• For more information on how to avoid pop-up ads and still support SkiTalk click HERE.

François Pugh

Skiing the powder
Skier
Joined
Nov 17, 2015
Posts
7,617
Location
Great White North (Eastern side currently)
The impression left in in my mind from previous offerings, advertising, and recent demoing and trading skis for a day with fellow patrollers regarding K2 skis is that they are a good quality ski aimed at skiers who do not necessarily have the highest skills, and that they are more suited to soft snow and 8/10 ths skiing and being a bit more forgiving than generating high g forces and holding the line on a hard turn on hard snow.

If they do indeed have product that will generate high g forces and hold the line in a hard carved turn, then they need to strongly differentiate that line of skis from their other offerings and make it well known to the public.
 

James

Out There
Instructor
Joined
Dec 2, 2015
Posts
24,455
Funny, 13 years ago I recall people on Epic searching diligently for an Apache Recon or Pontoon.
The Recon might have been their last popular ski? (Edit: beside the women's models) I think I rented one for a day at Big Sky 2009. Pretty neutral performance wise.

K2 is around in Europe. I rented this one in Verbier 3 seasons ago. Probably far more Scott skis available though.
image.jpeg
In the gondola coming up from the train station in La Chable
 
Last edited:

DanoT

RVer-Skier
Skier
SkiTalk Supporter
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
4,788
Location
Sun Peaks B.C. in winter, Victoria B.C. in summer
Bring back the name Winter Heat but pass on Bermuda Shorts (all skis are short now), and pass on Cheeseburger Deluxe, although the Side of Fries ski poles were a good tie in.
 

James

Out There
Instructor
Joined
Dec 2, 2015
Posts
24,455
Bring back the name Winter Heat but pass on Bermuda Shorts (all skis are short now), and pass on Cheeseburger Deluxe, although the Side of Fries ski poles were a good tie in.
Maybe get the ski right first?
Better idea, license those names to hart. They'd look good on the hart van stuck in the mud down by the river.
 

Sibhusky

Whitefish, MT
Skier
Joined
Oct 26, 2016
Posts
4,806
Location
Whitefish, MT
If you're concerned about the Pinnacle 105 being too wide, try the 95.
I've skied a fair bit of powder days on the Pinnacle 95. The tip shape lends itself to float while the turn shape gives you the edge you need when you want to make a turn.
Unfortunately, I think I need a bit more float these days, otherwise I'd stick with my Nordica's. Their width took a long time to adjust to at 98. But my avoirdupois has increased.
 

Wendy

Resurrecting the Oxford comma
Admin
Skier
SkiTalk Supporter
Joined
Mar 13, 2016
Posts
4,905
Location
Santa Fe, New Mexico
My first carving skis were K2 One Luvs.....a special edition white ski with pink ribbons for breast cancer research...(@Tricia , how prescient those graphics are to me now)...and they helped me become a much better skier. They were FUN, felt plenty snappy to me at the time, and they let me progress.

Fast forward a few years, and I won a pair of K2 skis in an ESA raffle, and got the Burnin Luvs in the next size up. Again, really fun ski, much beefier than my old pair, but still forgiving enough. I miss those skis.

I got a pair of Lotta Luvs, too. Those were too much ski for me at the time, and I sold them to a GUY in Maine who is a stellar skier....he couldn’t care less about the garish graphics, and he took them on multiple heli trips to BC and Alaska. Last weekend, he hiked to the top of Tuckerman and skied them down. The skis are now 8 years old. Just the other day, I learned that they are commissioned as rock skis and he’s finally looking for their replacement. He LOVED those skis! A women’s ski!

K2 still makes women’s skis that can help a skier progress, and still keep up with the boys when she masters the learning curve. I think many women would be well-served by getting a pair. A friend of mine bought a pair specifically to train for and take her L2 exam, and she is a beautiful, strong skier who can easily ski more stout men’s skis. She raves about what her K2’s did for her skiing skills.

