Igneous Skis 2001-02
307-734-8788
www.igneousskis.com
This small company, based out of Jackson Hole, Wyo., has put out 2,000 pairs of handmade, custom-ordered skis since Igneous' inception in 1996. How small is Igneous? More than half the staff fits on a triple chair; in fact, you may have seen them in this very image in a recent Dewar's ad. Why start up a ski company in the first place? "We wanted to make a ski with race-room performance but that went off-piste," says 31-year-old company founder Adam Sherman, a hard-charging 100-days-a-year skier. To that end, Igneous skis are expert, big-mountain boards with maple wood cores and an old-school laminate construction. And bases like "mini bulletproof vests to deflect rocks," he says.
The Igneous line is unlike any other company's. There are three different turn styles: carver, GS, and fall line, and each comes in either midfat (70-80 mm waist width) or fat (88-118 mm). Here's how it works: Customers pick shape and length, then Igneous puts a flex pattern and a stiffness that matches their turn style and the force they generate when skiing (based on an individual's height, weight, and speed). "After you've picked your shape, length, flex pattern, and stiffness," explains Sherman, "then you pick from nine graphics."
There won't be any radical changes for 2001-02: "Next year, we'll have the same kind of program but probably with more lengths than we have right now," he says. Skis will retail for about $750.
