Why isn't Salomon cool anymore?

Thanks for proving my point and making yourself look more retarded. That is exactly what i said. Salomons bread and butter is $350 carving skis. Now back to TGR old man.
 
Bode Merrill: Slays everything everJamie Nicholls: Dub 14's, Cab Dub 12's, FS Cork 3 Melon you name it, this guys got it

Jed Anderson: 450's out on DFD, is a baller

Chris Grenier: Awesome at urban and park

Louif Paradis: This guy is way too good

Scotty Arnold: PCMR legend

Wolle Nyvelt: Used to beast on Big mountain

Annie Boulanger: The only girl who is good at BC and Big mountain in snowboarding

David Benedek: THIS GUY FUCKING STARTED THE CRAZE WHICH IS THE DOUBLE CORK 1080, SEARCH IT IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE

Sylvainn B: Films with Absinthe and kills the trees like a fucking forest fucking fire

That's what Salomon is, I will never buy them as I have my Bataleon, but they are stacked and are directly in snowboarding and everywhere in it. Plus Bonfire has some of the only tall jackets available to snowboarders on the market, so props to them
 
When i worked for salomon i was a bit jealous of the SB side of the company. The rep/my boss was cool but the salomon sb staff are way chill.
 
K2 Poacher brah.... look it up. The Olin mark 4 was a ballet ski that was a bit longer then snowblades ( kind of takes it out of contention)New canadian Air Force were pretty much bump drop outs coached by Mike Douglas. They were JP Auclair, Vincent Dorion, JF Cusson, and Shane Szocs.

They basicly created new school skiing as we know it. Mike Douglas got fed up of boiling skis, and bending them under a door for twin tips. Thus went to Salomon to create the first popular twin tip ( but not the first overall freestyle twin tip) the x-scream 1080.

This is basic basic new school history. Get learned brah. Don't feel bad though I did the exact mistake a few years ago. It's really worth looking into.
 
5 screw heal spread out over a greater surface area and the wide 4 screw pattern upfront disperses the force put on the ski while turning better so there is less chance off pull out and enegery transfers more efficiently from your boot to the ski. There is a reason rossi switch from FKS to the PX series for racing. Not to mention they have a worm screw adjustment system that you can actually move.

FKS are good for narrow symmetrical parks skis because of the small size of the design, they don't effect the swing weight and there is no track to effect the natural flex. they are very well balanced. Of course this only actually applies to symmetrical skis because you shouldnt be mounting a directional ski center as it will be fighting the side cut, and the tails are typically stiffer then the tips to support the skier through the later half of a turn or a back seat landing. On a directional ski, you will get increased power from a binding with a wide mount pattern. And even more if it's on a plate.
 
One of the founders/first reps of Salomon snowboarding was one of my teachers at school. *claim*

So many of Salomon freestyle designs, logos, and graphics were actually taken from the snowboarding side. If you look at the first Salomon snowboards they look like a pre-cursor to the 1080. In fact the Salomon "ying/yang" logo was the Salomon snowboarding logo first.
 
I love it when people say stuff like this as if it mattered.

Yo aren't towing a house on the fucking thing, you're skiing on it. There is NO DIFFERENCE in energy transfer in the pattern shape of the toe. Perhaps if we were talking about thousands and thousands of pounds of shearing force there would be a slight difference, but in the context of its actual use, this means exactly nothing.

I can identify with the desirability of the larger screw pattern of a heel piece, but I also use inserts so that concern means exactly nothing to me as well.

I simply prefer the elasticity of the FKS when I'm maching through bullshit snow or bumps, etc.- and I disagree with your assesment of "it only matters on symmetrical skis" as I feel the difference on actual, big boy skis and shit, scout's honor! I could rattle off why it *should* matter, but in the end it's all feel and comfort level. Obsessing about the theoretical physics of energy transfer as a function of the mount pattern is fucking ridiculous. Just ski what you feel good in.
 
Salomon cool? Lol. Their skis have sucked for years. I may be one of the only people who agrees with Thomas that STH's are better than FKS, but it's all personal preference.
 
I stand corrected. Very very interesting. I knew about Douglas and Dorion and those guys, but didn't know that was the name they went by. Ya learn something new every day.
 
salomon always follows what is hot. at the moment they are into biking, running, and stuff like that. they also stopped doing really anything in the US so they dropped most of there team.
 
