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Club A by Torstai shared by Barry Levinson

Dave Petersen

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FROM LAPLAND TO THE TODAY SHOW – THE CLUB A STORY
Written by Jaakko Järvensivu on December 21, 2018

READ HERE
http://www.thesnowalker.com/2018/12/21/from-lapland-to-the-today-show-the-club-a-story/

Torstai-Telex.jpg


Turunen.jpg
 

wallyk

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This story was fantastic. @Dave Petersen great find and a big THANK YOU.......those pics of Hattrup and Plake instantly brought me back to being a "runny nosed kid" who had never skied any where but Vermont and Massachusetts watching "believable ski heroes".
 
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Dave Petersen

Dave Petersen

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This story was fantastic. @Dave Petersen great find and a big THANK YOU.......those pics of Hattrup and Plake instantly brought me back to being a "runny nosed kid" who had never skied any where but Vermont and Massachusetts watching "believable ski heroes".

You need to thank Barry Levinson directly -- he contacted us! :ogbiggrin:
 
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Dave Petersen

Dave Petersen

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@wallyk

Yeah, those late 80s/early 90s ski videos did it for me too! I had to go out and buy fluorescent ski clothes!

Plus they got me interested in Chamonix which I and my family visited a decade ago.
Petersen-photo-Chamonix.jpg
 
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skipress

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Great to see this, I'd not seen Barry's telex before but a year later with a fax and in different markets went thru the same process. We had lots of chats about the foibles of the company and trips to northern Finland. Those trips involved snowmobiles and vodka in tipis - really called Lavvus.

Barry also worked with a great technical skiwear brand called Phoenix [not Phenix]

One of the other difficulties with Club A back then was that they were not used to a distributor model where the good were sold at low margin, big numbers to a single importer who then sold on - their model was a agent where the seller simply too a commission. It was hard to make that work. They also flipped the following [or following plus 1] season's look to colours that were more suited to going hunting - which was not helpful. However that 'Glen Plake' pullover jacket remains one of the best looking skiwear pieces of all time.

Barry - if you're lurking, ping me an email.
 

bmlvail

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Great to see this, I'd not seen Barry's telex before but a year later with a fax and in different markets went thru the same process. We had lots of chats about the foibles of the company and trips to northern Finland. Those trips involved snowmobiles and vodka in tipis - really called Lavvus.

Barry also worked with a great technical skiwear brand called Phoenix [not Phenix]

One of the other difficulties with Club A back then was that they were not used to a distributor model where the good were sold at low margin, big numbers to a single importer who then sold on - their model was a agent where the seller simply too a commission. It was hard to make that work. They also flipped the following [or following plus 1] season's look to colours that were more suited to going hunting - which was not helpful. However that 'Glen Plake' pullover jacket remains one of the best looking skiwear pieces of all time.

Barry - if you're lurking, ping me an email.
Those were some days! We did work as in importer/distributer we sold way more than we were able to receive with many items being cancelled by their production at the last minute leaving dealers in the lurch. Lovely people in Finland though.
 

bmlvail

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skipress

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Those were some days! We did work as in importer/distributer we sold way more than we were able to receive with many items being cancelled by their production at the last minute leaving dealers in the lurch. Lovely people in Finland though.
Yes we did the same but I remember their prices being very based on agents [high] . Not as much as I remember the collection that followed the 'Blizzard' line; from stunning colours to a look that could have done double duty as camouflage in war zones.

You're right tho, the Finns were great. I still remember the utter horror when suggested I was going to drive from Helsinki to the offices....'It's 900km.... with snow up to your doors,... you're an idiot'. Andy T', you were right :)
 

bmlvail

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Yes we did the same but I remember their prices being very based on agents [high] . Not as much as I remember the collection that followed the 'Blizzard' line; from stunning colours to a look that could have done double duty as camouflage in war zones.

You're right tho, the Finns were great. I still remember the utter horror when suggested I was going to drive from Helsinki to the offices....'It's 900km.... with snow up to your doors,... you're an idiot'. Andy T', you were right :)
I did the drive from Stockholm twice once via ferry to Helsinki and once "over the top" from Sweden. By USA standards they were easy trips but they thought I was crazy. One trip I drove from Luxumbourg City (cheap Icelandair flight) where I rented a Golf at Europcar drove it to Kemijarvi then over to Riksgransen - Narvik - down Norwegian coast then after a million ferries said f*ck it and cut back to Sweden via Tarnaby so I can see Stenmark's home town then to Stockholm and back to Luxumbourg. When I return the car to the rental agency you could hear the scream perhaps all the way back to Finland! Most KM ever put on a Europcar rental! (unlimited miles!) So many great stories on that trip!.
 

skipress

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I did the drive from Stockholm twice once via ferry to Helsinki and once "over the top" from Sweden. By USA standards they were easy trips but they thought I was crazy. One trip I drove from Luxumbourg City (cheap Icelandair flight) where I rented a Golf at Europcar drove it to Kemijarvi then over to Riksgransen - Narvik - down Norwegian coast then after a million ferries said f*ck it and cut back to Sweden via Tarnaby so I can see Stenmark's home town then to Stockholm and back to Luxumbourg. When I return the car to the rental agency you could hear the scream perhaps all the way back to Finland! Most KM ever put on a Europcar rental! (unlimited miles!) So many great stories on that trip!.
They must have trashed he car straight afterwards.

That just about caused my michelin routefinder to explode:

Screenshot 2022-01-16 003419.jpg



And that's probably well under the real distance.

The old man and I bottled out and stuck with Finnair :)
 

skipress

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I think it was a bit over 4,000 miles
That's about the same as the same as the Michelin number. Suspect the car might have needed a service and a wash :)
 

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