North American Built Skis? Are American/Canadian Ski Manufacturers becoming the best ski builders?

omIVTo be fair, the large brands do produce hand-made skis, but these tend to be race products rather than freeski

LUPTONThis is ridiculous. looking at the poll it 45% of people said they "would NEVER buy a ski built in china" and yet that is the vast majority of skis i see on the slopes. Something here isnt adding up...

J.D.Hahaha this whole thing is skewed so much by a dude in Portland named Scott.

Seriously, how many companies even make skis in the USA anymore? Three?

loganschnurI can name 3 without thinking.

ON3P, Liberty, and RMU

JLevThanks Stumpa. Simple answer, the location of your factory has nothing to do with making a good or bad ski. It's not dependent on climate, like growing grapes to make wine. Location only matters if you want your purchase to help support jobs in a specific region of the world, then buy product made there. Otherwise, the ski's engineered shape, construction, materials, manufacturing process & quality control is what actually makes a ski really good or really bad. If any one of those ingredients is bad, you'll have a bad ski. Some of the best and worst skis in the world are built only miles apart from each other. There are lots of bad skis made in China, but Volkle and DPS are considered high quality skis, and they build skis in China. . . in addition to their own in-house factories in Germany & US. The only way to know if a ski is good or bad is to ride it!

Charlie*Than why are so many companies making skis (and everything else) in China? You know JLEV, how much did it cost to make a pair of Chinese skis? 10 or 20 bucks? If that? Than resold to the consumer at a massive mark up. Lets be real, thats the real reason skis are made there, not because they are equally good to something made locally. Profit over People. Not to mention the shitty working conditions Chinese laborers.

And not to get into the political side of it, but wouldn't you rather have newschoolers occupying jobs in the ski industry than Chinese people who don't even know what skiing is? It's not like the American economy is doing great, and us ski bums would love to have a job in the industry.

cultraraIt costs way more than 20 bucks to make a ski in china.

Also, having skis made in China isn't taking ski industry jobs away from NS'rs. Very few people actually want to work in ski assembly. All the design, marketing, product dev, and engineering jobs are in America.

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1dreadI wonder what the people of Vashon Island think of K2 going to China? Does anybody know what happened to the old K2 factory there?

LutsenwreckThere is a tie in with where something is manufactured and economy, environment and social responsibility. It is irresponsible as someone who loves skiing to ignore the environmental consequences of the manufacturing proccesses and supply chain in countries like china who continue to contribute enormously to climate change and it's negative effects on this thing we all love so dearly, winter. It's shooting ourselves in the foot. And this goes beyond just ski manufacturing but a pair of skis made responsibly by a US/Canadian company speaks loudly to others on the hill and in the lift lines about our values and can challenge them to rethink their own purchases.

iggyskierDon't think too hard. Most people don't make their own skis, and even fewer do so in North America.

Liberty is made in China.

RMU is made in Denver (Never Summer) and Quebec (Utopie).

Never Summer is also building Icelantic, Fatypus, and High Society.

Utopie is also building Jskis, HG, and Stanston.

Goes for Europe, too, where you see Faction, Apo, Amplid, Majesty, White Dot, and so on all be made by large factories over there.

There is a huge difference in my mind between companies building their own product and those paying to have someone else build their product (in both North America and Europe). That isn't to say that these companies outsourcing production build bad skis - just that the job they do and the one done by those who build their own product is vastly different. I consider ON3P a manufacturing company. We compete with a bunch of design and marketing companies.

There are TONS of small builders building in North America right now (say anywhere from 50-750 skis per year). But if you are looking for real factories running production volumes (say, at a minimum, 50 pairs/week) in the North America building their own product? Only ones I can think of are ON3P, Moment, Praxis, Ramp, DPS (Pure skis only) and Mervin (and most of Mervin's production is snowboards). Pretty small group when you get down to it.

