ORIGINAL+ / Custom Skis Crafted With Artificial Intelligence

[Philpug]

A Kickstarter program started for Original+ skis, the brainchild of Sigi Rumpfhuber, link HERE.

From their Kickstarter Campaign....

Your personal partner for the perfect turn on snow - ORIGINAL+ skis
With 1.400 different ski models on the market, skiers of all levels are left scratching their heads—“which ski is right for me?!” ORIGINAL+ answers with an individually custom-fitted ski that caters to each skier’s personal style and preferences.

Artificial intelligence is used for customizing your ski. This means an individually fitted product, that is accessible and affordable!​

ORIGINAL+ unique approach combines the flexibility of small-batch ski manufacturers with the precision and expertise of the bigger brands. The result: functionally customized alpine skis that are fitted to weight, height and skiing skills through our proprietary Artificial Intelligence technology. They look great and ski even better. To meet the same standards of modern race skis, Original+ starts each pair with premium-grade materials and a no-compromise approach to quality.

ORIGINAL+ is your custom fitted partner for every adventure.​

What is customized in your ski?
Your first selection is "WHERE" you aim to ski. We currently offer two options here: "PISTE" (100% on groomers) or "ALLMOUNTAIN" (which we suggest for 70% on-piste and 30% off-piste use).

Start with choosing your terrain option: Either 100% on piste...

... or allmountain skiing.​

As the next step, we select the ideal ski length and radius for you. We then match the ski flex (longitudinal and torsional) and tuning parameters to individual needs of each customer. Our AI calculates the individual metrics of your personal ski, and off we go to production.

ORIGINAL+ is new, but tried-and-proven!
An 2018 ISPO Gold Medal Award-winning product, ORIGINAL+ was voted the best snowsport product on the market by the independent ISPO award committee. Also this winter, testers and ski magazines loved our the high performance and amazing build quality of our skis. But most importantly, they liked how ORIGINAL+ ski makes the ultimate downhill experience a reality not only for professional athletes, but for every avid skier out on the mountain.

​

ORIGINAL+ is the 2018 ISPO Gold Award winner for best snowsports product on the market!
ORIGINAL+ mod.7 // mod.8 SPECS

Made in Salzburg, AUSTRIA
Built in Salzburg, Austria, ORIGINAL+ is a ski manufacturer that specializes in the production of customized alpine skis with the help of its proprietary software based on artificial intelligence. By interpreting biometrical data alongside additional inputs like skiing style and terrain preferences, this software helps ORIGINAL+ to craft a ski personalized to the needs of each individual customer.

Direct-to-consumer sales
Inspried by the likes of Canyon bicycles and YT Industries bikes, ORIGINAL+ skis are sold direct-to-consumer through the company’s web shop and factory store. We believe that a direct line between you and us is the best way to match our product perfectly to your needs. And it is a means to make custom technology fast, accessible and affordable.

The ORIGINAL+ headquarter in the center of Salzburg, Austria.​

Crafted with passion & experience
ORIGINAL+ is owned and managed by ski-industry veteran Siegfried Rumpfhuber. A former alpine ski racer, Rumpfhuber has previously worked as the International Product Manager at Fischer Skis and CEO of Kästle Skis during the brand’s successful relaunch. He brings extensive industry experience to the ORIGINAL+ brand.

Sorry, video's did not embed.

 

[Mike Thomas]

If people do not know who Sigi is, he is the man who brought back Kastle. (I guess the article points that out also).

I wish him the best of luck with this, but I think there is a fatal flaw in it and I know how to make it better... Sigi, get in touch.

 

[tball]

I think if they add a little blockchain they'll have it nailed!

 

[CalG]

I'm not a fan of "artificial Intelligence" as a replacement for the real intelligence offered by real people making real skis.

The matrix of options in the construction can not possibly require more than a spread sheet. ;-)

But I really like the top sheets!

 

[hbear]

Wonder how much variance in the “core profile” and laminate thickness will really be....

The rest can easily be “customized” with a proper tune.

 

[Swiss Toni]

Kästle was brought back by two Austrian multi-millionaires, Rudolf Knünz and Stefan Pierer. Kunz later bought out Pierer and has recently sold his shareholding (>80%) to the Czech billionaire Tomáš Němec.

ORIGINAL+ is not a ski manufacturer, it’s just another brand name. The skis are manufactured by Croc (soon to be renamed Augment), the MOD.7 and MOD.8 have the same dimensions as the Croc AllMountain77 and AllMountain88. I suspect that the “proprietary software based on artificial intelligence” is just yet more ski industry BS. There is no mention of customizing binding delta or fore / aft placement.

 

[Philpug]

If people do not know who Sigi is, he is the man who brought back Kastle. (I guess the article points that out also).

I wish him the best of luck with this, but I think there is a fatal flaw in it and I know how to make it better... Sigi, get in touch.

