....I also managed to bend two pairs of TNC Comps I'd got on pro deals that season, and ended up going back to the KVC's....
K2 used to be such an amazing company! Two quick stories:
1. Core shot a VO on Day 1. Called K2, got transferred to the race shop, and
begged them to sell me one ski. They said it was difficult to do that.......and just sent me a new pair of skis. For free. Meant a lot to a young 28-year old kid just putting his career together.
2. Back in college, I bent a pair of 812s on a spring break trip to JH. K2 frigging sent me a new pair,
and a pair of 712s with a note that said "Use the 712s on bump days". I actually had that note until our recent move, but cannot find it at the moment (it's somewhere.....). Note: Might have been 810s and 710s, it was a long time ago.
And consumer preferences and purchase behaviors also differ. My point was “made in USA” by itself isn’t worth this much price premium (for me). There are plenty of examples where USA manufacturing is inferior and pumping out higher quantities of the same ski in China could actually translate to better quality. My opinion would change if the construction was different or there was something else “special” about it vs. the China made ones. Not a lot of details here so maybe the construction is different (think Volvo V-Werks or DPS Alchemist) or something else to change perceived value for me.
I remember reading an interview (in Powder Magazine?) with Tim Petrick when K2 first moved production to China. He expressed surprise that they found quality actually improved with the change, when measured by "culls" per 100 pair of skis. That was good enough for me at the time, but now, given any reasonable alternative, I'll choose something made elsewhere.