KÄSTLE GOING FOR A MEDAL AT THE BEIJING OLYMPICS

[Philpug]

Premium Austrian ski maker Kästle has entered into equipment contracts with the two most prolific alpine ski nations and teamed up with boot suppliers Dalbello and Lange in the process. Cedric Noger from Switzerland and Austrian Mathias Graf are the first two athletes to sign up.

Kästle staged a comeback on the World Cup circuit, to great approbation, just over a year ago. Numerous requests started to pour into the Hohenems headquarters from athletes and ski associations. This was in no small part down to the fact that Kästle athlete Adriana Jelinkova won the North America Cup in giant slalom, and Alain Zurbriggen, son of Kästle ski legend Pirmin, soon started to see results after switching over to Kästle.
Kästle official equipment supplier to Swiss-Ski
The positive response from the racing world led to discussions taking place with the Swiss Ski Pool. It was soon clear that both parties were keen to come to an arrangement. Kästle is the Swiss association’s first new ski manufacturer signing since 1994. Initially, Kästle only planned to equip the junior athletes. But when giant slalom athlete Cedric Noger wanted to test the skis too, things moved forward at pace. Cedric Noger (28), who came 4th in the 2019 Kranjska Gora Giant Slalom, immediately felt good on Kästle skis and his tuning requirements were met within just a few days. “For us, it was confirmation that Kästle should be welcomed into the pool”, says Swiss Ski Pool Managing Director, Christian Zingg. He went on to say: “These skis are so much more than just race-ready, and the professionalism and speed with which Kästle builds skis is impressive”. Cedric Noger is also thrilled to have switched to the brand. “The Kästle family have welcomed me with open arms and I’m really looking forward to representing the Austrian ski brand both in Switzerland and around the world”, said Noger.
New contract with Austria Ski Pool
After a few difficulties in summer 2019, and in the wake of the Katharina Liensberger case, Kästle and Austria Ski Pool have in recent weeks agreed on a new equipment contract. With Mathias Graf (24) from Dornbirn, Vorarlberg, Kästle has signed up its first Austrian Ski Association athlete with World Cup experience under his belt. “As a Vorarlberger, it’s a huge honour to be a part of our local ski brand’s historic racing comeback. Aside from the outstanding quality of the skis, it was also the local aspect and their professional service that convinced me to change to Kästle”, explains Graf.
Boot collaboration agreed with Dalbello and Lange
For its World Cup participation, Kästle partnered up with Marker for bindings and Dalbello for boots. But now, Lange has agreed to join up as a second ski boot supplier to support Kästle athletes.
Kästle Managing Director Clemens Tinzl is obviously relieved that after such a fraught year, it is the sport of skiing that can once again be the centre of attention. “We are now fully focused on testing materials and ski finishes, which is all done at our home base in Hohenems, under the watchful eye of Rainer Nachbaur and his team. Our aim is to build up a hand-picked team of top athletes, with the dream of winning a medal for Kästle at the 2022 Peking Olympics, and carrying on the brand’s winning tradition.

Link: https://www.kaestle.com/en/experien...aestle-going-for-gold-at-the-peking-olympics/

 

[Philpug]

Interesting that they partnered (again) with Marker when they have had a more recent relationship with Tyrolia. I wonder if this will change their relationship with Tyrolia for their consumer offerings.

 

[skipress]

That's likely in the longer term; presumably Marker because of Dal Bello and the MDV thing.

 

[Philpug]

That's likely in the longer term; presumably Marker because of Dal Bello and the MDV thing.

They are also working with Lange, so why not Look then? But like with Marcel, I imagine that it is about the Marker plate along with their past relationship with the brand. I was told the Tyrolia relationship will continue with retail skis.

 

[Henry]

Interesting...Marker & Dalbello have the same ownership as Volkl---Kohlberg & Co.'s K2-MDV.
Lange has the same ownership as Rossi & Dynastar---Groupe Rossignol.

Who is fabricating Kästle's retail skis these days? Recently it was Head.

 

[markojp]

Who is fabricating Kästle's retail skis these days? Recently it was Head.

Still is, no? Makes one wonder if Kastle's shopping for a buyer.

 

[Philpug]

Sporten owns Kastle. They are producing skis in Sporten's Czech factory along with Kastle's small skunkwerks in Austria.

 

[skipress]

Sporten owns Kastle. They are producing skis in Sporten's Czech factory along with Kastle's small skunkwerks in Austria.

Yes, Sporten make a lot of skis for a lot of people. Great setup and actually really good product under their own brand.

Quite a few microbrand skis in Europe who make their 'cough' own skis are strikingly similar to Sporten models...

 

[Swiss Toni]

The ski brands Kästle and Sporten along with Differences and Artis are owned by Consillium a.s., a Czech investment company set up by Tomáš Němec “to preserve and grow value of his family wealth” http://consillium.cz/

Tomáš Němec made his money in the tire business, in 2015 he and his business partner sold CGS Holding, the parent company of Mitas Tires for around $1.3 billion. He is a former ski racer, hence the desire to go racing, Kästle’s previous owners always ruled out a return to racing.

The Austrian arm of the business (Kästle GmbH) which is responsible for alpine ski R&D, the production of the super-premium skis and now the FIS racing skis is based in the Differences ski production facility http://www.differences.at/ at Hohenems, before starting Differences in 2001 Rainer Nachbaur, currently Kästle’s head of R&D used to work in original Kästle ski companies racing department, when Benetton took over Kästle he moved to Nordica, from there he went on to restructure Head’s racing department after which set up Blizzard’s racing department, so he should be able to design and build halfway decent racing skis.

As Kästle are going to use Marker bindings and plates on their World Cup skis then it would be strange if they didn’t also use them on their consumer racing skis, Sporten supplies Vist bindings with their racing and exclusive skis and Tyrolia bindings with their other skis so Kästle could also use 2 brands.

The Kästle skis that were previously made by Head will in future be made in the Sporten factory in the Czech Republic. The factory currently produces around 120,000 pairs of alpine and nordic skis p.a. around 60% of production is for other brands, a high proportion of the skis produced are nordic skis. Over the next few years they want to increase production to 200,000 pairs p.a. and reduce their dependence on the OEM side of the business.