Ken Nicosia

A northern New Jersey Native, Nicosia always loved to race and ski fast. After ski-bumming for a while at Snowbird, Utah, he found a tech rep position with Trappeur-Spalding-Caber on the Pro Tour and later went to work into retail management for Sitzmark ski shops.

He joined Lange in 1979 as service manager and focused his interest on the company's racing activities, helping racer chasers in the field. In 1982, Ken Nicosia was promoted to the position of Racing Coordinator. For the following two years, he traveled the world over with the US and Canadian ski teams through the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics in which Lange boots garnered 6 gold medals. He also brought his ski tuning expertise to the company when Lange USA took over the distribution of Authier skis that would eventually be renamed Lange.

In the spring of 1984, Nicosia left Lange to work for Fischer/Dynafit, developing their new race boot. Today, he still calls New Jersey home and works for Sysco foodservice.

François Feuz

A 16 year sales veteran with Head, Feuz was hired by Jean-Pierre Kratzer in 1984 to lead the Swiss Lange sales team.

As soon as François Feuz met Laurent Boix-Vives, a powerful chemistry developed, and two months later the CEO of Rossignol offered him to lead Lange European sales effort. Even though Feuz didn't speak english, he embraced the challenge and began criss-crossing the continent on behalf of the brand. Under his leadership, european sales jumped from 95,000 to 300,000 pairs of ski boots in just three years.

He particularly enjoyed working with his US counterparts which, at the time, included Quigley, Lumet and Lanvers as well as collaborating with Jean-Claude Killy and Michel Arpin on the development of the Lange ski line. He also felt extremely privileged to be associated with talented distributors like Scandinavia's Mats Olofsson and Italy's Justinia Demetz. He got a kick out of Quigley's “extreme marketing” including the introduction of wild-colored boots (bright yellow and pink) as the line top models.

François left Lange in 1989 to work for Scott in Switzerland. Now retired, he can fully enjoy his family and carve out enough time for skiing, golfing or biking. He's extremely grateful for his excellent health and says: “If I had to start over, I'd follow exactly the same path!”

Rip McManus

A member of the 1964 U.S. alpine ski team and since director of racing and product manager for the Head Ski Company, director of marketing for the Lange Company, he became a marketing consultant to the Olin Ski Company, Inc. Rip McManus now lives in New Jersey.

Larry Asay

Larry started with the Fischer ski division of the Garcia Corporation.
When Lange was brought into Garcia, Larry made the switch to the brand and remained a sales representative for the company in the Pacific-Northwest through the Lange USA days and later with Dynastar until 2006 stacking up 30 years with the brand.
Larry Asay is now retired and continue to live in Seattle and still skis in the Cascade Mountains.

Rob Mucci

Rob has been a Lange sales representative covering New England from the mid 70s to 2004.
He worked through the end of Garcia, with Lange USA and with Dynastar.
He's been covering all of New England and still lives near Boston.

Morrie Shepard

Shepard grew up in Maine where he was a friend of Pete Seibert. The two boys skied together from age 7. During World War II, Morrie was a Navy pilot and after the war he joined Pete in Colorado where the two became members of the Aspen Ski Patrol. After that first winter, he moved to the ski school and eventually became Assistant Ski School Director to Fred Iselin and Freidl Pfeifer. From 1956 -1960 he was an examiner for the Rocky Mountain Ski Instructors Association and became Chief Examiner during the 1960-1965 period. Morrie left Aspen to join Pete Seibert as he built and launched Vail. He helped lay out the trail system and got deeply involved in the gondola construction and other mountain projects.

In the fall of 1962 he assumed his duties as Vail's first Ski School Director and held that position until 1965 when he became National Sales Manager of Bob Lange's new startup boot company. Not long after that, Morrie oversaw the construction of the Lange Company complex in Boulder. With Lange Boots a worldwide racing success, Morrie Shepard became Vice President of the company until it was purchased by Garcia in 1973.

Pat Quigley

An avid skier who sold sporting goods while growing up, Pat started as a rep with Salomon, then joined Henri Patty at Garmont. He then worked for a couple of years at Marker before returning to New York to promote St. Pauli Girl beer.

That’s when Lanvers hired him to lead Lange’s sales team in 1984. Pat’s iconoclastic style energized the organization with brilliant ideas and grand plans. He resurrected the Nordica “yellow banana” concept by adapting it to a dated Lange design, later painting it pink when buyers became tired of yellow and he spearheaded a mid-entry boot that would be sold under both the Lange and Rossignol names. When Dynastar became Lange’s distributor, Quigley moved to Vermont and stayed on through the early nineties.

