Head/Tyrolia Women's Team

It is quite a shocker to leave New Delhi and arrive in Frankfurt Germany. Diametrically opposed opposites, I would say, one a seething mass of chaos and the other, precise, engineered and organized. I am here as a US member of the Head/Tyrolia Women’s Team which is made up of 11 women, one each from each major country around the world that Head does business in. We are now really meshing in our personalities – strengths and weaknesses, and really starting to work as an efficient team. At first it seemed impossible – such different women, with really different backgrounds in skiing and also life, and also the huge cultural differences. What we have found is that we are really very alike in our tastes, whether from Japan, Canada, Norway or Germany. When we do have some minor disagreements, it is usually because of our backgrounds in skiing – a recreational skier vs. a ski instructor vs a freerider, so we now let that segment of the group have the predominant say if that is their main target group – so the freeriders in the group have a major say on the freeride skis, and the instructors have the major say on the high end carving ski, etc. It is really thanks to Stefan Vollbach, at Head Austria, who had the vision to put together such a fantastic team, and also he has let us have full power when it comes to design, which is so unusual in this male dominated industry. Gabi keeps us all organized and also plans all the super fun side trips - including hiking to the top of a mountain after a long days work to mouth watering food with a classic Austrian view!
Our task is full throttle – choosing construction of the physical properties and performance of the skis and which skis to include in the line to meet the needs of different types of women skiers, naming products, testing new prototypes, and choose and also designing the graphics. We meet twice a year, usually in Austria. In November, we started the graphic design and product testing for 2007-8, and in this meeting we got to see the variations of the skis we designed in the fall. Lots of times they do not look at all the same on paper, computer, or in person, so we try to have as many options made up into complete skis for the spring meeting as possible. Choosing the top sheet style also has a huge effect.
We then also have to design matching the boots and bindings, which can be really difficult, as they have to match more than one ski, but we don’t want the skis to look alike at all. The Tyrolia department is based in Vienna, so Robert and Heidi fly in with samples parts and or us to look at and evaluate and protos of the ideas we discussed in the fall. We also discuss market trends, and how to make bindings more fun, which unfortunately, I can’t divulge what we came up with, but it will rock the market.
The Head boot guys, headed by Alberto, are based in Italy, of course. We are introducing for 2006-7 the first women’s lasted alpine boot ever made, the Dream Thang. Hard to believe this is possible that for all these years we have skied on a men’s last, and only with women’s specific liners in the last few years. They fly in with sample boot we talked about in the fall, and work on which boot will be appropriate for each type of skier that we designed each ski for. We want each type of skier to be represented – beginners to women that never thought they would ski a women’s product, and we want the looks to match that kind of person who would want that product – does she want to stand out or blend in? sophisticated or radical? Trend bucking or trend setting? Etc. We worked hard this meeting on color matching with the skis, the women’s icon, some revolutionary treatments to match the bindings, and also the development of a new women’s Edge line and another top end women’s boot. The boots are going to really rock the market this fall and they look fit and feel like nothing the world has ever seen.
We squeezed in a day of ski testing at Solden, Austria, on the glacier. Spring/Summer is really here in the Alps – everything is florescent green (well, especially it looks so after dusty India!) and all the tulips and daffodils are in bloom down in the valleys. Up high, the snow was quite good, with some powder up high and slush conditions down low. We don’t have much time to play around or explore, as we are all business with Axel running the testing. We have the new skis with a white top sheet and only numbers on them, and test cards to evaluate each ski, with only one 2,500 foot run per ski. It is lots of work, but quite fun, especially once you have done it a bit and can really start to be able to guess at what is inside each ski and then can discuss it with the people who developed and put the skis together in the ski factory.
Ah, the ski factory, I forgot to mention the coolest part. The factory is where we hold our meetings, in Kennelbach, Austria, and so rad (sorry to be so cliché, but is really is). I now know why skis are so expensive! Each step is hand done mostly, with a few machines for grinding or pressing, but that it it. Each wood part of the core is hand fed into a matching to mill it, each base color is hand taped to the other, and every ski is layered by hand, then pressed and heated, two at a time. Every single little piece has a person or three associated with it – from each little tip protector, to trimming the sidewalls, to selecting which ski looks best with its mate.
In the fall we are hoping to meet in Vienna and tour the boot and binding factories in addition to the design and testing work. I am looking forward to seeing these processes, how it all works, and it also gives us insight into how to design more effectively.
I’m in Frankfurt now, on my way to Denver to hopefully visit my sister, if not too tired, and her two new twins, and then home in the morning to Gunnison then CB. It is a four flight wonder, so I’m sure to be worked once again. I’ll be home for a little bit, then off to Osage Iowa, to design ski socks for my sponsor, Fox River.