*best design ever made.

That jacket is a piece of shit. The only thing that's cool about it is the print on the jacket. I had one earlier this season and i was outside in light snow for about a half an hour came in and it was completely soaked.
 
Olin made like 4 versions of the Mk IV, all of them were conventional length (which back then was like 180-215) except for the ballet version.

This picture has 3 of them

biglines_88835.jpg


but yeah the stuff about the NCAF is all ture
 
i agree with the narrowness of the mount but the rest im not convinced is such a big deal.. but i may be wrong

as huck said, i can't express how much i love the elasticity of the FKSs and pivots. oh well, like i said part of it's def subjective
 
You never said that anywhere in your posts that were related to me.

So remind me again who the retard is?

As a supposed ex salomon rep you should know their freeski department is different than their rental department and or X wing. That's like saying well they have the money due to Salomon snowboarding taking off. But you know everything so I concede, child.

 
your point is?

mine was that it's not entierly salomons bindings, therfore he can't really say that.

(no i do not know who makes them, but i think salomon was first with them, but still :s )
 
I had 2 pairs of salomon park skis... the 1080 thruster form 08 and the suspects from 2011. They were both sick skis. I wish they had more of a variety of different skis like armada and most other companies.

 
Thing is though that Salomon is more than an alpine ski brand( I know Head is as well, but we're discussing Salomon.). I mean, compare them with Line, Armada etc. who are Alpine ski brands ONLY.

 
wat

that list is good but their video parts speak for themselves. And, one last thing.

Harrison Fucking Gordon. So much technical style.

Grendys kills it in the backcountry

Annie B is good, but so are many others.
 
Just for your info they are made by salomon, atomic and Scott rebrand them. It's pretty common with bindings. There are only a few binding companies so plenty of companies rebrand other brands. It change with the guardian which was a joint venture between atomic and salomon, but you will see rebranded ones under the look brand next year too.
 
This thread has turned from a thought of how Salomon USED to be into a giant thread of people hating on Salomon. I got a pair of Salomon Foil 1080s from my cousin who switched from skiing to snowboarding. Also, I have a pair of Salomon Z12 bindings that hold up pretty damn well and eject me out of my skis at the right time so I don't blow out a knee.
 
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If it weren't for Cody Townsend, I wouldn't be at the bar right now.

Great thread. The Ski Show will be back soon.
 
they are more focused on powder because thats where most of their market is, because of less interest in the park scene
 
What?!?? I laughed, sue me for getting a chuckle out of "my comparably similar yet slightly differentiated product ABSOLUTELY SHITS on everything else on the planet including all other functionally similar yet somehow not as cool products such as the deadbolts"

Honestly if I upset you maybe you should tell me to fuck off more often, and more importantly articulate why. Maybe one of us should be working on something. Hit me, broseph! I won't get mad atcha for it.
 
Might not make the sickest skis but Mike Douglas and the SFTV crew is still going strong.

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because not only did they drop the majority of their athletes, but their park skis are of very poor quality. ive seen numerous threats split near the nose and have to be rtm at my shop, as well as suspects so called "edge armor" completely fail and result in major edge cracks. salomon also doesnt appeal very well to the moron who doesnt own a coat and insists on wearing a massive hoodie all over the mountain.
 
We owe the sport we love to Salomon. When I bought my first pair of twin tips 12 or 13 years ago there were only two options; Salomon 1080's and 720's. I learned my first 5's and switch 5's on my 720's well over a decade ago. Thanks Salomon.
 
So I might not be the best judge of this thread but here's my take on it, a guy that's been with Salomon for over a decade now and has been there through many of the ups and downs and see many of the internal workings of Salomon.

First off, yes, Salomon as at one point really fucking cool. The 1080, JP Auclair, Chris Davenport, the X-Scream (number 1 selling ski of all time btw) and even the Pocket Rocket were the quintessential of cool. Those products helped create the name that defines this site. From the first releasable binding to the first mass production twin-tip, they were innovators. And we all know how often innovators get laid. So that made them often-laid really cool innovators.

