Inside Famed Salomon Kilo Area With Its Boss Jean-Marc Draeyer

14Nov 2019 by DS News Team

You do know what Salomon’s Kilo is, right?!

If on off-chance you haven’t heard of the Kilo, here’s a brief explanation offered by the Salomon Nordic boss, Nicolas Stamos:

” The Kilo Program is where specialty ski shops can order on customer’s demand skis that are hand picked at he factory according to a very narrow corridor and according to the exact specifications. So you get skis picked exactly according to your own preferences among thousands. Top selection! Also you can get the same grinding we propose to our World Cup athletes. You are thus treated exactly as Sjur Roethe, and get the skis he could have used in Seefeld for example. This just requires a small effort of early booking in order to be best served. Early birds catches the worms!”

Sjur and his S/LABs. You could order yourself a pair as closely matching his as possible – and with the same grind

For something that became a bit of a stuff of legends, it’s actually one of those rare easy-to-touch legends. The Daily Skier had a massive privilege of a brief tour & explanation by the very guy in charge of the Salomon racing ski selection/preps as well as of the Kilo Program, Jean-Marc Draeyer

Jean-Marc is a Swissman who lived & worked all over Europe and speaks at least five languages fluently
Atomic and Salomon skis are produced at the same production line by the same technicians. And assessed & measured immediately after the crucial press stage
..then comes Jean – Marc and his staffers and , basically, select those skis they they deem most closely matched and overall fit to be selected for the Kilo i.e. for the “podium fights”
…so, the next step for selected skis is another set of measuring and calibration….
.. thus selected, the cream-de-la-cream of the French/Austrian ski making then gets a double treatment at a separate room, on two different stone grinding machines : first flattening …
..then final grind as requested. We reckon Erika is planning to use these on fine grained man made snow ( assuming we got Salomon grinding specs right)
Wide shot of the Kilo Room where the best skis are awaiting those who order them – ski boutique owners and top team waxers/technicians

Jean-Marc Draeyer has this to tell to all current and future S/LAB Carbon ski fans:

New Classic Carbon skis could be called radically new. They are more rigid, much better kick, greater acceleration

The main difference is that they have this genuine carbon ply supplied by Sygmatex, over a large portion of the ski. Not your typical carbon – 45 degrees angle weaving, super thin.
70-80% of racing skis stars use are directly from stock ( S/LAB Select). Andrew Musgrave’s podium ( 3d in Toblach in 2017) was achieved on stock skis.
Choosing of skis is empirical process done by a human with a lot of experience – computer can’t do that

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