After briefly rejoining Marc Lumet at SMH-Swatch, in 1993 Pat became EMI’s senior vice president of marketing - in the music recording business - a title he held until he moved to Tennessee and became the president/CEO of Capitol Records Nashville and was closely associated with Garth Brooks’ amazing success. In 2000, Pat Quigley joined DataPlay in Boulder as its Chief Marketing Officer. Today, after spending some time in Los Angeles, Quigley has returned to Nashville where he is currently retired.

Herbert Marxer

A former member of the Liechstenstein ski team and Olympian who raced downhill at the 1972 Sapporo Olympics, Herbert also had an engineering degree and was a highly knowledgeable boot technician.

He was hired as product and racing services manager by Jean-Pierre Kratzer and stayed with the company until Dynastar took over the distribution for Lange product. Heavily involved with product development, but lacking the political skills necessary to navigate a deeply fractured organization, Marxer had developed a mid-entry boot that never was given a fair chance.

After leaving the company, Herbert Marxer parlayed his experience with the brand and became the Dynastar-Lange distributor for Switzerland. Today, still active in the industry, he owns and distribute Hammer skis and snowboards.

Laurent Boix-Vives

Born in Savoie, France in 1926 and self-made man, Laurent Boix-Vives worked with his family selling produce and building ski lifts in the Courchevel region. In 1956, he purchased a ski factory from Abel Rossignol and developed it with financial savvy, a host of innovative products and a very successful racing strategy. Very soon, Rossignol became the leading ski manufacturer in the world, adding Dynastar skis along the way.

In 1979, Boix-Vives, along with some tennis factories, purchased Lange from Carpano-Mitchell, a French company that was Garcia’s main creditor. He set up a trading company in Lausanne Switzerland, sold the Lange Far-East subsidiary to the Mitsui group and remained the sole owner of the brand until it was acquired by Rossignol, the publicly traded company.

In the meantime, Rossignol had acquired Cleveland Golf and Look bindings. In 2005, Laurent Boix-Vives sold the entire group to Quiksilver. Today, he is retired but still busy building the “Strato,” a luxury hotel in Courchevel.

Jean-Claude Killy

Born in 1943, Jean-Claude grew up in Val d’Isère and began skiing at the age of 3. At 18 he was a full-fledged member of the French national team. The dominant male in the sport from 1966 to 1968, Killy won the World Championships downhill in 1966, two overall World Cups and three Olympic medals (downhill, slalom, and giant slalom) at the Grenoble 1968 Winter Olympics.

As he began his business career in America, Jean-Claude joined the Lange Corporation as a consultant and spokesperson on behalf of the ski boot and of Dynamic skis. He stayed with Lange until he returned to professional skiing in 1972 and become world champion. In the mid eighties, Killy came back to Lange to help develop a short-lived collection of Lange skis, along with Michel Arpin his long-time friend and technician.

Today, Jean-Claude Killy remains highly visible and active in all sports arenas. He was the organizer of the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France and is a very active member of the International Olympic Committee.

Bob Lange 1925-2000

Born in 1925, Bob Lange started his life adventure as an air force pilot, then attended Harvard where he got introduced to skiing. Having problems with his own boots, he always was tinkering with them and trying to add what his engineering degree had taught him. After working in the family’s insurance business, Bob started his own plastic company making products like hula-hoop, toy cars and refrigerator interior parts.

A visionary entrepreneur, he built the first plastic ski boot in 1958, added buckles in 1964 and went on to manufacture the racer’s favorite product. A highly colorful, enthusiastic and lively character, he sold his company to Garcia and managed to stay at its helm until 1974 when he decided to exit the world of ski boots.

After that he kept on inventing products like the “Lange Safety Stabilizer,” refining skis with his new line of “RBL” boards, got involved with new product development including contact lenses, and kept on skiing well into his sixties. Bob Lange is a member of the Ski Business Hall of Fame and a recipient of the Ski Industries of American Founders Award. He passed away in 2000.

David Jacobs

Born and raised in Montreal, Canada, Jacobs soon got into ski racing and soon thereafter started to win. A member of the Canadian National Ski Team from 1957 through 1961, David transitioned to become head coach for his team, while teaching math to make ends meet.

Following his consulting as Canadia head coach with Bob Lange, David was made President of Lange-Jacobs, Inc., from 1966 to 1969 and manufactured Lange boots in Montreal. After that company merged with Lange USA in 1969, David moved to Boulder, sat on the board of directors, and was the company's vice president from 1969-1972. During this time, he designed the first Lange competition ski boot, which became the hallmark of World Cup ski boots and predecessor to the Lange race boots used today.