When the drop off occurred was actually a far bit behind when the author of this thread has stated. Salomon became uncool when foam cores were labeled shit, the Pivot binding failed miserably and they rested on their laurels designing standard stuff for the masses. Sales starting slipping from that moment on. From then on out, they were scrambling trying to figure out what to do. The company was bloated from a very successful run in the late ninety's/early aughts and the design and innovation process suffered because of this. Essentially everything from graphics to designs were a meeting of the middle to try to satisfy everybody while truly satisfying nobody because there were too many chefs in the kitchen and no solid goals. The company was lost as to who they were, who they were designing for and what they were doing.

Soon layoffs and restructuring were the name of the game and everyone left in the alpine side took a long look at themselves. There was a lot of soul searching within the company during that time period. A time period when from the outside, many, including NS, thought that they were still pretty dang cool. Unfortunately coolness doesn't pay the bills and they were still slipping. The hang over from that slip is what many are perceiving to be happening right now. When in fact, that couldn't be further from the truth.

When Salomon restructured, the few that were left just happened to be the most die hard skiers of the original Salomon crew. Instead of bloated office places filled with minions of non-skiers, the guys that the team for the first time in years started working with were the guys like JF, who invented the Driver binding, Jean-Phillipe, the original designer of the 1080 and Pocket Rocket and Pascal, the designer of just about every best boot Salomon has ever made. There were a small group of their athletes, a handful of local shredders from across North America and these guys that came together to make the Rocker 2 line-up of skis (a line that is being copied left and right), the Guardian Binding (best touring binding by far) and the many iterations of the Ghost boot (the boot Bobby and Sammy even shred in). I've seen the innovation of quality product in the past two years exceed the past 8 years because of this.

Right now, I wouldn't change anything about the products I'm riding with. And that's the first time in my entire tenure with Salomon I've ever felt that way. The Rocker 2 line of skis is so fuckingly amazing-fun-balls, the park skis are built tougher and more solid than ever, the bindings are less trendy than those orange butt plugs but they're still far better than anything out there when it comes to durability and safety and even the clothes have taken a giant leap forward in just about every way.

So personally, I think Salomon is cranking right now. What you guys might be seeing is the hangover from the past failures, the unfortunate ability to not keep some top athletes because others decided to pay them more and...um...I guess no more G-Suit. You all probably miss that still. I'll admit it was pretty dope.

Anyways, so that's my take on it. Salomon has had some failures, but right now, the product is firing on all cylinders and it might take a few years for the outside perception to catch up with that. For the time being though, I don't really care what people think of the company, I enjoy popping around on my skis and bindings, even if that doesn't make me "cool anymore".

 
Seriously! All the boarders in Tahoe can't get enough of Salomon snowboards and its hilarious. They think its so underground.
 
I love your skiing, but I still think the new ski lineup isnt up to what other companies are doing. I hope Im right in hearing that Salomon is making the guardian in a lower Din for those height challenged like myself where a 8 DIN minimum would shred my kneww to pieces.
 
Last year I rode a pair of Salomon Suspects. I was pretty new to park where it was only my second year. By the end of the season (42 days skied) I had all four of my edges ripped out completely. There was about a foot of missing edging on all four sides. This last season I rode Armada Halos where by the end of the season (73 days skied) only one 3 inch portion of edging was gone. I think it all comes down to the quality of the product.
 
Since they started giving the team a strong & light wood core while selling a shitty foam core to the consumer. So....10+ years ago?
 
I rocked silver 1080s and the 14 din binding, which in destroyed like 3 times. Went to wood core after my skis were noodles after a season. Salomon was og for sure but they definitely stopped focusing on Newschoolers but that's ok
 
Bobby and the pro team don't even ride normal salomons, all of their skis are custom, but with a generic topsheet
 
obviously the new canadian air force was the definition of cool and the 1080/pocket rocket was part of that, but that strikes me as less of a salomon thing and more of a "the NCAF was on salomon at the time and told them to do this great idea"....how true is that?

the only other thing i want to ask is why do you say "foam cores were labeled shit?" in my experience they were appropriately labeled-- salomon IMO earned its reputation for skis that performed fantastically......for a year MAX.

defending foam cores begs the question: why would they sell foam cores but give their athletes wood cores if they didnt recognize the advantage?

don't get me wrong, my first post was just meant to be glib, salomon is cool is a lot of ways, but they also IMO have made their bed by being an enormous company that delivers a subpar product a couple times too often (again, almost never in performance..but what's the point of a great ski that is going to only be great for a small amount of time? e.g. foam cores, suspects)

that all being said.... the guardian looks amazing and i can't wait to get a pair
 
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