I used to see a ton of K2’s in the East......frontside carvers and twintips.....as well as tele skis. I’d like to see them get back to that place.
 

Dave Petersen

Graphic Designer/Social Media Manager
Admin
SkiTalk Supporter
Joined
Nov 16, 2015
Posts
9,876
Get back to the cool ads of the 1970s -
SKIING Nov 1970 K2 Pugski.jpg
 

RickyG

Faction Fan
Contributor
Joined
Aug 12, 2016
Posts
274
Location
Littleton Colorado
This has been very interesting to read. Over my almost 50 years of skiing (25 in the industry) I have had a lot of K2 skis. Over the last decade because of my
disintegrating left knee I stepped away from the "new & groovy" ski industry news. Honestly it just broke my heart to hear about it. Now with my new fully knee replacement I'm back in the saddle and as you can see the picture my wife Betsy took of our skis of choice this last Friday at Mary Jane our current favorites are K2s...from the 2000s. Maybe they need to bring back production to Vashon Island...bottle that K2 vibe and stop looking for cheaper production costs and higher profits. Oh before anyone goes off on old "stuff" the bindings are new Markers and the boots Lange RS 110s on me and RS/SC 110 on her.
MJ042718a.JPG
 

Bad Bob

I golf worse than I ski.
Skier
Joined
Dec 2, 2015
Posts
5,843
Location
West of CDA South of Canada
Ski naming has gotten WAY TOO difficult to keep up with today from everybody. Perhaps K2 was on to something when they went with the "I", "II", "III" and "IV" for beginner, intermediate, advanced, and Race. Agree that the "Winter Heat" worked for the high end recreational ski.

If they were a good ski with simple easy to distinguish graphics it could work again.

I keep this up and maybe won't have to move into the van for 4 or 5 years.
 

PTskier

Been goin' downhill for years....
Pass Pulled
Joined
Jun 16, 2017
Posts
583
Location
Washington, the state
What will it take to bring back the fame of K2? Money into research & development to produce great products and good marketing. That might be happening to get the results Phil and others report.

A bit of history--in 1982 K2 was bought by Anthony Industries, a maker of leisure & recreation products---Shakespear fishing rods, Hilton bowling shirts, and more. In 2004 K2 bought Völkl, Marker, and Marmot. Things went pretty well until the outfit was bought in 2007 by Jarden Corp. Jarden rose phoenix-like from the ashes of the Sunbeam bankruptcy. Jarden had more consumer products lines including Mr. Coffee, Bicycle playing cards, Seal-a-Meal, etc. In 2016 Newell Rubbermaid bought Jarden, then Newell decided they didn't want the recreational products lines. Newell said they'd either sell K2/Völkl/Marker or close them. In 2017 the private equity firm, Kohlberg & Co., bought the K2/Völkl/Marker and their other brands. The investment of Kohlberg is called K2-MDV. (Marker, Dalbello, Völkl) Private equity outfits can take two avenues...strip the acquired company of its assets then bankrupt it, or buy it cheap enough, put money into it to make it a success, and sell it for a big profit. Kohlberg might be taking the latter route.
http://www.kohlberg.com/Investments/InvestmentDetail.aspx?id=73

Is there integration of efforts between Völkl & K2 to develop great skis? Should there be more integration?
 
Thread Starter
TS
Wasatchman

Wasatchman

over the hill
Skier
Joined
Nov 9, 2017
Posts
2,324
Location
Wasatch and NZ
I'm amazed K2 even exists given that history.

Tricia pointed out it wasn't all that long ago when K2 had some super hot skis on the market. Not sure about now given the decade of share loss, but I believe K2 was #1 in market share as a brand by total sales in the US for quite some time.

Rossi has an interesting recent history as well. Like K2, Rossi struggled under a larger parent who bought them (Quicksilver). Rossi arguably had a much worse situation in a lot of ways than K2 under Jarden, because Quicksilver as a whole was struggling big time and eventually declared bankruptcy. Anyhow, Rossi was struggling big time, were sold to a private investment group and then they came out with the Soul 7. They seemingly turned around overnight.

