Two homegrown Colorado ski companies, both started out of garages, have attracted customers across the country and world while striving to maintain the hands-on service and craftsmanship they believe set them apart from their larger counterparts.
Mike McCabe co-founded Folsom Custom Skis in 2008 working in a garage a couple of blocks from Folsom Street in Boulder. He went to the University of Colorado, home of Folsom Field, the football stadium.
For McCabe, the company’s name was a tie to the founders’ roots. But some people assume there is a connection to Folsom, Calif., or Folsom State Prison, made famous by the Johnny Cash song “Folsom Prison Blues.” So, the company has played that up with its “Johnny C” and “Cash” skis.
“We have some graphics and stuff that kind of pay homage to Johnny Cash as well,” said McCabe, who is the CEO.
As Folsom Custom Skis heads into its 18th season, McCabe said the emphasis remains on tailoring skis to the end user and keeping all the work — design, customizing the skis, manufacturing — under one roof in Colorado.
Icelantic Skis has a similar origin story. Ben Anderson began building prototypes of skis in his parents’ garage in Evergreen in 2002. With the help of a small group of friends, Anderson started the company in 2006.
Icelantic is celebrating its 20th anniversary this ski season with several events and the launch of a book, “One Degree Celsius,” which chronicles the Golden-based company’s history.
“From the first prototypes in Ben’s garage to seeing our skis on mountains around the world, this 20-year mark is a testament to everyone who’s been part of our story,” Annelise Loevlie, co-founder and CEO of Icelantic, said in a statement.
The company is still an independent ski maker, one of a handful of brands manufacturing all its skis in the U.S., said Hanna Whirty, marketing director for Icelantic. The company shares space in the Never Summer Industries’ snowboard manufacturing facility in Denver.
“We’ve grown a lot over the past 20 years,” Whirty said. “We started with Ben and three others. We have 11 full-time employees now, plus a handful of contracted and part-time people. We are coast-to-coast and international.
“But I would say the bread and butter of our customer base, the highest density of that, is here in Colorado,” Whirty added.
For both Folsom and Icelantic, staying rooted in Colorado makes sense.
“I’d say the coolest thing is that we have the Rocky Mountains at our back door,” Whirty said. “We can pick up a prototype from the factory that just went through finishing, get it out, drive up (Interstate) 70 and be on snow in under an hour.”
Employees can go from being hands-on in the factory to problem-solving within hours, Whirty said.
The two companies said Colorado also has a great labor pool.
“There are lots of young, fired-up talent coming out of college and looking to come work here,” McCabe said.
And there’s access to the outdoors that keeps people in Colorado or draws them here, he said. McCabe grew up in Loveland and skied while attending CU. He also skied professionally for a while before starting Folsom.
“From a business perspective (Denver International Airport) is such a beautiful hub to have right at my disposal to go anywhere I want to go, skiing or anything else,” McCabe said.
Intentional growth
Folsom expanded from a 1,200-square-foot shop to a nearly 10,000-square-foot factory in Denver. “We were doing around 80 to 100 pairs of skis in our first season,” McCabe said.
The company currently produces about 2,000 units a year.
“We’re growing quite a bit,” McCabe said, “but we’ve intentionally kept it small so that we can really customize the skis, specifically tailor things to that end user, keeping a high level of customer service all the way through.”
While Folsom talks to individual customers to tailor the skis, the company also has its “Signature Series.” McCabe said the construction and the materials are the same as the custom-built versions, but are ready to go out of the box for a lower price.
McCabe said Folsom is one of the few ski companies in the U.S. that can say it does everything under one roof: engineering, tool creation, printing, manufacturing and “getting everything buttoned up, mounted and shipped.”
Custom graphics are a big component of what the company does, McCabe said. Folsom will work with customers who have personal designs in mind.
Folsom has a couple of full-time employees, a number of part-time employees and interns. McCabe said the company automated much of the production early on to speed up the process and keep the “labor component” lower. The company has been able to avoid much of the fallout from higher tariffs because roughly 90% of its materials come from domestic sources.
“We’re still having to pay some tariffs on certain imports,” McCabe said. “Bindings, for example. I got pretty walloped on that one.”
Icelantic also sources most of its materials domestically.
Folsom offers “demo” skis that people can rent to try out before deciding to buy. The company also has a program that allows parents to rent skis for the season for their kids. The company fixes or replaces the skis at the end of the season if necessary and keeps the information on the kids handy so they’re ready to go if they return the next year.
“I’m a new father. I’ve got a 1 year and a 3 year old,” McCabe said. “I needed to figure out how to start serving young kids in the ski market.”
At Icelantic, many of the employees have been with the company for a while, Whirty said. “Our company has always been dedicated to providing our employees a living wage, benefits.”
Icelantic is a certified B Corporation, a for-profit company that must meet certain standards for social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability. Whirty said the company’s headquarters is powered by solar energy. She said the company assesses the kinds of materials it uses, including its shipping materials, to make more informed decisions about environmental impacts.
In the industry, Icelantic is known for its three-year warranty, Whirty said. “We’re known for having very durable skis.”
Whirty said the company is also known for its artwork. Travis Parr, a co-founder, has done the skis’ top sheet art since the start. Parr is a painter, illustrator and sculptor, according to the company’s website.
“Every year there’s a new theme, new artwork,” Whirty said.
The current theme is “Into the West,” which Whirty said centers on the Colorado frontier, cowboys, animals and people of the land.
Icelantic recently acquired a facility in Golden that serves as a tuning and repair shop as well as a demonstration center for its products.