of equipment used by racers around the world.
That is why Hubert’s influence reaches athletes who never met him.
Today’s race boots did not suddenly arrive in their current form. Instead, they represent decades of experimentation, mistakes, successes and incremental improvements.
Hubert was an important part of that evolution.
A young racer can close the buckles on a modern race boot today and benefit from lessons Hubert helped uncover decades earlier.
The racer may never know his name.
The benefit remains.
More than the ‘wizard of boots’
When I wrote about Hubert for Ski Racing Media in 2022, I called him the “wizard of boots.”
I also wrote that if ski boot developers had a hall of fame, Hubert would be elected on the first ballot.
I believed it then, and I believe it today.
After losing him, however, the description feels incomplete.
The boots explain why the ski racing world should know Hubert Immler’s name. They do not explain why his friends will miss him.
His smile will be missed.
So will his humor, his curiosity and his enthusiasm for whatever problem he was trying to solve.
Those who knew him will also miss the pride with which he spoke about his family.
Most of all, we will miss the remarkable way Hubert made people feel valued.
Knowing how to improve a race boot is a rare skill.
Making another person feel important may be an even rarer one.
Hubert could do both.
The people behind ski racing
Hubert’s death is also a reminder of how much of our sport belongs to people who rarely receive public recognition.
There is always someone behind the athlete.
A coach taught them.
A technician tuned the ski.
A boot fitter solved a problem.
Someone stayed late because an athlete needed an answer before the next morning.
Most spectators will never know all of those names. Nevertheless, the sport could not exist without them.
Hubert spent much of his life as one of those people.
Champions raced in equipment he helped develop. Engineers and technicians learned from ideas he helped advance. Meanwhile, athletes who were not yet born when Hubert began working on ski boots benefit from that accumulated knowledge today.
That is an extraordinary professional legacy.
His family meant the most
For all Hubert accomplished professionally, the people who mattered most to him were his family.
His wife, Erika; his children, Jonas, Marie, Kilian and Kristina, along with their partners; his grandchildren, Isabella, Valentina, Louis and Lotta; and his extended family now face the loss of the man they loved.
Anyone who spent time with Hubert knew how deeply he loved them.
His pride in his children was unmistakable. He spoke about them with the same warmth and enthusiasm he brought to his work, and it was clear that no professional success meant more to him than the people waiting for him away from the race hill and workshop.
The ski racing community knew Hubert as an innovator, technician, problem-solver and friend.
His family knew all of that, too.
More importantly, they knew the husband, father and grandfather behind the career.
Their loss is the greatest.
We knew the man
For Hubert’s friends, his legacy cannot be measured only in ski boots.
We were fortunate enough to know the person behind them.
That meant knowing the welcoming smile, the humor and the genuine interest he showed in other people.
It also meant seeing how much he cared about those around him and how proud he was of his family.
Perhaps most memorable was the feeling Hubert created when you were with him. Somehow, he made it seem as though there was nobody else he would rather be talking to.
Most of the time, we never know the people who helped make our lives better.
This time, some of us did.
His name was Hubert Immler.
He helped make ski racing better.
More importantly, he made the lives of the people fortunate enough to know him better.
We will miss him.
About the Author: Peter Lange
