Inside Atomic With Yann Vallett, Part 2

18Oct 2019 by DS News Team

We continue our conversation with Yann Vallet, Atomic Nordic boss of the last 4 years, where he talks about products developed under his guidance.

All quotes are from Yann – while photos used for illustration purposes are ours, taken at different FIS World Cup stages & during athletes’ training.

– Atomic philosophy is ” Sport first, but customer satisfaction is equally important”

– No, still can not order fully personalized ski construction. But you could order personalized design of the skis provided that you are ready to pay for at least 50 pairs of them.

– Atomic does not have special sport skis production. We strive to have top skis produced as identical to each other as they could be. Customers gets same skis as athletes – difference, largely, being that athletes – or, rather their waxers – have the first pick. In other words, an amateur is using exactly same Redster Carbon skis as Simen Kruger does.

– Ideal quiver of serious amateur?
3 pairs of Redster Carbon Skating: Universal, Cold, Warm
3 pairs Redster Carbon Classic: again Universal, Cold, Warm
1 pair skinskis for training
– By comparision, Simen Kruger has about 20 pairs of classic and the same amount of skating skis.

– Doublepolling skis? We make them on order but market’s too small to warrant mass production

– Unlike skis, that are separately developed and very different from Salomon’s the current top-level Atomic boots are essentially Salomon S/LAb Carbons under different name. But that was a stop-gap measure. Atomic is at the final stages of developing its own boots – first for classic, than for skating.

– With new boots we are trying to achieve lower weight, better breathability – and evern higher durability. Customers expect boots to go for several seasons. Are they more for sprint or long-distance? Well, We want them to be warm enough for long-distance skiing.

– Target RRP will be 429 euros and the biggest market is Scandinavia.
– No on-spec production is planned for amateurs, no matter how well heeled, but top athletes will have theirs customized.

Of course, boots, bindings and skis are developed to work as a system and switching to boots of other makers if you run on Atomic skis is highly un-recommended.

– Atomic is no longer supporting/producing SNS

– No expansions into apparel or, say, rollerski production. We want to concentrate on skis and boots.

– Pro-level poles? Very stiff competition in that sector of the market

“ What sets top level Atomic skis apart is better acceleration that ultimately makes skiing more fun”

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