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Why are skis so much more expensive than snowboards?

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SKI.ING
Posts: 2695 - Karma: 2,535
Seems skis are always double the price of their snowboard counterparts and was wondering if anyone could provide information on the differences
Jun 13 2011 4:26AM
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AronA
Posts: 75 - Karma: 396
Snowboard : one piece
Ski : two pieces
Seems logic to be twice the price...

Seriously, I don't know :)
Jun 13 2011 4:39AM
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nickyp
Posts: 5673 - Karma: 215
This. Solution = only buy one ski. Problem solved.
Jun 13 2011 6:37AM
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Crocodile
Posts: 281 - Karma: 11
Perhaps due to historically, skiing is a sport for high income earners, allowing the early ski industry to have a high standard price for their products. Generally in a market, consumers become used to this and continue to purchase at the higher price. Snowboarding hasn't been around for as long, and perhaps originally the industry could have marketed it as a cheaper alternative. Oh, and skiing has 2 boards, not one.
Jun 13 2011 6:55AM
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wheezy
Posts: 122 - Karma: 20
Twice the metal (edges)?

More complex and precise flex design (due to a single mouting piont on each ski vs two on a snowboard)?
Jun 13 2011 7:32AM
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Yinzer
Posts: 1011 - Karma: 73
many gapers on SG, there are
Jun 13 2011 9:18AM
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tcgoldman
Posts: 704 - Karma: 723
Skiings better
Jun 13 2011 9:36AM
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freeskibum82
Posts: 6355 - Karma: 5,055
because whatever snowboarders do, we do it two times better.
Jun 13 2011 10:54AM
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RubberSoul
Posts: 11249 - Karma: 14,642
im curious about this too
Jun 13 2011 11:14AM
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Midwestoverdose
Posts: 833 - Karma: 45
hahahah this but I guess its just what it is.
Jun 13 2011 11:29AM
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TheHuggyBear
Posts: 1762 - Karma: 313
probably has to do with the cost of making and supply and demand
Jun 13 2011 11:33AM
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Blurst
Posts: 13577 - Karma: 10,169
Its not?

The cheapest twins are around 299 $
Cheapest snowboard around 299 $

Most expensive not including shit like the 2000$ lib and the vapour and shit.

Around $800
Most expensive skis are around $800

I think there is just a much bigger selection oflow priced snowboards then skis.
Jun 13 2011 11:35AM
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SkiThe603
Posts: 5376 - Karma: 498
BECAUSE YOU TOUCH YOURSELF AT NIGHT
Jun 13 2011 11:44AM
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Karma_Police
Posts: 2655 - Karma: 1,628
Dude, no. 

Btw, I bought my first twins (Head mojo 90's) 5 years ago for 220 brand new.
Jun 13 2011 11:49AM
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T.R.
Posts: 147 - Karma: 10
no, that couldnt be it. i think its because skis use elephant ivory based glue and metal from meteorites for the edges and snowboards are constructed of poor people stuff
Jun 13 2011 11:50AM
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Blurst
Posts: 13577 - Karma: 10,169
ok well give me some proof, im not talking wall mart or sport check
Jun 13 2011 11:50AM
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factory81
Posts: 3967 - Karma: 63
I'll be the first to say I don't know and I don't care.


Or I will make something up like ski companies require people with intelligence working for more than cheeseburgers and poverty wages vs. hippie snowboard companies who get paid with love and karma.
Jun 13 2011 12:17PM
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Panduh_Bayr
Posts: 264 - Karma: 33
cheapest snowboards are like 75 walmart-style boards. cheapest full set up talkin boots bindings board would be 150 (it wasnt a terrible setup either), which is what i got my first set up at 4 years ago. - pricing really hasnt changed that much, plus i was rockin an Atlantis snowboard if anyone here knows what that means, not a company anymore

bummer on skis not being cheaper. i just borrow, slowly raising money for my own.
Jun 13 2011 12:22PM
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Panduh_Bayr
Posts: 264 - Karma: 33
by walmart-style i mean blank decks with no exciting features
Jun 13 2011 12:23PM
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PATROL
Posts: 401 - Karma: 3,299
solution: buy a snowboard and cut it half.
Jun 13 2011 12:25PM
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GayWolf420
Posts: 37386 - Karma: 120,063
Because snowboards use one tree and skis use two trees to make.
Jun 13 2011 12:28PM
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R.Fahey
Posts: 8602 - Karma: 539
I feel like a few reasons.  There are snowboard companies that just make total crap boards.   Kids that want to be cool and get a snowboard can spend $150 on a Morrow board, or another cheap brand, that is just a single shitty piece of wood, with shitty fiberglass, and shittier edges/topsheet.  The people that ride it, love it.  They go down the hill falling leaf style for two seasons, then realize they should get something better.

