SIA The Intelligent Partner - Summer 2007 - (Page 20)

I N DUST RY | SUP P L I ER | BY I S EULT D E V L I N | Jason Levinthal Brand Director (Rebel Command) and Founder, Line Skis Photo by Felix Rioux a gold at the X Games slopestyle event (the ﬁrst-ever skiboard event) on Line skiboards and Levinthal took the bronze. “It just launched us,” says Levinthal. Now owned by K2, Line Skis continues to innovate and predicts sales up by 20 percent for 2007, a down year for most. How long have you been in business and how did you get started? In 1995, I felt there was a need for skiing to evolve. All the other action sports had evolved and it seemed obvious that it needed to happen for skiing. I lit a little ﬁre to get it going. I had been snowboarding and skiing forever. Why not start making skis? There were hundreds of snowboard companies. Photo by Matt Levinthal ow do you keep participation in winter sports growing? Start a product revolution, create some excitement, and be in touch with your customer 24/7. That’s what Jason Levinthal, founder of Line Skis, did and continues to do. A teenager who made a ski in his garage as part of a school project liked how his ski worked on the snow. He felt the sport of skiing wasn’t progressing and needed a spark of excitement. So he spent his entire summer in the garage – from 7-12 – making machines ‘til he could make one ski per day. In spring H of ’96, he went to the SIA Vegas trade show, rented a 10x10 booth, and didn’t get any orders. Not long after, a fax arrived at the local UPS store. “A Japanese distributor sent me an order for 1000 pairs,” says Levinthal. In summer ’96, he rented a 1,000-square-foot warehouse and enlisted the help of friends and family and ﬁnished the order on time! At SIA, Salomon showed its Snowblade and other companies started making similar products. “The big companies created momentum and legitimacy but we were authentic core,” says Levinthal. In 1998, Levinthal’s friend Mike Nick won What have you seen change most over the years? Skis had not evolved, so the sport could not progress until it was reignited by an evolution in product that enabled the participant to do more on product. I built a product that wasn’t that different if you knew what you wanted to do. You need to apply concepts from other sports and sometimes go backwards to spark new interest in the sport. Twin tips were a strong category in Alpine equipment this year – do you see that trend continuing? While other brands have been down 20 percent or more this year, at the end 20 | SIA | T.I.P. | SUMMER 2007

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of SIA The Intelligent Partner - Summer 2007

Contents Word off the Slopes SIA Staff Contributors SIA Business SIA Board of Directors Greening the Biz Want Instant Success? Just Add Snow Out and About Day in the Life – Supplier Day in the Life – Retailer Day in the Life – Rep Products & Services Index to Advertisers

SIA The Intelligent Partner - Summer 2007

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