Also, should be stated that there are good skis being build in North America, China, and Europe, just as there are bad skis being build in North America, China, and Europe. For me, I have a lot of respect for companies who build their own products because I know just how much work goes into producing skis. That's just me though...

StumpaSo, We know that the Euros build good skis. Does anybody want to weigh in on their efforts to green up the process?

JLevDrop out of college and start doing the same repetitive task for the rest of your life 40 hrs a week and then we'll have manufacturing where we live again.

StumpaI agree with Lutsenwreck ... I think that the ski companies that are manufacturing in China should push for cleaner and greener processes there and improved work conditions. If they did that and made it known that they are pushing China's Manufactures to green up then I would see it as a positive step. But... The American/ Canadian Manufacturers are working for less toxic epoxies, natural dyes and a more sustainable process. Both JLev and iggyskier weighed in on the local economic benefits (for N. Ams) of manufacturing in N. America. Personally, I am impressed with the steps North American board manufacturers are making.

So, We know that the Euros build good skis. Does anybody want to weigh in on their efforts to green up the process?

StumpaSo, We know that the Euros build good skis. Does anybody want to weigh in on their efforts to green up the process?

DingoSeanthat dude who was building "333" skis in Mammoth a few years back that had a core made of plywood..

GYPSYSLAYERVashon is a sleepy island that is very rural compared to the rest of the seattle-tacoma-olympia urban sprawl. I'm sure running a large production factory there was completely unsustainable just based on being tied to washington state ferries.

Fatypus in neversummer also I believe.

This is very interesting, lots to think about when purchasing a product

JLevThanks Stumpa. Simple answer, the location of your factory has nothing to do with making a good or bad ski. It's not dependent on climate, like growing grapes to make wine. Location only matters if you want your purchase to help support jobs in a specific region of the world, then buy product made there. Otherwise, the ski's engineered shape, construction, materials, manufacturing process & quality control is what actually makes a ski really good or really bad. If any one of those ingredients is bad, you'll have a bad ski. Some of the best and worst skis in the world are built only miles apart from each other. There are lots of bad skis made in China, but Volkle and DPS are considered high quality skis, and they build skis in China. . . in addition to their own in-house factories in Germany & US. The only way to know if a ski is good or bad is to ride it!

iggyskierBut if you are looking for real factories running production volumes (say, at a minimum, 50 pairs/week) in the North America building their own product? Only ones I can think of are ON3P, Moment, Praxis, Ramp, DPS (Pure skis only) and Mervin (and most of Mervin's production is snowboards).

onenerdykidThe Atomic ski factory in Altenmarkt, Austria has one of the most environmentally friendly ski factories in the world (Austria has mega strict environmental protection laws that tend to dwarf anything in the US). One of the fun facts about the factory is that we use a natural wood-pellet heating system (rather than gas or oil or electricity driven) during our manufacturing process. Plus, all excess heat & energy that is created goes directly into the town of Altenmarkt's supply.

We've also tried to produce the world's most carbon-emission-friendly products, with our RENU line- skis and boots that were made as much as possible from recycled and sustainable resources, soy based inks (or no inks if a soy version was not available), etc. These were perhaps too far ahead of their time and they didn't sell very well.

LutsenwreckAtomic is our shops main brand along side Moment and Nordica and their commitment to environmental stewardship is a major reason we stick with them. And shucks I still have a Renu Tracker 110 boot

StumpaI didn't know about the Atomic Factory and their environmental measures. Very cool.

J.D.I was thinking On3p, Moment, and Praxis as well; I can't imagine the others are pumping out enough pairs per year to really qualify. Even Praxis is sort of borderline.

crazy_karlBy riding for a company that builds skis 1 hour from mount hood, we are able to have a direct line of instant feedback on our product and our materials. This past summer, I wanted to make a slight modification to my pro model ski, and 2 days later I was test-riding the new product. There's obviously no way that would be possible if the ski was being made in China, or even Europe for that matter.