GO LONG: Icelantic AT Boards Goes the Distance with Short (and fat) Skis

In January 2006, a small ski company of five friends from Evergreen, Colorado, won the ISPO Brand New award in Germany, the largest competition in the sporting goods industry for start-up companies. The company is called Icelantic AT Boards, and since winning the award, they have begun to convert skiers to their dubiously shaped skis.

The evolution of Icelantic began in the head of Ben Anderson when he was 14. Now, Anderson and his four friends, all in their mid-20s, have a commitment to offering something different to the ski industry through their youth, energy and innovation.

“One of our main goals is to come into the industry and do everything different – keep it pure and let people feed off the energy from people working here and off of the product itself,” Anderson says. “We have a fresh vibe and a fresh image, from how we do business – keeping it different but offering something to the retailer and end buyers – something they’ve never experienced before.”

From understanding the shape of his friends’ snowboards, Anderson recognized a niche for shorter, fatter skis. Anderson said he wanted to see how far he could push the surface area of the skis without compromising its performance. The Shaman, at a 161 cm length and 160 mm width at the tips, is the company’s most extreme version of this ideal.

“People recognize the brand for offering something different,” Anderson says. “It takes some convincing for people to get on them, but the majority of riders are blown away with how it performs.”

John Adams, who co-owns the Mount Baker Ski Shop with his brother, says that after a ski rep dropped off a pair of the Shamans at his shop, he wrote them off and let them sit. But after his brother took them out and raved about them, he mounted tele bindings on the skis and has sworn by them since.

“The Shamans are great for touring or powder days, especially at Baker where they don’t really groom anything and there’s always new snow on the ground, you can ski the whole mountain well,” Adams says. “I got a quiver of skis – I got a ski shop – and I would grab those more often than not.”

Anderson says that since he first started thinking about making skis he’s been committed to learning more about the industry and how to make a company work. After graduating high school Anderson went to Boulder twice a week to work with a company called Journey, where he learned the manufacturing side of the ski-making business. Anderson then went to Western Washington University, but during his second year he decided that he was too focused for the university atmosphere.