An alpine ski boot (1) is shown which has a substantially flexible boot upper (4) attached to a hinged sole made of two rigid parts (12, 14). A rigid ankle cuff extends up from the heel of the boot to the leg opening of the boot upper. The ankle cuff (8) has straps (71) that may be closed around the user's ankle to secure the ankle and foot in a fixed position relative to the boot sole, and thereby to provide lateral support. The forward pitch of the ankle cuff is adjustable. The boot upper may be substantially made of flexible materials such as leather or rubber. The sole is formed of a rigid toe portion (12) and a rigid heel portion (14). To facilitate walking, the two sole parts are hinged at approximately the location of the ball of the foot. The hinged sole is provided with a means to lock the two rigid parts of the sole to form the equivalent of a single rigid sole member. The locked sole can be received in a conventional automatic alpine ski binding of the type which attaches to the heel and toe of the boot. The mechanism for rigidly locking the two parts of the sole is automatically activated when the sole is pushed toe first into place in the alpine ski binding.
