Where there is a will, there is a way. Just ask Jorge Vidal.
It all started in 2013 when a former television reporter and avid sport enthusiast from Jaca, Spain was looking for a new endurance training option as his injured knee was craving for one with less of impact.
He was introduced to rollerskiing, then highly exotic, nearly unheard of in that part of Europe. He loved it – with a catch:
“In Spain, in those years only Marwe rollerskis were available in stores, but at a price I didnt want to pay because I just wanted to try this sport” . Jorge had quickly surmised there must be a market for cheaper, entry level rollerskis
Thus Bonés Skiroll of Spain was born.
Today, in 2018, Bonés is making rollerskis employed in training by several national xcski and biathlon teams. At least 10 athletes that went to the Olympic Games- 2018 use bright green rollerskis with skulls & bones for a logo ( or , at least, that’s how the old logo looked). In the FIS Rollerski Word Cup this season the 2nd and the 3rd best ladies, and the 2nd best Junior men racers were competing on the rollerskis from Jaca.
The company is now producing 10 times the amount of skis it did in its first year – and is consistently profitable. All that without venture capital or the South-East Asian investing options. “5 Year plan” fulfilled?
Jorge Vidal, founder and CEO of Bonés Skiroll is quick with a word and almost brutally honest:
“When I had started with all of this, I just wanted to have my own rollerskis – cheaper, I wasn’t planning on launching a company to produce them. Now there are Innovik skis from Decathlon – if they were to be available back then, Bonés Skiroll would not exist.
But since there were no budget rollerskis on the market – I had to launch my own brand, ha! From the start I did not want ours to be a “boring brand” – so aesthetically, stylistically OneWay was an inspiration. There were the only ones, in my opinion, who were trying to be fun. The rest are still not so much fun if you compare with other sports.
– If you were to go back five years and to start again – what would you do differently?
– I would spend more time on deciding a specific direction to follow. We went on the market under the motto “Better have it done now than have it done perfect”. It was very useful to have feedback and to gradually start making the rollerskis our customers wanted, but there was no a clear plan. Probably we will have to take care of that next time we will launch a product under the Bonés brand
– Products you are most proud of?
Bonés Skiroll Carbon S18 SK was one great product, some customers told us it has “the best feeling ever on rollerskia”. We are also proud of WorldRace, the skating model for rollerski racing that is one of the lightest and fastest rollerskis on the market and that is being used in the FIS rollerski World Cup – that was beyond dreams when when we started. Also we are very proud to support the Spanish ski mountaineering team and Croatia biathlon team. These two partnership gave us a lot of both joy and knowledge – and brought new customers too!
– What about the rollerski market as a whole? Will it grow?
Yes, it will grow. At a different pace in different countries – but will grow. Our bet is on the countries outside traditional Nordic superpowers – who would think that we are going to sell rollerskis to North Africa, for instance? Even there we have now some demand. Interesting fact: wheels some established rollerski brands from the Nordic countries use are not designed to withstand the heat of those latitudes, they get worn out quickly. We at Bonés took it into consideration and are offering durable hard wheels – and good summer boots too.
– And the next five years?
The Bonés brand is expanding. I already mentioned rollerski boots that were a hit of the outgoing season for us. We also now produce sunglasses – it helps us to be present during the winter season. The popularity of rollerskiing is growing – there are more and more kids of school age who get on skis each year. The demand for reliable, quality, European-built yet decently priced rollerskis will be on ascend.
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