What is the ski industry missing?

people respecting the good skiers that dont go in comps and ski cause they love it and not the Olympic skiers. like i still have respect for them doe
 
This thread is gold. Some seriously insightful ideas.

Event variety and city integration. This will help our sport become wealthier, more populated, and more affordable nationwide. If Nyc, Philly, Chicago, Boston and some other populated areas with winter but no mountains installed small rail yards and beginner features into their public parks, dry slopes at recreation centers, etc., the awareness would explode nationally. everyone would be curious as to what the strange additions to parks and rec centers were.Then, ski shops and organizations could begin to host events that attract a wide variety of audience. Hold rail jams and the public will get exposure to comp skiing. Throw film competitions for single features or park edits, and the public becomes aware of ski style, culture, and attitude in the same way they have been made aware of skate culture. If our world becomes bigger, it becomes more affordable, demographic diversity increases, and economically divided cultures all have a chance to enrich ski culture. Skiing could seriously gain a lot from becoming a saturated market. Except good luck to pros at staying pro when half a million unexpected prodigies start sending sponsor tapes to red bull and target.
 
one thing we're not missing is an incredibly lame scene. I've almost gotten more into biking just for that reason alone lol
 
Can honestly say style in comps wasn't mentioned in this thread.

Anyways, more innovation for skis. Skis have pretty much stayed the same the past couple of years. I would love to see a company start experimenting with different woods, metals, profile set up and what not. Like what about a park ski with no edge what so ever so it doesn't rip out? Just my 2 cents.
 
13161045:DingoSean said:
DIVERSITY.

Seriously... this is an extreme issue and it's something that the industry WANTS to change but doesn't know how to appeal to for shit.
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I feel like you're being kind of vague here. Where do you feel the sport lacks variety? Is it the people, the product, or the sport itself?
 
13161137:DingoSean said:
If I have a family of 6, there's no fucking way I'm paying 60$ for all of them to eat one friggin meal. I'd just bake a couple Dijorno pizzas the night before and the kids better be okay with eating cold pizza on the hill. I might front down for hot choco, but that's not that expensive anyway.
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But the reality is for most family's that I not the kind of thing they want to do on vacation. A ski vacation may be the only trip of the year so if they are stuck eating left overs it's going to put family's off. This is my point to attract more skiers and allow the sport to really begin to grow there need to be more affordable options.
 
While I agree with most of the above ideas I can't help but feel like what has been stated would just be adding more of what is already current technology in our industry. While I also agree that diversity might be a nice change in the demographics we see at the hill, skiing has been around now for a few thousand years and has been largely kept secular due to location and its effect on cultural stigmas. People of color are largely underrepresented at the hill because the equatorial locations their cultures stem from do not see our sport as relevant. What I would really like to see is something that will shake up skiing like the invention of the Chairlift! Technological innovation like the chairlift along with some others (p-tex bases, parabolic shape, etc) are what drives skiing forward by leaps instead of hop turns and I think we are all ready for the next one. In my personal opinion what we need is something that gives real back country accessibility to front country users. Now I know that this would mean the degradation of local pow hounds more well known stashes. However, it would also bring mainstream acceptance, knowledge and mountain lifestyle to a group that needs the info. The more people you have out there ripping and gripping it the more people you have that are passionate about the mountains, snow and trying to keep those as viable playthings.
 
13161384:NinetyFour said:
I feel like you're being kind of vague here. Where do you feel the sport lacks variety? Is it the people, the product, or the sport itself?
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I feel like he may have been meaning the people. Also more people in the sport can change niche sub-markets into viable business options. So, in a way it would be all of those things you mentioned in the end that would change.
 
13160698:macinnis said:
Skiing is missing more free-skier run company's. Like look at skateboarding, alot of the biggest brands were created and are now run by former pro's or hell current pro's ex: Blackbox, Girl/Chocolate/fourstar, Toy machine, Alien Workshop (R.I.P), Krooked, Sk8Mafia, to name just a few of the biggest ones. Obviously there are some companies, and obviously its harder to start a ski company, but im just saying.
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This is going to happen within the next 5 to 10 years.Once all the big name guys get out of their contracts with the big companies, they will start their own. I have faith that this will happen it jsut takes time. The 4Frnts, Armadas, Icelantics, Line Skis type companies will start popping up soon.

13160755:TheSkiMonster said:
Companies owned and operated by passionate young skiers.

I can honestly say we are among the few.
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This will happen as well. Justs take some time. I mean it took you guys a while to finally get up and running. From ski shop (Zimmermans i think correct me if im wrong)to owning and operating your own core ski shop. The passion is there us young kids (im 21) just need the resources to do so. Once those become more viable the shops,brands,content,companies will start arriving.

Also industry events that are open to the public. Instead of having The Meeting, and SIA only to industry folk why not open to the public. That will allow more key not talks, panel discussions, presentations, for all to see and will enhance the industry voice.

Im sure there are a bunch us out there that have great ideas to help our sport and industry we just have no one to talk to. Yes we have NewSchoolers but this just does not cut. We need face to face interactions with the people in the sport.
 
13161706:Bum.Life said:
Yes, but more importantly, we need to be more inclusive towards women
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Dub post but who doesn't want to see more women on hill? More inclusive? I don't know what you are thinking about but we try to get our girlfriends and other girls to come ski with us all the time
 
Skiing needs "fan girls".

