Ski Gear - Too Much Choice
Sorting through the dozens of ski and snowboard models shops offer.
Jul 4, 2006
The latest word coming down in the ski world is ski boots made of a new, see-through plastic. While it sounds like a gimmick, the new plastic might indeed make skiing better. Either way, it adds to the seemingly unending decisions required of recreational skiers.
Last summer, the Eastern Ski Writers Association staged a panel discussion at Jiminy Peak entitled, "Skis & Boards - An Illusion of Choice?" The basic question at hand was this: have ski/board makers expanded product lines to the point of confusion?
Matt Beck from Burton Snowboards started the discussion with an amazing statistic: Burton produces 185 snowboard models.
Why?
"Our job is to be all things to all riders," he said.
To do this, Burton categorizes products into "performance matrixes." That's to say, the gear is defined by the intended end-user, including all-around, women, kids, resort product for their Learn to Ride program, custom boards and more.
A rhetorical question followed from Tim Gleeson, a manager at South Jersey's Danzeisen & Quigley Ski Shop. "Does having this amount of product make things more difficult?" he asked.
"Certainly," he answered his own question, and then he painted the typical ski shop scenario. If a shop carries seven ski brands, whose makers introduce five new models yearly, and the shop has 15 carryover models, that requires 50 ski wall slots.
That's a lot of skis on display. And that, Gleeson said, leads to consumer paralysis.
The answer? According to Gleeson, to effectively sort through the choices and properly serve the customer shops must respond with strong sales staff training, and by offering the right specialty items.
Rossignol's Mike Kilchenstein described equipment's evolution from three basic ski categories - beginner, intermediate and expert - to many: racing, women's, freestyle, all-mountain, etc. These differences aren't "something we dream up, they're athlete-driven," he said, and consumers are being best-served because "they've never had better equipment."
Sam Bryant, representing Potter Brothers Ski & Snowboard Shops, agreed. "There's choice because the market is asking for it," he said. "There are that many different kinds of skiers and boarders, and the retailer's job is to ask the customer the right questions so that he or she picks the right toy for the right playground.
"There are legitimate construction differences among the models," he continued, "but these are hard to explain on the selling floor."
Then Bryant appended, not surprisingly, that all the performance hype notwithstanding, color ranks among the most important parts of choosing a shop's product mix.
The magazine Ski Press performs what must be the most extensive and unbiased (which is to say, not influenced by advertisers) ski and snowboard tests among print publications.
The magazine's test coordinator, Isabelle Sauvageau, stated that the some 7,000 tests on 500 models in 16 categories are performed.
Which begs - no demands - the questions: How many skiers can differentiate among 500 skis? Or, for that matter, how many riders can distinguish among Burton's 185 boards?
Sure, a novice-level board will perform sluggishly for skilled practitioners; and novices will struggle with racing skis. But, will the average, advanced rider sense 100-plus differences?
Of those 500 that Ski Press tests, perhaps 15 might be appropriate for my skiing. And, of those 15, I guarantee that, although I'm fairly competent and sensitive to a ski's feel, I'd wager that I wouldn't discern palpable performance differences among half.
Do consumers really need all these choices?
Probably not. But, we must deal with them.
How?
As the Sims clothing folks say, be an educated consumer. Our panel offered the following advice:
