Since 2008
The adventure
zUFO was born from an obvious fact: to move the ski boot forward, we first had to rethink the way we design it.
Our conviction fits in one sentence: free the foot from the rigid shell.
A boot like any other, then a real answer
The ski boot has not always been a rigid shell. Until the 1970s, it relied on soft constructions, suited to the foot but not very effective at transmitting forces to the ski. Then the rigid plastic shell changed the game: it finally brought the precision and transmission that modern skiing needed to develop. It was a real breakthrough.
Fifty years of improvements, but the same architecture
Since then, the ski boot has never stopped evolving: materials, geometries, closure systems, adjustments. But always within the same architecture. The rigid shell has become the starting point that nobody questions any more.
It solved the problem of transmitting forces. But it never really solved that of fitting the human foot, and therefore of comfort.
For fifty years
Breaking out of the frame
Fifty years ago, the ski boot radically changed its architecture. Since then, it has remained a prisoner of the rigid shell. zUFO breaks out of that frame: a ski boot is not a shoe, it is above all a mechanical object, because its main function is to transmit forces.
1960s
Leather
Soft. It fits well, it transmits forces poorly.
Around 1970
The rigid shell
The revolution. Transmission is won, comfort is lost.
1970 to 2020
Fifty years
Materials, accessories. The same answer keeps being improved.
The turning point
The question reopened
Deep down, what is a ski boot?
zUFO
The wearable mechanical object
A mechanism designed to transmit forces, to which the footwear is added.
This change of perspective opens another path. If transmitting forces and comfort meet different functions, why make them rely on the same structure? zUFO separates them and rethinks the ski boot as a system: an exoskeleton to transmit forces, and an independent envelope for the foot.
A conviction, and someone to carry it
A mechanical engineer and skier, Hervé Fredouille began exploring another way of thinking about the ski boot in 2008. What started as reflections on the slopes became, in 2020, a project in its own right. Since then, one idea has guided the approach: rethink how the boot is designed rather than keep perfecting the rigid shell.
The refusal is the same in the man and in the company: “we've always done it this way” has never been a reason. An engineer in the original sense of the word, ingenium, the ability to invent. zUFO was born the day this personal rule met the object an entire industry had given up improving.
At zUFO, we believe that boldness and generosity can transform even the most rigid industries. Starting from a blank sheet, we reinvented the ski boot to bring the pleasure back to all skiers.
By freeing ourselves from the rigid shell, we offer a skiing experience with no compromise on either comfort or performance.
The path
The story begins in 2020, with the patents and the trademark filing. Since then, zUFO has developed this approach through successive iterations: twenty iterations, four generations, with the support of UNITEC in 2021, then of OSV Start-Up in Annecy in 2023, an alpine foothold assumed from the very start.
Grenoble, 2024
The sentence that decided ASCENT
In 2024, at the Sport Achat trade show in Grenoble, mountaineers who had come to see the prototype threw us an idea which, without knowing it, was the best summary of the project:
“Take the textile off, and we'll put our mountaineering boot inside to do the ski approach.”
We took the sentence at its word. It became the starting point of ASCENT: an exoskeleton into which skiers insert their mountaineering boot to practise the ski approach.
Winter 2025-26
The end of theory
During winter 2025-26, we tried our prototype in alpine skiing and ski touring, then, at the end of the winter, during trials open to the public, on the piste. These images were filmed that same winter.
The prototype you see in them is not ASCENT: its boot was integrated into the exoskeleton. It is the one that served to test our technology on snow, before we chose its first application.
Our ambition goes beyond the first product
A starting choice is not a destination. ASCENT is the first application of zUFO⁴ technology, but zUFO's ambition goes beyond a product: to rethink the relationship between the foot and ski equipment, moving away from the rigid shell model. The same architecture already aims further: in time, alpine skiing. This is only the beginning.
What we had not imagined
From day one, this project has pursued one thing: giving skiers back the pleasure of skiing, by freeing their feet from the rigid shell. Everything starts there.
We had not imagined how far it could reach. Skiers write to us, some of whom had given up and no longer thought they would return to the snow. A hospital rehabilitation department contacted us on its own initiative. We do not present ourselves as adapted equipment and we promise nothing, because we do not yet know how far it goes. But we read these messages, we answer them, and we take them into account in what we design.
Giving the pleasure of skiing back to everyone is what drives us forward. That people who had given it up find it again too is a contribution to sport for all. It is more than we hoped for.
Our values
Conviction and humility
It is with unwavering conviction that we break new ground. If we challenge fifty-year-old paradigms (a ski boot must have a rigid shell and buckles), we do so with complete humility, accepting that we may be wrong and correcting our mistakes every day.
Rationality and simplicity
Our approach is clearly scientific and rational. We started from a blank sheet, and our results stem from a rigorous functional analysis. Simplicity is a positive sign of success. We bring simple solutions to a complex problem: “Simple is beautiful”.
Pleasure and respect
More than a goal, respect for the environment is self-evident to us, and we take it into account in every aspect of the project. What may seem a constraint is also a challenge that pushes our reasoning, and therefore our innovation, further. Skiing should never be a guilty pleasure.
The team, partners and supporters
zUFO relies on a project team with complementary skills, particularly in engineering, design and eco-design.
zUFO was honoured with a CES Innovation Award (Sustainable Innovation) in Las Vegas in 2023, where it also received the INPI Hardware Award. The project won the ADEME Perfecto call for projects (eco-design).
The project has been supported, at various stages, by OSV, our incubator UNITEC, French Tech, Bpifrance, ADEME, France Relance, INPI, Réseau Entreprendre, the Initiative Grandes Écoles et Universités network, the Arts et Métiers alumni network, and the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region. zUFO is also a member of the professional organisations OSV, Outdoor Sports Valley, and USC, Union Sport et Cycle.
Winter 2026-27
Trials open to the public
This winter, practitioners will try ASCENT on their own terrain, in their own conditions, and share their feedback with us.
Follow our adventure
Follow the development: progress updates, the trials, and pre-orders opening first to our community.