Sigi and I have been in communication, I will tell him to reach out to you.

Kästle was brought back by two Austrian multi-millionaires, Rudolf Knünz and Stefan Pierer. Kunz later bought out Pierer and has recently sold his shareholding (>80%) to the Czech billionaire Tomáš Němec.

ORIGINAL+ is not a ski manufacturer, it’s just another brand name. The skis are manufactured by Croc (soon to be renamed Augment), the MOD.7 and MOD.8 have the same dimensions as the Croc AllMountain77 and AllMountain88. I suspect that the “proprietary software based on artificial intelligence” is just yet more ski industry BS. There is no mention of customizing binding delta or fore / aft placement.

I have yet to get on a Croc..or see one in person but I imagine from what I read about their race skis...this isn't the worst way to go. I am interested in hearing more about the actual process and what the variations are in stiffnesses and tunes that they can do.

 

[sigiski]

If people do not know who Sigi is, he is the man who brought back Kastle. (I guess the article points that out also).

I wish him the best of luck with this, but I think there is a fatal flaw in it and I know how to make it better... Sigi, get in touch.

Hey Mike, good to hear from you! I didn't have a recent e-mail from you, but reached out via Linkedin. Curious to hear your feedback; always appreciated!

 

[sigiski]

I'm not a fan of "artificial Intelligence" as a replacement for the real intelligence offered by real people making real skis.

The matrix of options in the construction can not possibly require more than a spread sheet. ;-)

But I really like the top sheets!

CalG, thanks for the thoughts, like that. I like real people as well I always thought of the matrix as quite simple as well, but the deeper we dug, the more you understand you're only scratching the surface. So for us it was basically a question do we go the path that almost everyone in "old ski industry" has been going for decades (look at how race skis are developed; tons of skis produced and then lapping, lapping, lapping -> empirically), or do we find a better way to structure and work with big loads of data. AI for us is nothing more or less than one really good tool, to make good skis. like a good grinding machine or a CNC router. One tool of many...

 

[sigiski]

Wonder how much variance in the “core profile” and laminate thickness will really be....

The rest can easily be “customized” with a proper tune.

Hello hbear, the variance in the core profile is minimum 0,1mm, and the maximum depends on a combination of (mainly) weight, speed and turn radii. However, these options multiply by changing wood type and core profile, as different types of wood offer different densities, dampening properties and stiffnesses. For laminates, the increments with titanal thickness (which is found twice in all of our models) is 0,1mm; with glassfiber and /or carbon it can be virtually everything; again combined with the directional dimensions of these materials. I've put that in a seperate reply already earlier, but "the matrix" sounds easier than it actually is, and AI is nothing else than a very good tool to have a thourough and structured look at all that data

 

[sigiski]

Wonder how much variance in the “core profile” and laminate thickness will really be....

The rest can easily be “customized” with a proper tune.

Hey Hbear,

forgot about the custom tune, and could not agree more.
Probably the one single most overseen piece of "ski engineering".
We have an exlusive partnership with Reichmann machines and finish every ski to user specs, terrain choice and regions where you ski (eg. Colorado snow is totally different from Scandinavian Coastal snowpack and requires different base bevels, etc.)
Completely agree with that input!

 

[crgildart]

I still remember the business school discussions of "flexible manufacturing cells" back in mid 1990s. The initial thought was that the first products likely to leverage the aforementioned technologies for customization would be pharmaceuticals.. i.e. they were going to cut out pharmacies and have the vendors ship custom meds directly from the plant to your home designed specifically for you based on your weight, other metabolism factors and additional criteria entered by your physician.

 

[Philpug]

@sigiski, I changed your badge to "Manufacturer"

 

[sigiski]

Kästle was brought back by two Austrian multi-millionaires, Rudolf Knünz and Stefan Pierer. Kunz later bought out Pierer and has recently sold his shareholding (>80%) to the Czech billionaire Tomáš Němec.

ORIGINAL+ is not a ski manufacturer, it’s just another brand name. The skis are manufactured by Croc (soon to be renamed Augment), the MOD.7 and MOD.8 have the same dimensions as the Croc AllMountain77 and AllMountain88. I suspect that the “proprietary software based on artificial intelligence” is just yet more ski industry BS. There is no mention of customizing binding delta or fore / aft placement.

Hello Toni,

you seem to be an insider, or at least drop a lot of names. Here a few facts from my ends.

(A) Benetton was interested in selling the Kästle brand equity in 2006, which was brought to my attention. I prepared a business case, and presented it to Mr. Pierer and Mr. Kiska from Kiska design (who would later design all Kästle CI and branding). The purchase from Benetton was conducted in 2007 with Cross Industries (a company owned by Mr. Pierer and Mr. Knunz) owning 75,1%, and the management group BLR (Binder, Lotschak, Rumpfhuber) owning 24,9%. The later three were and are not multi-millionaires. I sold all my Kästle ownership in 2014 to Mr. Knünz (which didn't make me a millionaire either .

