Just wanted to point out. Out of 90 votes, not a single person selected the ski mag buyers guide.
I personally feel as though the past issues of Freeskiers Buyers Guide has continued to sellout more and more. It's basically 100% ads at this point. Not to take anything away from the people who worked hard on the skis that have won awards and high rankings.
But it's sort of the same effect advertising has on news. If Coke is a major advertiser in the Washington Post, they likely aren't going to publish a story about how bad coke (-a-cola) is for you.
That's a bit of an exaggeration but companies are paying money to Freeskier to have their products reviewed. Some are paying more than others to also have brand pages and so on. If Freeskier gives a low ratings to specific brands, then they are less likely to want to spend money to get their products featured.
I think the same can even be applied to any gear review where the brand has sent the gear to review for free. Even if the gear is shit, your not going to say so because you want to maintain a positive relationship with that company. I think its much less a factor, because the reader traffic is driving the review, not the brand themselves.
Obviously, if a pro is skiing on something then that must mean its good right? Except sometimes pros get completely different builds of a consumer ski (not sure how often this actually happens). They are also required to not talk bad on their brand, even when shit breaks or doesn't preform.
Consumer reviews are helpful but there's nothing to say that the reviewer really knew what he was talking about. Since they aren't typically getting the product ahead of time, you'll have to wait till the follow year to get any kind of feedback.
