The Faction Collective Q&A

[Faction]

What is the next big move for your business to develope even further? New sponsored riders? A ski movie? A new product line of skis?

Flying cars! Flying cars are going to be sick. And jetpacks. If they can make an ABS bag blow up like a balloon then jetpacks surely can't be too far away... ah but seriously we just launched some shit at SIA/ISPO which will be awesome - a new line of waterproof/breathable softshell fabric jackets and pants, a full women's technical outerwear line, a full new ski line called The Standard series of big-mountain charging slayers and more.

I think the hard thing is focusing on what we're already doing!

-Tony

 

[Faction]

How to be your intern?

Email northamerica@factionskis if you are based in US/Can or europe@factionskis.com if you are located in Europe or UK. Send us funny jokes, too.

-Jesse

And drink lots of beer. Hang on can I say that? How old are interns in the US?

-Tony

Take tips from Mat's career as an intern as he is now European Marketing & Team Manager - but once he was:

-Beanie

Aww Mathieu is the best

-Annie

Please stop.

-Mat

 

[Faction]

How do you have such a stacked team?

We lent Mark Zuckerberg some skis early on and he owed us big time, so we just use Facebook and change the logos on everything we can.

But seriously a lot of it is just supporting great guys early on in their career and seeing how they grow. Skiing is definitely a tough sport which is hard to break into - injuries are common and the level of ability at the top is intense. Skiers are overworked and underpaid!

-Tony

Our team is stacked, for sure, our guys are awesome and work so hard. We try to work with a team that we find inspiring, those who are doing something a little bit different, who bring in their own style and are often on their own programme, skiing because they love to ski.

I remember watching Candide at Snowpark years ago, he was always out early and always one of the last off, just playing on everything, playing, playing, playing and learning but that was just an aside product. But I think that is true to so many of our team, they ski for themselves and then achieve great things on a larger scale as a result.

I don't know how we have been so lucky to keep them all, we signed Simon back in 2010 and then to see him achieve XGames Gold this year was just insane. I guess we believe in our team and with support we know they can all achieve great things, as many skiers can, but like Tony says, it is tough out there, so many skiers work hard and never have the opportunity to be seen.

That is in part why we developed the webisode series, as we wanted a portal to showcase all our awesome riders and try and build a platform for them to be seen. Long answer - sorry!

-Beanie

 

[erica]

Was stacking a team part of your Strategic Marketing plan? Did you guys ever expect becoming web video prodigies?

 

[Faction]

How do you have such a stacked team?

We initially just wanted to make great skis, riding tools.

But along the way we've been lucky and some great riders at various stages of their career, from just beginning to crushing it at the top have come to share the journey with us.

Beanie and Rex in particular as former athletes really get it, know what they're going through and work hard to help them - it's not just like, here, hold this ski while we take a picture with our crew.

It's important to us is that we support our athletes and that they not only rip it on the mountain but also are good peeps, that their heads and hearts are in the right place.

And then, like many things in life, if you focus on good core principles and steadily chip away at it, at some point you look back and say, ""Sweet, look what we've done!""

But we didn't start by saying, what we need a banging team. It's great to see them in action though!

-Alex

 

[Faction]

You guys make some of the most subtle designs in the industry, with mono- or two-toned and a simple logo on top, whereas many other ski brands tend to make some more or less busy designs - from where does the idea and inspiration for these designs come?

It's funny looking at trends over the years. We were one of the first ski companies to just put a massive logo all down one ski way back with our second collection, just because we were young and wanted to get our name out there... and we've done a lot of different graphics over the years like our colab with Kiss way back in 2009/10.

When Candide teamed up with us he really wanted to keep things super-simple, which really suits his line and has become a signature.

We work with some great people like Taka Sudo, Kay Leggott and Rosie Monks for the women's products and they help bring different ideas and inspirations in. We'll all sit down together when it's time to start on a new collection and put together an overall plan for each product line based on things we've taken photos of, sketches and stuff found on the internet. From there we go away and work on individual skis separately before coming back to review and make decisions on final directions.

The whole process probably takes around six months to put a collection together, but we're constantly collecting those inspirations from all the travels we all do around the world.

-Tony

 

[Faction]

Which Faction designer/founder/intern has the hottest girl?

Rex's (NA Sales Manager) wife looks like Julia Roberts, just saying.

-Jesse

Hang on, I think that's me!? Although Beanie is engaged to Xavier De Le Rue and he's pretty damn hardcore as well so it's a tight match....

