HIGH SOCIETY: Aspen's newest ski company
Skier Nate Berkel after winning Kick Aspen Big Air Spring 06
High Society Freeride Company, an up-and-coming ski and snowboard company based in Aspen/Snowmass, didn’t start out with a ton of cash. Its founders – Reggies Charles, Jason Flynn, Jay Morin and Jeremy Rungi – were just four guys living the ski bum life, working in a ski shop.
It started in 2001 with a bunch of sketches on cocktail napkins and a feeling that they wanted more out of their skis and boards. They made a deal with a friend’s father, who owned a snowboard company in New Zealand, to design a handful of boards and bring them stateside, working extra hours at bartending and valet jobs to do so. They immediately sold the full run for three times what they paid for them.
“We found out that other people were looking for same thing we were,” says Reggie Charles, the company’s 25-year-old president. “It kind of surprised us all. We had no overhead, no ads, we could’ve ended it right there.”
But they didn’t, and it’s been a “slow, gradual process” since then to gain market share in an industry dominated by globally established companies like Rossignol, Atomic and K2.
High Society Freeride Company officially formed in fall 2003, debuting with 50 units in its first season – as many as its four founders could afford to put out.
That first run was simple: all black with just the High Society logo. “People were buying them for how they’re made,” says Charles. “We couldn’t just create a brand; we had to make it good.”
They sold out. Word had gotten around that a bunch of local guys were making quality products, and listening to what the community wanted.
It remained a grassroots effort: They held a graphics contest on their website and sponsored young athletes in local contests (aspiring athletes can apply on the sponsorship section of highsocietyfreeride.com). They even give back, donating a portion of sales to local nonprofits.
