Guys, thanks for the heads up, the insight, the disses, the support. Seven years ago when you were still working on your spread eagles I was working 14hr days in my garage every day trying to build a ski that would allow the sport to progress to where it is today. It's easy to forget that only 5 years ago skiers weren't allowed in the terrain park, or the fact that the only skis that existed were 200cm long and pointy with a square tail. Today you walk in your shop and there's a choice of 5 models of twin tips. In your mind it came from nowhere but for many of us it didn't exist until we went out of our way to create it. I'm not talking only about myself, it was many people, many companies, many different forms of media and most importantly many different riders from all over the world from all aspects of skiing all working together to bring the sport of skiing to where it is today. Skiing didn't start yesterday, it started hundreds of years ago, and that kind of history takes a long time to change and still has a long way to go. If the only respect you have is for the future without the knowlege and respect of your history or today than the future you were looking forward to may never come. There are many of you that understand what it takes to run a business especially a business that is putting 100% of itself out on the line for segment of the sport that saturates 100% of the media coverage yet only represents 3% of actual sales in stores. The ski industry is large, the companies are very gigantic, they are very established with many deep roots into all aspects of the industry from the shops owners to the magazines. These are multi conglomerate billion dollar sporting good Companies running this industry and this is a good thing but makes it very tough to come in and do something different. Salomon is owned by Addidas, this is a good thing because they can use this power to develop new and innovative products like the 1080 for the 3% of the market that will never buy enough in the next 2 years to cover it's cost of R&D. Rossignol owns Dynastar so that they can use the power of two brands and a world class racing program and the sales of hundreds of thousands of carving and non twin tip skis to create a great product like the Scratch with solid marketing and support riders with their non-twin tip sales money that otherwise would never have had the opportunity be promoted and finanically supported to get where they are today like like Tanner Hall. Entering this market as Line has, is not easy, but if it was everyone would be doing it, they're not. We've spent seven years working to pave the way for skiings future, now companies like Armada are making a go at it no different than Line has but this time the twin tip ski exists and before a ski is ever developed there is demand for this type of product. This is a good thing, this means we are making progress, this means that if we can all band together as consumers, shops, mags, videos, websites and riders to work as a team for one cause ther may be room for even more brands, and skis, and mags, and videos, and websites, and riders and most importantly skiers that will want to get involved and make what today is refered to as a movement someday into a sport. So here we are today, a very, very small company, not owned by a multi conglomerate sporting goods giant, without the financial support of other products to finance our mission, we don't make snowboards, we don't make rollerblades, we don't make scooters, we don't sell race skis, we don't sell rental skis, we can't afford 2 page ads in Freeze, or ski, or skiing, or freeskier, or powder, we don't have the 30 years of relationships with shops to convince them to continue to buy our products. We only have a mission and that mission will never change: To develop innovative high performance ski products with the LONG-TERM goal of rejuvenating, progressing and growing the sport of skiing...because skiing needs a future and we all need everyone to support all aspects and ways of getting their if we expect to ever see it at all. Please do not judge us on random photos on message boards of skis that will never be sold. Those carving skis that are pictured in other will never be in stores next winter. When our new website is up, our new brochure is out, our new ads are in the mag I will listen to your opinions as I always do, I answer 30 emails a day from you. Show me the owner of any other ski company in the world that listens like that, rides with you through the park at Stowe or at the rail jam downtown. You invented all the products we make, its your personal needs that myself and Line exist to fill. I will always follow the path that enables Line to stay in business in order to carry out the mission of all of us...because skiing needs a future and it will take all of us supporting everyone that is behind it to make it a reality.
Thanks for riding Line,
J
