 Poster: A snowHead
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Was intrigued this morning when I woke up to an email from Faction announcing a partnership with IWC. For those not in the know they are a premium swiss watch manufacturer and they do make some nice pieces that cost $$$.
Either way was perplexed by the collab, though the limited edition ski at €699 isn't priced as bad as I thought it would be - likely it is a new top-sheet for an existing ski - just can't quite understand what is going and how did we go from Candide to this.
On one hand why not tap into the UHNW ski market, after all Verbier is home to them, but at the same time this seems like such a departure from the brand and type of skier they made a name for themselves from and so looked to represent.
https://factionskis.com/collections/limited-edition/products/studio-1-iwc-collab-ski-2023
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Limited to 55 pairs and designed in collaboration with IWC Schaffhausen, the Studio 1 IWC Collab was created to withstand the G forces of the world’s best freeskiers. This limited edition freestyle ski pairs with the IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph TOP GUN Edition “Lake Tahoe” and features a luminescent “IWC LAKE TAHOE” design which glows in the dark. The ski is built with carbon/rubber reinforcement under the binding area for heavy landings; a carbon weave for torsional strength without added bulk; a symmetrical shape for effortless switch skiing; and a 7mm XL sidewall for supreme edge hold and protection of the wood core.
Expected delivery by 24 December. |
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Margins, marketing, and probably want a bite out of the ‘fashion’ side of wintersports like Black Crows have quite adeptly been profiting from.
Hard to make money selling to broke ski-bums who all want pro-form pricing 
But there have been quite a few watch brand collabs in wintersports this year. Norrona and another outerwear brand I can’t remember did recently too.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Quite clearly! A large part of their strategy is to crack China (they sponsor Eileen Gu). With that in mind an expensive Swiss watch colab makes sense
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@BobinCH, Nothing but fat twins is/was a great tag line 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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My Factions which enjoyed a healthy second life are pretty long de-edged.
But for a Swiss ski co surely a watch collab isn't the most offensive thing they could do. I've seen heaps of Factions in N America but no idea how many people are paying retail for them. Getting some stuff away at full price under a "luxury" banner is just commercial sense no?
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Thanks. Yeah I tried looking on the Faction website and didn’t see much that matched.
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Not sure any of this makes sense, Faction don't make skis do they? They're just rebadged Atomic/Polish/+1, so they're kinda rebadged rebadged skis.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Definitely not from Faction moulds.
Faction has probably lost some of its early roots but a necessity to move from niche ski to becoming a mainstream brand. More work to do but revenues are heading in the trajectory and increasing their share of new ski sales. Their flat tails are becoming more visible in lift queues.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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