That being said it also needs a larger female "league". Soccer, hockey and many other sports have this but skiing really doesn't.
 
No more ski corporation take overs ( Vail, KSL, CNL, Intrawest) get skiing back to family owned resorts where lift tickets were $15 and you knew everyone on the mountain. That won't happen though.
 
13160612:GrizzlyBurr said:
No we do not
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200_s.gif
 
This thread should have stopped when that dude SVDraper said Money. Because that is what the INDUSTRY is missing. OP was specific Mr. Bishop.
 
more opportunities for women to learn how to ski and progress with a focus on control, comfort on skis, and style

very few females are able to cap a cork 7 blunt or even float out proper cork 3s. women's progression is what freeskiing is lacking and it's going to take some serious initiative/ commitment to move past this ongoing gender devision
 
13162091:hoodcrew said:
more opportunities for women to learn how to ski and progress with a focus on control, comfort on skis, and style

very few females are able to cap a cork 7 blunt or even float out proper cork 3s. women's progression is what freeskiing is lacking and it's going to take some serious initiative/ commitment to move past this ongoing gender devision
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I cant float a cork 3 :D
 
13162091:hoodcrew said:
more opportunities for women to learn how to ski and progress with a focus on control, comfort on skis, and style

very few females are able to cap a cork 7 blunt or even float out proper cork 3s. women's progression is what freeskiing is lacking and it's going to take some serious initiative/ commitment to move past this ongoing gender devision
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There's only a gender division because of shit like this, stop makings the division you asshat. You're the problem.
 
13161384:NinetyFour said:
I feel like you're being kind of vague here. Where do you feel the sport lacks variety? Is it the people, the product, or the sport itself?
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The product and the sport are fine. We need more people who aren't the standard "white affluent guy" doing it. Most hills, minus a few here in California and I'm sure surrounding Seattle/Vancouver are entirely dominated by white people.

13161412:tomPietrowski said:
But the reality is for most family's that I not the kind of thing they want to do on vacation. A ski vacation may be the only trip of the year so if they are stuck eating left overs it's going to put family's off. This is my point to attract more skiers and allow the sport to really begin to grow there need to be more affordable options.
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Bullshit. Once a year family trips are exactly what resorts want... and they're hoping a family is willing to just front it all and buy it all there - which they do.

13161706:Bum.Life said:
Yes, but more importantly, we need to be more inclusive towards women
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QFE.
 
13162372:DingoSean said:
Bullshit. Once a year family trips are exactly what resorts want... and they're hoping a family is willing to just front it all and buy it all there - which they do.

QFE.
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The ones who can afford the trips pay it yes but I think your missing my point. For skiing to really begin to grow we need more people getting into the sport. So long as prices are where there at now this will be a majour limiting factor on growth. I liked the idea above of getting skiing to the city's. That is one thing te uk ha always done well first with dry slopes and then with domes. The dry slopes were great as they were cheap and people could have a go at skiing. It is this kind of grass roots skiin I feel is missing. People need an opertunitiy to get into te sport before we expect them to cough up the costs for a full ski trip.
 
13162495:tomPietrowski said:
The ones who can afford the trips pay it yes but I think your missing my point. For skiing to really begin to grow we need more people getting into the sport. So long as prices are where there at now this will be a majour limiting factor on growth. I liked the idea above of getting skiing to the city's. That is one thing te uk ha always done well first with dry slopes and then with domes. The dry slopes were great as they were cheap and people could have a go at skiing. It is this kind of grass roots skiin I feel is missing. People need an opertunitiy to get into te sport before we expect them to cough up the costs for a full ski trip.
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I guess I just don't understand why everyone thinks on-hill prices are so much. Yeah, there's a SLIGHT markup as there should be for convenience-sake, and perhaps at the big honcho resorts there's a larger markup, but shit... Philly Cheese Steaks were like 7 or 8 bucks at the mountain I worked at in Oregon... that's not too expensive. You'd pay like 12$ for that shit in a regular restaurant.

I guess I have an advantage, but if you want to go ski for cheap in Northern California, there are at least 4 fantastically affordable options. You don't have to go to the glitzy places like Stowe, Deer Valley, Vail, or Northstar.
 
13162017:KeithyD said:
That's not about leaving out women it's more about objectifying them and using them for tits
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Dude, the the thread was saying that by objectifying women, we are essentially saying that they are unwelcome in our community unless they get naked. So it totally is about leaving them out. If we are sexist towards women then we are doing nothing about including them. Making women uncomfortable within the sport is a form of exclusion
 
Skiing is missing full length films from the Sherpas and Sweetgrass this year. If I pay to watch another two year project that spends all their budget on helicopter follows and pretending to camp out instead of developing a real story....it'll be the last time.

Skiing is also missing out on women.
 
13160755:TheSkiMonster said:
Companies owned and operated by passionate young skiers.

I can honestly say we are among the few.
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So true. we need fresh blood. Theres too many burned out folks right now. I think thats a major part to the success of our store. We still love it and sell it everyday!
 
13161525:Jwenz said:
affordability
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this, and things like diversity will follow. A lot of people of different races and backgrounds get into skating because its so cheap. You buy a board and thats it, youre good to go. In skiing theres always another expensive thing you either have to save for or get for Christmas.

Not much will change while it stays so inaccessible to so many people regardless of race.

You know that feeling when you drop into a run on a sunny pow day and there's 20 inches of chalk? Everyone should get to have that feeling if they work for it.
 
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