-Tony

I think Xav might be offended to be called a girl!

-Beanie

Hang on again, my girlfriend is Swedish... Just saying.

-Patrik

I was gunna say Xav too, not sure how he'd look in a dress though... but I'm feeling pretty good about mine these days

-Alex

Faction has the hottest couples in the ski industry, period.

-Mat

 

[Faction]

Why is Corey Vanular on your local team?

Corey is an awesome skier and we know he has a ton of talent - Long Story Short segment still stands out in my memory from when I first watched it - but it comes from the fact he was super unlucky with injury for the first few years that we worked together and it is great to see him showing his style again with The Recruitment and other new projects for winter, so don't know what the future holds.

Where would you want to see him?

-Beanie

As Beanie said, Corey had really rought seasons for the last few years, while we had new faces pushing hard. It's been really great to see him back slaying in The Recruitment.

-Mat

 

[Faction]

Does Daniel Hanka wear any other color apart from black? #Deathtoallbutmetal

Black is the new black.

-Jesse

Black is such a happy colour darling!

-Beanie

There are colors other than black?

-Annie

It goes well with his bruises from Aprés Ski injuries (true story)

-Alex

Pretty much yes. Actually he just received some of our new stuff, which are not black but still earth-tone and not so bright.

Also he's been begging us to make a slim fit pants for years, finally coming for next winter and he's pretty stoked on this one. But it's not in black!

-Mat

 

[Faction]

Do you receive your materials to build your skis from the ski god?

Yes.

 

[Faction]

How does it feel to have Candide on your pro team? Do you feel that after him posting those sick edits, that your business shot upward so much? i know my next pair of skis will be the CT 3.0's

Man he's just part of the crew - it's definitely fun skiing with him. Just every little hit or bump is something to play with. The edits have been awesome but it's more about just getting the product out there and hoping people pick up on it. Candide's skis are straight off the production line - nothing custom.

The only special item some of our XGames riders have are higher-grade Ptex bases - like 7000 grade... but you have to wax them like after every run so it just doesn't work for consumer skis. Those are the ones you may have seen in some of our edits which are just plain black.

-Tony

Well part of the crew and a super nice guy, but when he gets on skis then it feels like - "HOLY S**T" and he is skiing our skis - that feels... awesome. Like Tony says, watching him ski in person is so cool, he has so much fun when he is skiing and every little bump is to be used. And yup - straight off the line, what he skis, you ski.

-Beanie

Candide is a straight up baller and a cat.

-Josh

It's pretty cool to be working with someone you've been watching growing up, for sure. Candide is the man.

-Mat

 

[travias]

When you have the whole team skiing together (ie. Episode 3) who has the most "wtf!?" moments that blow everyone else away?

 

[Faction]

Are Candide and T-Rice really teaming up?!??!?!?!?!??!

Not to my knowledge, but that is a great shout. They were in Jackson together on a Quiksilver photoshoot.

-Beanie

Ah yeah I saw the thread on NS after they posted shots together on Instagram. Imagine a full-length movie with these two together...

-Mat

 

[Faction]

What is next for Faction? More Candide POVs? More Collective episodes?

Lots more of both we hope! Candide has got some ideas up his sleeve for what to do next so we'll sit down together sometime in the next few weeks and go through that. We've got two of this winter's Collective webisode series shot and the next will be released in about two weeks so stay tuned.

-Tony

Ah so much and all my answers have been so long already!! But yes, to Collective episodes, new film projects which will have more of an adventure travel vibe, working with Gear 4 Guides, building more awesome products, helping some of the younger riders come up, Bus trip in Argentina, art projects and adventures with the ladies, and so much more...For Candide - wouldn't want to ruin the surprise!

-Beanie

(insert emoji with zipper-mouth)

-Mat

 

[Faction]

Do you guys manufacture your skis yourselves or does someone else do it? And where?

We started in a little factory just south of Evian in the French Alps, but as we grew we needed to expand to a bigger facility.

We've now been working with a factory in Eastern Europe for the last 6/7 years that works with a number of smaller ski companies but we're their biggest customer. We talk to them every day and go there every month or so - they're pretty much part of our extended staff now. We have the great luxury of being able to dream up a new design, complete the engineering drawings and all specs including core profiles, camberlines etc (which we do here in Verbier) and get a prototype back in a matter of weeks to test, which just doesn't happen if your manufacturing is with a larger company where you're just filling in holes in their production schedule.