Also, to make a board it's once in the press, less edges/sides to clean up, bevel, etc. 
Skis, two presses, twice the clean up work out of the press. 

Also, a flex pattern and turn radius on a ski matters a little more than on a board I think.  I've see boards that hardly have a flex "pattern".  It's just one single flex throughout.  skis are a little more unique.  Also, for skis you can't get away with a bad core underfoot.  Bindings will just pull out.  Snowboards have the built in inserts, so that takes care of that problem.

and like someone said, skis range from $299 - $1000 or so.  Any reputable snowboard brand makes boards in the same price range. 

I don't count the brands that sell $100 snowboards as real boards or core brands.
Jun 13 2011 12:32PM
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gregorio
Posts: 2372 - Karma: 151
no, you could use a taller tree and just make 2 ski sized chunks of the truck and go from there, dumbass...
Jun 13 2011 12:32PM
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Bchillin
Posts: 30 - Karma: 10
Seems obvious. With a company, the real cost is going to be more in the work and the process rather than in the materials. If you simplify things down, making a ski is basically the same as making a snowboard, just smaller (less materials). However, the process has to be done twice, since there are two skis. Ski companies are looking at a similar materials cost to snowboarding companies, but much higher processing and manufacturing costs. Hence, the higher price of skis.

I actually don't know if I'm right or not, but that's what I would guess.
Jun 13 2011 12:40PM
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RudyGarmisch
Posts: 25443 - Karma: 13,844
Press time can actually be the same for a board vs ski as long as your press is wide enough to accomidate both skis in there at the same time. But yep, skis you basically do everything double (edging, sidewalls, core profiling, cutting materials, flattening base, trimming flash, sanding topsheets, etc etc).

There have been many times when I've stood in front of a stack of 30ish pairs of skis awaiting finishing and wished instead I had 30 snowboards to finish.
Jun 13 2011 12:46PM
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.zobel.
Posts: 1614 - Karma: 124
Jun 13 2011 1:01PM
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Stickity
Posts: 7750 - Karma: 769
there's less money in the industry (for freeskiing at least) so making each set of skis costs more and more money has to be made per item sold which adds up to higher costs

same thing in rollerblading
Jun 13 2011 4:02PM
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joshua
Posts: 5046 - Karma: 1,280
I was reading a transworld snowboard mag today and I read a review that said this one K2 board has a 5 year warrenty also! Lucky one-plankers.
Jun 13 2011 4:18PM
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BlakeG
Posts: 1450 - Karma: 1,030
another question...............
why r lift tickets so fucking expensive?????
Jun 13 2011 4:20PM
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Stickity
Posts: 7750 - Karma: 769
take a few seconds to contemplate the costs of running a resort
Jun 13 2011 4:47PM
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Ski_ThEast
Posts: 1676 - Karma: 272
i also always notice bindings are generally more expensive for skis but i could be wrong
Jun 13 2011 5:26PM
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Ski.Ballet
Posts: 2860 - Karma: 200
Look at the difference in tech... Board binders just have to hold you in, while ski binders have a lot of moving parts.
Jun 13 2011 5:50PM
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japanair
Posts: 441 - Karma: 40

A smart company will use value-based pricing (how much a consumer is willing to pay) over cost-based pricing (how much it costs a company to make a product).  I'm not an expert on ski/snowboard manufacturing, but it seems like the raw materials, labor, delivery and other costs involved in making a ski and snowboard are pretty much the same. Sure there might be subtle differences in material, and the number of boards but overall you're not looking at a difference that's large enough to justify the $200 or so difference in cost.

So my assumption is that there is a higher willingness to pay for skis.  This might be due to the fact that traditionaly, those who ski come from higher income families.  Maybe their parents were skiers and got their kids into skiing at an early age and these kids continued to become free-skiers whose parents paid for nice skis.  Whereas snowboarders might come from lower income families (at least relatively speaking) whose parents did not ski.  These kids might have seen snowboarding on TV and thought it was cool and started to snowboard once they could afford it (when they're in high school).  Since going to the mountain is not part of their family's culture, they have to buy boards on their own with a high schoolers income, or their parents will buy it but aren't willing to pay as much as skiing parents.

That comparison might be total horse shit, but I do believe that it comes out more when you compare carving skis to twin tips.  Again the costs involved in building a carving ski vs twin tips should be minimal but carving skiing are hundreds of dollars more expensive.  This is because the older people who buy carving skis have higher incomes and are willling to pay more for them. 

