My Fun Visit to Salomon France by Jan Guenther

Gear West Ski & Run has sold plenty of Salomon “S-LAB” products, however I had a limited idea of why the “LAB” title was placed on their top end products. Brian and I had the unique opportunity to visit Salomon’s design center in Annecy, France, just one hour outside Chamonix in the Alps. The Salomon ‘think tank’ is a fascinating study on how athletes, designers, researchers and engineers collaborate their efforts to invent super cool products.

After being in the ski business for twenty years I was very surprised to find there are still things that I do not know. For example, did you know there are 70+ pieces needed to construct a top race ski boot? Or that the cost of producing a larger foot mold to accommodate size 15+ feet is several hundred thousand dollars? Also, Salomon has every sponsored athlete’s unique foot mold, and can make one custom prototype at the design center for said athlete to use and provide instant design adjustments.

Pick your athlete

Another interesting fact I learned was the reason Salomon decided to to expand into trail footwear. After several winters of poor snow conditions, they decided something had to be done in order to continue and employ their seasoned pattern makers. For six months they developed a new concept for fit utilizing new materials along with existing Nordic foot technologies to design hiking shoes. The first pre-production boot was called the Adventure 7, these were used by  French Alpine Military specialists.

Inside Salomon’s  design center, sponsored athletes of all disciplines (downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, trail running, snowboard) work with a Salomon design team to bring new products to life and to redesign current products to meet their own personal needs. For example, ultra trail running phenom Killian Jornet was directly involved with the design process surrounding the heavily anticipated S-LAB Sense – a super light, low profile racing flat that has won several prestigious races, including the the Western States 100 and Ultra Trail Du Mont Blanc. Salomon Senior Project Manager Patrick Lieck put it this way, “the S-LAB process and products are primarily designed to enable athletes to win. But they are also a source of inspiration for the range. The next generation of products is based on these shoes (skis, boots, and poles).”

Killian dominating the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB)

What we saw throughout our tour of the design center was the spirit and excitement of a creative team inspired to design the best products for their athletes and challenged to produce it internationally for the consumer.  The Salomon building complex is truly a “LAB” that produces products tested right outside the center, on the snowy slopes of Mont Blanc and the mountain trails. 

For me, Salomon products now have more depth as I now understand the authenticity behind the development of an S-LAB shoe, ski, or boot. I am excited as a retailer to explain the hows and whys of the S-LAB classic boot, or what makes an Equipe 10 skate ski work so well, or why the Speedcross trail shoe is so much fun to own.  It’s this well designed and well thought out equipment that makes it so much fun to race, train or tour.

Birkie Nostalgia by Jan Guenther

It is hard to describe all the emotions that go into my Birkie experience. For me, the event is so wrapped up into everything I love about the sport of skiing, the three decades (yikes!) worth of skiing friends from Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota and my career of owning a ski business for over 27 years in both Illinois and Minnesota.

I do feel a bit guilty about becoming so immersed in an “event.” But, it is a benchmark of my kid’s growth and their ski interest (thank goodness there is a Barkie Birkie!); of snowfall; of business and the shop energy spiked by enthusiastic skiers; of my fitness and the nostalgia of years gone by. All are mixed together in one big emotional pile.

For the past two years Gear West has added to my “Birkie (retail) Fever” by organizing a now-growing wax service (over 220 skis!) and managing the ever expanding Swix / Gear West Expo wax booth. The fun of enjoying, supporting, educating and laughing with Birkie customers associated with our services fuels my excitement for the weekend and love of this business.

It’s the humor of the skiers – customers and our very own Gear West folks - that I enjoy so much. Such as our Brian Knutson, Master Ski Selector, Wax Person and Gear West owner who pours his soul onto every kick zone that he prepares for his personal classic race ski customers, or the shoe guy, Speedy, who almost “owned” the 8th wave classic age group due to his early morning diligence of skiing in tiny, continuous circles on the manmade Wirth Park loop. Our wax service bus and mail order guy, Tom Carlson, had the fun of piloting the big ol’‘Barth’ bus transporting hundreds of customer’s skis to Hayward, tearing down the Expo Friday night, recovering from a casted broken thumb, and managed to chop 45 minutes off his previous year’s race. Jenny Beckman, our Marketing Director and Co-Head Coach of Orono High school ski team frantically tried to make the credit card machine work in time for the expo start, and was on her feet selling wax, tools and race enthusiasm to all who needed it for 12 whole hours on both Thursday and Friday. Josh Doebbert, the guy who does the behind the scenes web work while secretly training to beat his boss (me!), yet did not because he lost leg strength on the lake (Josh has not worked at Gear West long enough to develop retail /expo leg muscles. Ari, our quiet but ever so knowledgeable retail sales guy and Hopkins Assistant Ski Coach, now-turned-young-father, encouraged his wife to participate with him in the classic race. Sven, our unflappable mail order man had struggled with thyroid problems in previous years and had concern about it this year, along with the responsibility of making sure the correct waxes left the store and made it to the expo. Finally, my dear friend Lynne Cecil (ancient Birkie winner) who threatened to sabotage my skis, petition me into the second wave, and feed me bad donuts, but I secretly know she would give me the pole off her arm just like CXC's Santi Ocariz did for our Elite, Olympic hopeful employee Matt Liebsch - who continues to break poles and have amazing finishes!


The Birkie makes me appreciate life. It’s the good health and fortunes that we all share, which allow us the time, energy and ability to love, laugh and participate in something that makes us so happy.