(B) Kästle was recently sold to Sport Consil of Czech Republic; they now own 90,4% in Kästle.

(C) ORIGINAL+ is a ski manufacturer, by every aspect.

(D) MOD.7 and MOD.8 have similar dimensions to the Croc AM77 and AM88 for reasons I currently cannot disclose. However, these skis do not use the same molds, nor are they anyhow comparable in layup and technology (you could check that yourself by comparing the Croc website info with our construction info).

(E) no comment on your feelings on our software; you seem to be very clear about this

(F) we can customize binding delta and placement; however the test runs we've conducted so far and the data we see in our AI does not support any theory that is strong enough so we would "release it on the consumer"; I agree with the notion that this industry sometimes tends to make field tests "on consumers" which is something I am completely unsupportive of; if you remember some of the early feedback we received on Kästle it was that our technology was "old-school", but it was technology that worked.

Feel free to get in touch so we can get you on a pair of test skis. Seeing is believing.
Cheers,

Sigi

 

[sigiski]

@sigiski, I changed your badge to "Manufacturer"

okay, good one (i hope swiss toni doesn't get mad at this)

 

[Bruno Schull]

@sigiski--I'm a curious observer here, but I just wanted to say that I really appreciate your contribution and tone--you have set a great example of how to share information and stay positive while representing your brand.

If you do, or can, adjust all the variables you describe for your customers, then it would seem as if you have a unique product.

There are, of course, custom ski manufacturers, but you are doing something slightly different. Good luck with your project!

Bruno

 

[CalG]

Good of you to make such thorough replies Sigi!

I'm sure I want a pair of the Originals. If I could only figure out what sort of skier I am, and where I prefer to ski ;-)

 

[James]

What's the plan for getting them to people in the US and what price point are we talking?

 

[sigiski]

@sigiski--I'm a curious observer here, but I just wanted to say that I really appreciate your contribution and tone--you have set a great example of how to share information and stay positive while representing your brand.

If you do, or can, adjust all the variables you describe for your customers, then it would seem as if you have a unique product.

There are, of course, custom ski manufacturers, but you are doing something slightly different. Good luck with your project!

Bruno

Hey Bruno,
appreciating your feedback!
One of the things with customizing a product is the question where to start (and where do you stop...). While from a technological angle, you're always inclined to open pandoras box as much as can (as this possibly delivers the maximum customization and individual fit), our approach with ORIGINAL+ is a bit different.

I had two main thoughts going into this project:
(A) the performance side: How can we customize a product best so it delivers the individually optimal skiing experience?
(B) the economic perspective: How can we do this in a way the ski is approachable and affordable.

A big inspiration to this entire project is my personal background in ski racing, but also the later Marcel Hirscher. In Austria, we're a bit lucky to have him on radio, internet or TV almost daily between October and March, and one of the things he has REALLY dialed in, and sets the tone, is his "set-up". He is constantly talking about this! Which is, his ski construction, tune, binding and boot setup. We were lucky to test alongside him and his team a lot the past two summers on Mölltaler glacier. And the observation I took from that was: "That guy is simply better, because he works a lot more, and just a bit smarter than anyone else." That was a bit my personal surprise - he's by far the number one racer of our generation, and it's not those guys are rocket scientiest. They just smart, hands-on, really really driven, and get up early. From that observation, I was actually even more inspired to offer a comparable "setup optimization" for "normal skis" and "normal skiers" as well. HOWEVER: it will not be possible to do this the "racing way", with tons of euqipment carried up a mountain, virtually hundreds of days of empirical test work, and a team of many people behind. So our approach is to structure our data process a bit better, and track and monitor much more consequently.

As with what we customize, the decision is NOW to focus on the things that we are very certain that alter ski performance; which are three things we currently touch (wood core profilation, different laminations and tune). We can see clear effect of those on flex, torsion, dampening/dynamics and skiability. Which is essential to how the ski turns, how damp it is, how stable it is and how it will perform on the edge. What else? We currently don't know, but track and analyze a lot of factors. So this is of course an evolving project.

I really like what most custom ski manufacturers are doing. I think some of them have excellent capabilitites to manufacture well-skiing skis; some of them manufacture beautifully artisanal products; some do both. Our goal is to offer functional customization in a very approachable way, that is easy for the customer.

Thanks!

Sigi

 

[sigiski]

What's the plan for getting them to people in the US and what price point are we talking?

James,
we currently have Kickstarter live (until May 6th) and this will ship international.
Prices in EUR start at around 600 for a flat ski, and go up to 760 for a set with a Z12 Tyrolia binding.
US pricing will be at comparable levels; that would translate so something in the USD 750ish (flat) to USD 950ish (set) region. We haven't fully set US pricing yet.