Alprima

[LeVieuxCrouton]

Gentlemen ...

I bought these two days ago ... unknown to me ... not that it is surprising still , after a life of skiing , I have seen a lot .
I know Alpina ... But Alpima ????
I checked on the web and it looks like Serbia or CZ . Nothing on the ski itself .
It is a JR ski but on the web there are longer items.
Any idea , anyone ???
Well , I have them now and they look like from the '60 and the Falcon bindings were made in Japan . But brand new ...
Surprising !!

Your take ????????????

 

[Uncle-A]

The skis look like they are made in Italy but only based on the graphics. I see the Japan on the binding but the runaway straps look like they are from a Look GT binding. The screw-on edges confirm your thought of the 1960's but any exact year is beyond me. They look in good condition but I would not try and ski them.

 

[Sethmasia]

From before 1968 to maybe 1972 or 73 there was a small importing firm in Detroit called St. Lawrence Sales. They sold a lot of junk under the Alprima label -- NOT Alpima, Alprima with an R. Most of the stuff was made in Japan, including poles, and gear for kids including rubber ski boots and these wooden skis. The skis were mostly made in 135 to 170cm with screwed on edges and they claimed the material was laminated hardwood -- plastic only on the top and bottom, no fiberglass.

 

[LeVieuxCrouton]

Thank you very much !

My mistake ... typing error ...

I found that the Alprima Co was active from 1963 to 1985 and were specialized in ski junk ...
It does not say where the junk was manufactured but a lot of junk , at the time , was coming from Japan .
So it could very well be a Japanese ski I have .

Why is it is such a well conserved state ?
I have no idea ...
A gift to someone who never liked skiing .
But why keeping it so long ??
We are December 2019 and this is probably 1965 ...

You are right , Uncle-A , about the leash . I have the same on another pair of skis that has a Look binding .

And , no , I would never try to ski on them !

Considering , they look like my oldest Yamaha ....

 

[LeVieuxCrouton]

Mariano Sports was the Canadian distributor for some skiing Co and it was in existence still in 1983 .
They had Atomic at the end of the '70
I just checked ...

 

[Uncle-A]

I see there is no AFD Pads by the toe. The AFD's back than frequently used peel and stick attachment on the lower level equipment so it is not a surprise that they are missing.

 

[Uncle-A]

Mariano Sports was the Canadian distributor for some skiing Co and it was in existence still in 1983 .
They had Atomic at the end of the '70
I just checked ...

If you look at the emblem on the tip of the ski it does resemble the Atomic logo, so maybe it was made by Atomic for Mariano Sports with the Alprima name on them.

 

[LeVieuxCrouton]

For the Anti Friction Device ...the surface of the skis where would have been positionned the gadget is not marred at all . No sticky residue . No residue at all in fact ... I believe that there were none installed .

The logo could look like an Atomic logo , you are right .
Meaning that the people there did not possess a lot of imagination !
But who am I to judge ???

I like the metal protector on the tip of the skis ... Do you have an inventory of the various shapes , Seth Masia ?

 

[Sethmasia]

Definitely Japan. The trade magazine Skiing Trade News for the era lists Alprima skis for adults and kids as made in Japan. During those years American companies imported about 400,000 pairs of Japanese skis annually, which was two-thirds of all skis imported (remember that Head, Hart and Northland were healthy domestic manufacturers in those days). Average declared value for Japanese skis, for tariff purposes, was only $7 per pair, compared to $30 per pair from Austria, $45 from France, $20 from West Germany etc. Alprima kids' skis retailed at around $10, often packaged with bindings and poles for around $20. The lack of anti-friction pad is typical of the era. The first AFDs were sold around 1970 and Gordon Lipe didn't apply for his patent until 1972. As for the resemblance to the Atomic logo, that's also typical of Japanese practice -- they did everything they could think of to look like European products.

 

[LeVieuxCrouton]

Bonjour Seth ;

Where did you take the data about imports and prices for that specific time ?
Would they have that for Canada ?

I think I need to contact you ...

 

[Sethmasia]

Import-export numbers are usually posted in tariff reports on .gov websites and it will take a little serious digging to find them. Back in the day the trade papers published the numbers annually, so if you can find bound volumes of Ski Business or Skiing Trade News, have at it. The only place I know they're available (other than my own library) is in the SKI/Skiing offices in Boulder. I'll bet the international trade division at Global Affairs Canada has better on-line records than the U.S. does.

 

[LeVieuxCrouton]

Thank you very much ! I appreciate ...
These were never scanned ? The Business News and Trade News ??
Seth , if you have ever done business with the Canadian government or any provincial governments in Canada , you know that you will be very lucky to get an answer while you are still alive . I will ask but my son - who does not like skiing or anything else I do - will probably receive an answer a few days after I am buried .
Anyway I think it is time that I join your Skiing History gang ....

 

[Sethmasia]

Before the internet, the import figures were published on microfiche and I had to travel to the Federal Building once a year to go thru the files. I kind of remember that I could pull a thermal copy of the pages but maybe that was another project -- maybe I had to transcribe the column manually. Anyway, it killed a whole day. Maybe I'll do a story for the magazine on the history of ski equipment imports. There are probably eight people in the world who would find that interesting.