I agree that Bob Lange was a real innovator.
My brother was one of the ten or so racers in the USA that got into his original Lange race boots. The ones with the locked hinge. My first pair were a few years later, when I had my "adult foot", and Lange had just introduced Lange Flo liners. The "comp" model with the yellow liner.
The performance was a huge leap forward. But man, there was no comfort in an early Lange. It was doubly apparent because the boot of the day, for top level racers was a Heierling 5 buckle boot, which was hand built {custom built}, and was an absolutely amazing piece of craftsmanship. Brass reinforced soles. They had the red white and blue chevron in the back...at least for US skiers. It also could not hold a candle to the Lange......and that became important with ski innovation.
After the 1964 Olympics, boots changed forever. We lived in Europe, and were on a ski vacation after Innsbruck, and many athletes were there skiing in "plastic" boots. I can't remember where we were, but a a 10 year old, I was bug-eyed looking at those boots. My brother stuck with the leather boots for one year.
As I recall, the innovation in boots was almost lockstep with ski changes. Particularly when Dynamic introduced the VR17, followed by Rossi, Kneissel, and others, they just skied better with a new boot. So companies like Trappeur, Caber, and others developed boots following Lange's lead.
For example THE SL ski of the day through those 1964 games was the Kastle. Wood. Pretty much gone after those games.
In our house, we had a number of Hierling and Molitor boots....beautiful boots made obsolete pretty fast. Seems like huge change in the mid to late 60's. I still have one pair of lace Molitors. Laces on the rear spine, double boot. Can't imagine skiing in them these days!