A long way of saying it can definitely be done!! I hope K2 does it. Would be even cooler if that somehow involved at least bringing some of the production back to the US.

As an aside on ebbs and flows that Phil talked about, I am thinking Rossi might be losing momentum. It was a low snow year out West, but my perception is that I saw less Rossis out there and trend seems to be shifting a bit to less wide which seems to go against their strength. But I digress.
 
Last edited:

James

Out There
Instructor
Joined
Dec 2, 2015
Posts
24,455
Tricia pointed out it wasn't all that long ago when K2 had some super hot skis on the market. Not sure about now given the decade of share loss, but I believe K2 was #1 in market share as a brand by total sales in the US for quite some time.

Rossi has an interesting recent history as well. Like K2, Rossi struggled under a larger parent who bought them (Quicksilver). Rossi arguably had a much worse situation in a lot of ways than K2 under Jarden, because Quicksilver as a whole was struggling big time and eventually declared bankruptcy. Anyhow, Rossi was struggling big time, were sold to a private investment group and then they came out with the Soul 7. They seemingly turned around overnight
...
I am thinking Rossi might be losing momentum. It was a low snow year out West, but my perception is that I saw less Rossis out there and trend seems to be shifting a bit to less wide which seems to go against their strength. But I digress.
K2 had some hot women's skis out. Probably none as hot as the Black Pearl from Blizzard, but don't know. Not sure what unisex skis was so hot?
Rosii probably has more skis under 90mm then over. Just because the market has tired of its drunken bash with the Soul 7 doesn't mean Rossi is dead.
 
Thread Starter
TS
Wasatchman

Wasatchman

over the hill
Skier
Joined
Nov 9, 2017
Posts
2,324
Location
Wasatch and NZ
K2 had some hot women's skis out. Probably none as hot as the Black Pearl from Blizzard, but don't know. Not sure what unisex skis was so hot?
Rosii probably has more skis under 90mm then over. Just because the market has tired of its drunken bash with the Soul 7 doesn't mean Rossi is dead.
Sorry, didn't mean to imply Rossi is dead. Far from it!! It's just that the Soul 7 was such a huge success, and as that tapers off it's almost impossible for Rossi not to lose some sales momentum.
 

Philpug

Notorious P.U.G.
Admin
SkiTalk Tester
Joined
Nov 1, 2015
Posts
42,624
Location
Reno, eNVy
K2 had some hot women's skis out. Probably none as hot as the Black Pearl from Blizzard, but don't know. Not sure what unisex skis was so hot?
Rosii probably has more skis under 90mm then over. Just because the market has tired of its drunken bash with the Soul 7 doesn't mean Rossi is dead.
There is still no ski as hot as the Black Pearl..men or womens, it is the number one selling ski in ski shops, period. Rossi had an era of misteps with various owners that makes this K2 conversation look mondane. I will add that brands like K2 and Rossignol are as important to the ski industry as Chevrolet and Ford are to the automotive industry/
 

WheatKing

Ice coast carveaholic
Skier
Joined
Dec 24, 2015
Posts
258
Location
Ontario, Canada
K2 aint dead in my household... of the last 5 pairs of skis I've bought for the family and myself.. 4 have been K2.. Loving my Turbo Chargers, never seen another pair in the wild.. which is a shame because they're fantastic.. Still rocking my Rictors on the early season days and crap days as they're easy and forgiving.. but will still rip once I get back to form.
 

Tricia

The Velvet Hammer
Admin
SkiTalk Tester
Joined
Nov 1, 2015
Posts
27,298
Location
Reno
Loving my Turbo Chargers, never seen another pair in the wild.. which is a shame because they're fantastic..
That is the unisex version of the Luv Machine 72 Ti that I've been skiing.
What an incredibly fun carving ski. Sadly, I need to amp up my skills to ski them to their potential.
 

Sponsor

Staff online

  • Andy Mink
    Everyone loves spring skiing but not in January
Top