Custom skis: not just for pros anymore..
Imagine being a pro skier: the free gear,
the groupies, and the pro-model skis
personally tailored to your exact specs.
Now at least one of those dreams can
become reality with custom-built skis for
the masses. Taking a cue from the long
history of surfboard shapers and custombike
companies, dozens of startup ski
manufacturers are adopting the buildto-
order business plan. “The market is
definitely there,” says Whistler local and
ski builder Greg Funk, owner of Capital
Custom Ski.
Across the pond, Switzerland’s Birdos
Freeride Skis custom-builds skis with such
features as twin tips, swallowtails, custom
flexes, reverse sidecuts, and reverse camber.
Birdos will even press your skis with
your own top-sheet design.
The services don’t come cheap. Basic
models like Birdos’s Puder Luder (pictured)
are $950 with custom flex, while a
Franken-ski with your own shape and
design will set you back $1,450. But you
get a ski like no other: “We can pretty
much make anything you want,” says
Birdos owner Dan Loutrel.
In the U.S., Colorado’s ScottyBob makes
skis with custom dimensions with a turnaround
of a few weeks. “A lot of people
want something different than a shelf ski,
so I think we’re gonna see a lot of upstarts
in the future,” says ScottyBob founder
Scott Robert Carlson.
While anyone can slap together rough
homemade sticks in their garage, budding
entrepreneurs can get a basic setup
with a professional ski press, plates,
and a water heater for around $15,000.
That’s what Birdos’s Loutrel did: “When
my parents told me to get a job so I
could afford a pair of skis,” he says, “I
decided to just make ’em myself.” |
