Spine That Does Things Differently (But Finally Launches Its Website)

Spine Sports is perhaps the oddest company there is in the whole of the xcski industry.

Yet their market strategy seems to be working as more and more athletes and serious amateurs are being seen in Spine’s marquee lapis-lazuli boots.

Here’s what makes them so different:

– They are the world biggest cross-country boots producer by volume, churn out hundreds of thousands of them every year and operate large and well equipped factory in outskirts of the city of Yaroslavl in Russia – yet up until this week didn’t even have a website to speak of.

– They explore the market niches the more established, legacy players refused to consider ( or at least don’t advertize) e.g. custom boot fit via 3D scan and custom colors. You could order the boots of your dreams right now, directly from Spine – but don’t expect to find them on the shelves of usual European outfitting centers and dealers.

– They openly name and praise athlets who help them test and fine-tune their race level boots ( good luck in finding out even in this age of social media who tests the other brands) – yet they refuse to market their products the usual way, by sponsoring World Cup athletes.

Is it lack of a marketing strategy – or a very novel marketing strategy befitting the 21 century? The jury is still out , but hey, it does seem to be leaning towards ” The Spine Way”.

At least one oddity is there no more any longer – you could check out the newly launched Spine.ru and perhaps find out more about world’s newest race boots. Just don’t expect it to look very shmaltzy – those guys concentrate on making boots, not marketing.