ImageRené Unternährer with his "swiss massiv" brand is one of the few ski manufacturers in Switzerland that produces its skis in-house and invests a great deal of effort in doing so in order to ultimately deliver a ski with a high quality of workmanship to its customers.
After our huge success with our report 1001 handmade skis anno 2015 now follows the follow-up report. Despite a shrinking market, more and more people are thinking about launching their own ski brand and bringing it to the market. It is these small ski companies that enliven and enrich the market with their ideas. Many of them produce their handmade skis with a lot of passion in a modest space. Unfortunately, newcomers like to show mistakes that (almost) cost them success. For the consumer, the courage of such ski makers means a fascinating variety on the market. On the following pages we report on current handmade ski brands and those that claim to be.
by Rolf Fleckenstein
What does "handmade" mean in the production of a ski? The term itself is downright misleading, since hands are used in every ski production. There is no official definition here. But what is meant by a "handmade ski". In principle, it is about differentiating from mass production and thus communicating high quality. From the consumer's point of view, the term is understood to mean a high-quality ski that has been made with the most meticulous craftsmanship. But where is the limit, how much handwork does the term "handmade" allow and where is the term no longer justified? There are no regulations or agreements on the handling of this term. And that is why this is also difficult for me to judge which brand you would actually call handmade and which not and it also needs some research. Especially small ski brands and manufacturers use the term "handmade", also to distinguish themselves from the machine-driven mass production, as known from large ski brands that produce thousands and thousands of skis a day in huge factories.
What is handmade?
The term "handmade" in ski production is difficult to define. Certainly, the term includes the fact that the manufacturer uses its own ski concept and/or its own ski mold to produce a ski that has not previously existed on the market. In the case of the ski concept, there is also the specific use and composition of materials, in which value is placed on the use of high-quality materials. Handmade further means that not some employees from somewhere in some factory put different layers in the mold and then finish, but...
Considered handmade ski brands:
swiss massive
R11
Radical
RTC
Opera
swiss five star
Zero
Skilogik
Anavon
Core
Bogner/Indigo
Vist
AK
Timbaer
Marc Ski
Zai
Original Plus
Ünique Skis
Virus
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