everyone can say what they want but teams always influence their buys.
example: how many people were buying atomic twins before jossi wells was on their team? how many people buy dynastar twins now that candide isn't on their team? i remember not being able to go to a hill without counting 4 people on a dynastar candide pro model.
remember the first year that armada produced skis? i do and a shitload of people bought them and had nothing but problems with them. why did people buy them? well, tanner hall, jf cusson, and jp auclair all rode them so they had to be good.
if line came out with something similar to the ep pro with out pollard on the team, how many people would buy it?
lets face it, pro teams are the number one marketing tool for ski companies and are one of the biggest influencers for consumers.