-Tony

 

[Faction]

What's the back story on the company? Always been a little curious how it all started

Initially it was just a couple of us back in around 2003/4 who thought we could create something new. Skiing was pretty staid and big companies just weren't making the types of skis we wanted to ski on.

We came up with shapes and ideas and for the first few years it was just us with whatever cash we could spare on our credit cards making skis after working all summer. After a few years of really positive support from everyone out there (especially on Newschoolers) our network expanded to be able to get a bit more money behind us and a few more guys and girls to help out and its grown organically from there.

We've done it the hard way by not going through distributors in regions like France, Switzerland, Germany, the US and Canada - we wanted to work directly with the stores and media and end-user as that relationship is really important to us.

It's taken a lot more time and management doing it this way but its much more rewarding!

-Tony

 

[Faction]

Will there ever be a more extended streetwear or layering collection? would definitely rock some faction hoodies, crew tees and snapbacks!

Are you spying on us?

-Annie

YES. And hopefully you will see we are starting to get there with next years collection of outerwear, which has a lot more cross over pieces in awesome fabrics, that feel like streetwear but still have good performance. We always want to do more and time seems to run out, but hoodies, t's, colabs, fun things we want to do and we will... one day...soon..ish...

-Beanie

We've been talking about this for years but we didnt want to just come out with anything so we kept putting it off. Hopefully next year is the year.

-Alex

 

[Faction]

Why in gods name did you guys and possibly Candide feel the need to change up the greatest ski I have ridden to date and my shredder for all types of terrain (the 3.0's)?

Really good question! I think our role as designers is to not be blinded by success.

The changes we've done to the 3.0 is really small but makes the ski much more versatile and better. The new 3.0 has got new (and more) lengths to suit more riders.The slightly narrower waist still gives the ski tons of float but much more edge grip on hard snow. Smoother rocker/camber profile gives a nicer feel when going from edge to edge no matter what conditions you're skiing in.

The widest point of the tip and the tail is pushed a bit closer to the center of the ski. This makes the tip and tail and thus the whole ski much calmer once you're sliding out from carving. At the same time we took the opportunity to increase the performance of the core. It's stronger and stiffer than before.

I think you guys will be more than happy with the changes. The feedback so far has been better than expected.

-Patrik

tl;dr - Because we made something better.

-Josh

 

[Faction]

What the f is a "collective" in the context of a ski manufacturer, and why do you call yourselves that?

There were a couple of threads to it. One was that we felt like making what we wanted to succeed was kind of like putting a band together. You can't just get a bunch of drummers and make it work, you need people who are different from each other, with different perspectives and skills, but with a shared vision of where we wanted to go. That's why we like what a collective stands for - everyone's a bit diverse, but we're definitely a tight band, a unit. The other side of that is that we feel like a collective is something that others can join in and be a part of it. That's our faction, you know. The Collective.

-Alex

Because it sounds cool.

-Josh

 

[Faction]

Can you guys save me a pair or two of the classic 3.zero's? my heart stopped when you announced you weren't making them anymore.

We still have a few, do you mean the ones with rocker or the ones before that?

-Beanie

El Classico to be sure. There're a few kicking around.

-Alex

 

[Faction]

Can you guys save me a pair or two of the classic 3.zero's? my heart stopped when you announced you weren't making them anymore.

We still have a few, do you mean the ones with rocker or the ones before that?

-Beanie

El Classico to be sure. There're a few kicking around.

-Alex

 

[Faction]

what separates Faction from other ski companies?

All of the other answers combined I guess, but without the other companies we would be nothing, they drive us forward and inspire us to develop and improve.

-Beanie

The Collective. And beer.

-Alex

Verbier, Breck, the people and cool products.

-Josh

 

[Faction]

I feel like a lot has already been done to innovate skis and I cant think of any other way to progress them besides lighter materials and skis that do backflips for me.

So what do you see for the future of ski construct and design?

Sure, a lot of things in ski design has matured quite a bit lately. But I still think there's tons of things that could be made better. We're quite far away from a ski design that do backflips for us.

I think there's a few more things to adjust on sidecuts and tapers and transition zones. Other than that I would say that the next big thing will be lightweight skis that ski well. Haven't skied too many lightweight constructions that ski satisfying enough to be honest.

-Patrik

Our wish list is so long I can't even see the end of it.

-Alex

It would be cool to have skis that were indistructible.

-Josh

 

[Faction]

Should I buy candide 4.0s?

Who has the best looking mom out of all your riders?

