Rossignol, you made a stupid choice

i think they are a big enough company that they will not suffer to much

yeah and he is (and im sure it was his goal since he was young) making a career out of it- you give a little, you get a little. thats how business works dude... sure k2 pays him a bit more now, but theyre happy too, because theyre sales have increased enough (im assuming) that they can happily pay to give the kid skis, some money to travel, money to enter him in contests etc.

why is that making him the bad guy? sounds perfectly normal to me...

why can't rossignol do the same? if you're in the donators form, theres a thread about another company that has kind of been out of the freeskiing game for a while, doing JUST THAT. They actually hired someone who is fairly reputable, and a member on ns, to construct and new team and get some media going, and spark up their freeski market. its fucking business dude! thats dope theyre reaching down to this community!

Clayton blew up on Rossi. His whole NetWork seg was filmed during his last year on the Rossignol team.

I'm the guy in the 30's who in the last 3 years has bought the following:

13 pairs of ski's
5 sets of bindings
3 pairs of boots
5 pairs of goggles
5 helmets
9 pairs of gloves
7 jackets
9 pants
5 sets of poles

A lot of those 50 and 60 year olds buy one to three pairs of skis a year..

personally i wouldn't say a lot, i think a very small majority of them do that, but even if all of them did does that mean you shouldn't make skis for any other part of the market? Thats like a car company halting production on all of the models it makes except for the most popular one.

The point is that I'm the market segment that is at a point in life where the fitness is still good, and disposable income is very high. I'm not searching out price point ski's or scouring gear swap for my outerwear. Not trying to brag or anything. Just pointing out where the money is. Still though I stated earlier that these companies bread and butter ends up being rental fleets, and mid range frontside ski's.

I brought 2 pairs of rossignol pow skis at $50 apiece at dick's sporting goods and resold them for $250 apiece, $400 profit /claim.

You raise a good question, that being whether this traditional model still works/is viable.

If you look at a company like LINE, they clearly have taken a different route what with building a massive, quirky, niche grassroots team instead of courting super pros and podium regulars. They have built something of a "lifestyle" or a "we're the guys that have the most fun" image, and they've been pretty damn successful.

I think with the explosion of the sport and particularly the proliferation of edits and webisodes and ski media in general, there are many more opportunities to market a brand beyond the constraints of the traditional sponsor an athlete and shove em next years ski when they climb the podium schema.

I guess to put it plainly, skiing is no longer solely a competition sport where the inherent purpose is to be better than the next guy, or to be the best. When it was, (even early freestyle was very competitive) it made sense to throw skis and money and contracts to the best skier you can afford, because you could safely assume that other people would aspire to be that person.

Now, just as many (if not more) kids gravitate towards skiing for fun, expression, and to escape traditional competitive sports. So, that way of thinking about sponsorship has become, IMO, somewhat obsolete. Now, a guy like Max Hill, who I don't think would be offended if I said an XGames medal probably isn't in his future, could be just as influential as a guy like Bobby Brown, whereas ten years ago that would've been 100% impossible.

k2 sales are up from rental programs. my shop alone picked up 1500 pairs for next season.. never said jordan is a bad guy, but rossi didnt want to pay him so he jumped ship.. how about skiers sticking to companies that helped them get their start?