Jun 13 2011 6:03PM
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snowbombz
Posts: 2456 - Karma: 96
twice as much edge material

no inserts (generally) so more fiber glass

presses generally are longer

presses are also wider so two skis and be pressed at once

twice as much sidewall

more complicated to assemble (each ski separately, twice as much time)
Jun 13 2011 6:25PM
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ILLinoisance
Posts: 3527 - Karma: 5,398
Here on the southside of chicago, it seems to be the other way around. The snowboarder to skier ratio around here in the teenager age group is probably around 5:1. The Dick's Sporting Goods around me sells skis for real cheap. All of the skis were cheaper than their excess supply of Burton Snowboards. Heres some prices on the twins they had in stock at Dicks in late February:

171cm Salomon Knights $115 after tax
169cm K2 EXT $120 after tax
168CM Rossignol S1 Howell $125 after tax

Pretty sure I was the only person all year to run away with a pair of twins at that store. Sure, they aren't the best twins, but for the price, you can't realy beat it. The snowboards were all normally to over-priced.
Jun 13 2011 6:45PM
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250r
Posts: 2276 - Karma: 1,013
not that skis fair all that much better when taking a constant beating, but it does seem like snowboarders go through there gear a bit faster. I always see boarders snapping there boards and wearing out there boots a good amount faster than skiers would. So if thats true than there are probably more snowboard sales per year per person than there are skis, thus reducing the price
Jun 13 2011 8:34PM
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~~~~~~~~
Posts: 2345 - Karma: 2,104
Snowboardings influence from throw away skateboard culture Vs. Skiings history of insane craftsmanship and technique.
Jun 13 2011 8:44PM
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MaxKG
Posts: 1 - Karma: 10
Maybe because skiing is so much better? And you have two of them, not just one. That seems logical if you ask me!
Jun 13 2011 8:58PM
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ZachMccarthy
Posts: 843 - Karma: 18
only the really nice skis get really expensive and they also make really nice bords there just not as popular, park skis are pretty much the same as a park board
Jun 13 2011 9:44PM
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RoofDaRoofieDogg
Posts: 3090 - Karma: 1,989
valid argument
Jun 13 2011 10:43PM
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mmallender.
Posts: 5805 - Karma: 936
i feel like there is a lot more that goes into a pair of carving skis vs park/pow twins
Jun 13 2011 11:31PM
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dickwreck
Posts: 221 - Karma: 6
I often come across this to. My friends get brand new next years t9 boards for like 150$ somehow while there are no deals like that in skiing. It seems snowboards often trade parts, get hooked up or just recycle old shit around more. Seems unfair, but I really enjoy skiing
Jun 14 2011 2:09AM
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.AR6rider.
Posts: 15976 - Karma: 8,799
...except urban, and most rails.
Jun 14 2011 2:17AM
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sack
Posts: 4881 - Karma: 147
this.
skis aren't just long skinny snowboards... snowboards are relatively simple, where as skis seem to me like they would require a more complex design and manufacturing process
and yes skis also take twice as long to finish, probably at least twice as long to prep the parts, and a bit longer to lay up the skis before pressing (even if actual time in the press is the same).
there are probably other economic factors--supply and demand and so on
Jun 14 2011 4:52AM
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Karma_Police
Posts: 2655 - Karma: 1,628
Are we talking strictly boards here?  Or complete set up.  I agree with your 300 bucks for entire set up.
Jun 14 2011 2:02PM
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.AR6rider.
Posts: 15976 - Karma: 8,799
Where can you get an entire board setup for $300?
Jun 14 2011 2:21PM
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AWALLRUS.
Posts: 5762 - Karma: 223
to a point, a day pass at my local hill is like $32 and we have a 90ft vert with 1 cat.
but when i go north 3 hours to blue mtn, a day pass is 36$, and is uncomparably and better place to ski.
Jun 14 2011 3:33PM
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pomme-de-terre
Posts: 3915 - Karma: 703
because we steal them.
Jun 14 2011 5:06PM
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KillaSeason
Posts: 3495 - Karma: 1,774
bingo
Jun 14 2011 5:34PM
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RubberSoul
Posts: 11249 - Karma: 14,642
people named hans
Jun 14 2011 5:35PM
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Karma_Police
Posts: 2655 - Karma: 1,628
New?  I'm sure I could easily piece together a board set up for 300.

http://www.bergsskishop.com/rome/smith-snowboard-boots-09-10-mens-p14740c2120.html

http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/product/index.jsp?productId=4361091&cid=CSE:GoogleProductSearch

http://www.overstock.com/Sports-Toys/LTD-Transition-Mens-157-cm-Snowboard/4311682/product.html?cid=123620


Suck it.
Jun 15 2011 5:32PM
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