Yes you should buy the 4.0's and is that a trick question? Everyone knows who has the hottest mum on the team...

-Beanie

Yes you should. Cash or card?

-Mat

 

[Faction]

Should I buy candide 4.0s?

Who has the best looking mom out of all your riders?

Yes, buy it and buy the bigger size so you can impress the moms.

-Josh

 

[Faction]

Does adam do anything to soften his skis?

Will you expand past skis, poles and outerwear?

Why can't I be under 18 to win the Faction trip?

Adam skis the ski right out of the box, same as you. Like Tony said before, he has been intricate in the developement of the 2.0's flex and works with Patrik to dial them in perfect.

-Jesse

You can be under 18 to win the Faction trip, but you just have to go with a legal guardian or parent - sorry, that is probably our bad English. But you can WIN WIN WIN, you just can't go with ALL your mates! Adam, ski softening - he talks to Patrik and Patrik makes him prototypes... And will we expand beyond skis, poles and outerwear - it is not in next years planning, but we are always open to ideas, especially when we can't find what we want and so decide it is a good idea to make our own!

-Beanie

Could be fun with a parent/guardian, my mom is going to Vegas with me...but only after she agreed to download Tinder.

-Annie

 

[Faction]

Are you just a marketing company that has used venture capital to trick NS (again)? (PS: Respect Candide for taking the money again)
http://www.octopusinvestments.com/octopus-leads-investment-in-faction/

I have to admit I dont undersand this question. Which company are you refering too? Are you a real person asking this question?

-Josh

 

[Faction]

Was stacking a team part of your Strategic Marketing plan? Did you guys ever expect becoming web video prodigies?

I'd say double no. Our team plan has always been to be supportive to riders we like and we believe in. As far as our web series is concerned, we were not expecting such a good success last year, which definitely got us pumped to try and keep making edits you'll like watching.

-Mat

 

[Faction]

When you have the whole team skiing together (ie. Episode 3) who has the most "wtf!?" moments that blow everyone else away?

Pablo's double backflip. And Arnaud sending another one even bigger that he went off-frame and we couldn't put it in the edit. And Adam's straight air I swear I though he was going to start flying or something.

For reference:http://vimeo.com/93162429

-Mat

 

[Faction]

Alright guys, that's it for now! Thanks again for all your questions, and we'll keep an eye on this thread for the next few days if you any extra ones!

Thanks Erica, Doug and everyone at NS for making this happen!

-The Faction Collective

 

[Mr.Bishop]

Alright guys, that's it for now! Thanks again for all your questions, and we'll keep an eye on this thread for the next few days if you any extra ones!

Thanks Erica, Doug and everyone at NS for making this happen!

-The Faction Collective

Thanks so much to you guys for doing this! Very exciting answers from a company that is definitely making waves these days.

Come back anytime, and we look forwards to seeing more of you in the future!

 

[erica]

Alright guys, that's it for now! Thanks again for all your questions, and we'll keep an eye on this thread for the next few days if you any extra ones!

Thanks Erica, Doug and everyone at NS for making this happen!

-The Faction Collective

Epic! Always a pleasure to work with you guys!

 

[Shlogan]

I can honestly say that the faction collective videos are one of the main reason i bought the candide 3.0. Thats some damn good advertisement! Im a photo major and want to capture my use of these skis, would faction have interest in using said shots? Heres one from yesterday, skis not included

 

[Holzsteezy*]

We still have a few, do you mean the ones with rocker or the ones before that?

-Beanie

El Classico to be sure. There're a few kicking around.

-Alex

YO, i want in on this!! i really really want to get a pair of last years 3.zero 175cm. I can't find them ANYWHERE. It'd help me so much if you could sell me pair

 

[Faction]

I can honestly say that the faction collective videos are one of the main reason i bought the candide 3.0. Thats some damn good advertisement! Im a photo major and want to capture my use of these skis, would faction have interest in using said shots? Heres one from yesterday, skis not included

Hey, thanks for the love!

Feel free to shoot us a PM and we can go from there

 

[Faction]

YO, i want in on this!! i really really want to get a pair of last years 3.zero 175cm. I can't find them ANYWHERE. It'd help me so much if you could sell me pair

YO!

Send us a PM and we'll work this out!

 

[steezyjibber]

I can honestly say that the faction collective videos are one of the main reason i bought the candide 3.0. Thats some damn good advertisement! Im a photo major and want to capture my use of these skis, would faction have interest in using said shots? Heres one from yesterday, skis not included

Woah that is epic.