In 1972 he founded The Jacobs Corporation, that would give birth to the Hot Gear line of children's ski clothing and from there launched the Spyder brand in 1978. After selling that brand to Hanso boots, he bought it back before the rear-entry maker would go bankrupt. The rest is history; Spyder's growth exploded over the turn of the century, and the company became the largest ski-specialty brand in the world. In 2004, Apax Partners, a global investment group, acquired the brand. The partnership allows Spyder to continue to expand its product line and build on its momentum. David continues to lead Spyder as CEO.

Jean-Pierre Kratzer

A graduate from HEC Lausanne - a major Swiss business school - Kratzer worked for Société Generale, a French bank where he came in contact with Laurent Boix-Vives, Rossignol's founder and CEO.

Upon acquiring Lange in 1980, Boix-Vives put Kratzer in charge of Lange International and its Swiss trading company, leveraging his banking background and connections. During his tenure at Lange, Jean-Pierre Kratzer’s hands-on, micro management style exposed him not just to finances and general management, but took him also deep into the mind-numbing details of manufacturing and product development.

After he left Lange in 1985, Kratzer returned to the banking industry and was a managing director at Credit Suisse. He's since moved on to horse breeding and horse racing activities. He currently owns and runs the Avenches Equestrian Institute (IENA) and is president of the Swiss Horse Racing Federation

Marc Lumet

Following his graduation from ESSEC, a French business school, Marc attended Indiana University in 1968 where he earned an MBA in marketing management in 1968. He then went to work for Mitchell, a French company leader in the manufacturing and distribution of fishing reels at the time, and was instrumental in divesting the assets of the Garcia Company that became Mitchell’s property following its bankruptcy.

In 1979, he joined Lange as president of Lange USA, in Lodi, New Jersey and led the American subsidiary while playing a major management role with Lange International, in Switzerland and Italy where he had to continuously "tap dance" in an effort to satisfy the owner and make the various (and fractious) players work together. He stayed with the company through 1989 when he accepted the presidency of SMH-Swatch in the United States.

A few years later, he joined Lacoste’s top management team in Paris France and stayed in that position until his 2009 retirement. He remains a consultant with the sporting goods company and currently lives in Paris.

Jean Barbier

After teaching skiing in the Alps, Australia and Japan, the Val d'Isère resident worked eleven year with Look bindings, both in Austria and at its Nevers, French headquarters.

He joined Lange offices in Crissier, Switzerland in 1984, as the company’s international product manager. Aside from managing the boot line, Jean also oversaw the Lange ski development and testing with Willy Haldemann, Jean-Claude Killy and Michel Arpin, before leaving the company in 1986 to take a marketing position with Skis Dynamic.

After an entire career in the ski industry, in which he co-owned a distribution company, Jean Barbier is now retired and lives in Voiron, near Grenoble, France.

Jean-François "JF" Lanvers

JF Lanvers was born and raised in Haute-Savoie, France. A French ski instructor, Lanvers joined Look ski bindings in 1974 as the company’s international racing director before being transferred to America in 1977. He was marketing director for Look Sports, Inc. when he joined Lange USA.

At Lange, JF started as marketing director and briefly became sales and marketing director upon Hendy Colley’s departure in 1984. Concerned about a crying need for new product development, he pushed for new ideas, like the built-in heat system and tried very hard, but with little success, to bridge the deep divides that existed between the U.S., Swiss and Italian divisions. It was that time in his career that he learned that you can't always succeed. He brought Pat Quigley into the organization and towards the end of 1985, started a research center in Salt Lake City, just before leaving the company in late 1986 to distribute Koflach boots.

Today, after a multifaceted and rewarding career in the ski industry, Lanvers is retired and enjoys running, skiing, mountain biking and hiking all around Park City, Utah.

Nick Hock 1917-2008

Born in Austria, Nick has lived in Great Britain for a while before coming to America in 1938. He worked in ski shops before joining the 10th Mountain Division during World War II. The conflict over, he continued in retail ski sales before starting as media salesman for Ski Illustrated before moving on to other publications.

It’s in 1969 that Nick Hock finally became Lange’s director of advertising and sales promotion and stayed with the company until 1972. He was the one who help produce the “soft inside” poster that began a long trend of sexy visuals tooting the brand's virtues.
After Lange, Nick’s successful publishing career continued with Ski Magazine, then with Ski Business until his retirement. Nick passed away in Woodstock, Vermont on November 1st 2008.