Garmont is seeing their business diversify this year, as more specialty ski shops take on telemark and alpine touring brands. As a result, the SIA show cycle is getting more important to the company. Also because of this, they are beginning to see more interest in bigger, resort-style freeride “Backcountry Alpine” boots and bigger four-buckle Telemark boots designed more for resort-skiing with a few jaunts out-of-bounds.
While Scarpa and Crispi have both decided to invest in developing the New Telemark Norm boot and binding system (See the SIA show review in BOSS_0705), Garmont has decided to throw their hat in with Black Diamond, which is working on a different step-in/releasable telemark system. This conflict is very reminiscent of the NNN Salomon XC binding conflict and it is very likely we will see a divided telemark industry in the near future. Garmont management feels innovation is happening in the telemark industry like never before.
In the meantime, Garmont has picked up the 7tm releasable binding distribution rights in the U.S., which used to be held by Karhu. Since K2 acquired the brand late last year, the distribution was up for grabs.
Scarpa inked a deal with Intuition, a premium moldable foam manufacturer, to have exclusive rights on ski boot liners for Telemark and AT boots. The liner “packs out” less than traditional moldable foam liners and is lasted in ½ size increments. Scarpa is also seeing the trend towards more resort-served backcountry skiing and is making products that easily cross-over between carving corduroy and hiking for turns. At the same time, the company is keeping backcountry purists happy with products like its F3, which is essentially a superlight rando-race boot modified for backcountry use.
