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The Never-Ending Peak By Bode Miller Skis Discussion Thread

skipress

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In my model:

• living in ski country ✅

•taking over the garage, basement as warehouse space ✅

•pre existing office near ski areas with skis in lobby ✅

•dumpster diving for ski boxes ✅

•intern packs & ships✅

likely have spent 5k just on packing tape
Ahhhhh, not sure that s what they have in mind at all
 

Brian Finch

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Ahhhhh, not sure that s what they have in mind at all
Yea, but I’ve kept this hustle up for over a decade & moved hundreds of skis.

F9CB4223-73C2-46A2-BA8A-856189B5CA9C.jpeg

Bode’s on his third or fourth ski company- just say’n. :)
 

skipress

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Yea, but I’ve kept this hustle up for over a decade & moved hundreds of skis.

View attachment 168648
Bode’s on his third or fourth ski company- just say’n. :)
Oh I'm with you and at a small scale it's how you'd do it and how I d do it, but with talk of big warehouses etc.....

If you're dealing with small sales, very specialist product, probably a lot of word of mouth then the tape and dumpster packaging works.

But.... if the schtick is wider sales, DTC with less word of mouth and personal contact then your $1000 Peak's arriving in a Rossi box with the first address deleted is either a bad look or it up ends someone like me on a wild goose chase to see if they're coming out of Rossi and not Elan :)
 

Brian Finch

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^ no doubt. He’s not going to be able to cover the tuning gear & machines. Most of these DTCs are either labor of love or trying to get enough attention to get gobbled up by a mainstream brand.

I’m still pulling for him, but if I wanted an Elan, I’d buy an Elan.

Peak has also bafflingly truncated sales to many buyers by capping length @ 184.

He’s trying to really prove “they money is in the bunny….” with a single length in the 180s, but offering 2 options in the 160s.
 

Quandary

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The initial cost for the investors in this venture are pretty minimal. No buildings, no factory, no equipment, no reps etc. There is the cost of prototyping, molds, website design, rented space for receiving/dispatching, a small business system to keep track of the accounting, a few employees. They have limited the molds required by limiting size. They have also set the structure of purchase by having the "refundable" $50 deposit. They may very well limit the initial year to producing based on the deposits with a bit of cushion plus what ever known distribution their model has for getting the skis into the wild. Following this method they get the skis out in year one and the buzz starts more broadly than Skitalk and TGR and sales for year two build. Following this model the initial investment is actually very minimal relatively speaking. I'd guess it doesn't exceed a $1mm. This is throw away money for a well funded PE.
 

fatbob

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Oh this thread has years of giving in it for the "I told you so" factor on both sides though of course mods could kill it if and when editorial decision du jour becomes pump Bode's next ski company ;)
 

fatbob

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The initial cost for the investors in this venture are pretty minimal. No buildings, no factory, no equipment, no reps etc. There is the cost of prototyping, molds, website design, rented space for receiving/dispatching, a small business system to keep track of the accounting, a few employees. They have limited the molds required by limiting size. They have also set the structure of purchase by having the "refundable" $50 deposit. They may very well limit the initial year to producing based on the deposits with a bit of cushion plus what ever known distribution their model has for getting the skis into the wild. Following this method they get the skis out in year one and the buzz starts more broadly than Skitalk and TGR and sales for year two build. Following this model the initial investment is actually very minimal relatively speaking. I'd guess it doesn't exceed a $1mm. This is throw away money for a well funded PE.
So you're saying the Montana facility is vaporware?
 

James

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I don’t get why people care if Peak is around forever. You get a product to use, warranty is a year? it is what it is.

Meanwhile, people have bought all sorts of Indy stuff over the years that were frankly awful. It’s fashion. Which I don’t think Bode/Peak pay enough attention to.
 

fatbob

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I don’t get why people care if Peak is around forever. You get a product to use, warranty is a year? it is what it is.

Meanwhile, people have bought all sorts of Indy stuff over the years that were frankly awful. It’s fashion. Which I don’t think Bode/Peak pay enough attention to.
I don't think people do care - JAFSC- it ultimately doesn't matter you've got what you've got and very few skis shatter apart under immediate ownership. The special sauce and the boasts and the players involved and their track record (or otherwise) make this interesting with a side dose of caveat emptor for the early adopters.
 

Quandary

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So you're saying the Montana facility is vaporware?

Is it under construction? Is it a facility to use for shipping with an option to expand should things go well? I think that as a non-insider we don't really know the business plan, financial triggers for events to occur, target sales, profits etc.
 

Heeler

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cantunamunch

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These Lemondy vibes?

Yes. Notice that the presentation pattern is the same : retired star associated with some innovation and with prior branding experience promises market-affecting innovation, then presents a first line (Bode with the Peaks we've seen, GL with the e-bikes), then comes forward with complete line product.

There were enough points of coincidence when @Philpug posted that I thought they (Bode & co.) might be playing for a parallel, and if a reasonable fraction of the claimed innovation is real, I don't care that it's probably just an upmarket vanity project. Even if it winds up going nowhere - like the Bricklins we discussed in the other thread - I kind of want it to happen.
 

Jwrags

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When, as history suggests, Bode leaves this ski manufacturing venture he can always devote his time to this
3AF71F60-3F37-4FAC-83E7-8ED638D229DF.jpeg

:)
 

James

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When, as history suggests, Bode leaves this ski manufacturing venture he can always devote his time to this
View attachment 169187
:)
Well Waffle House the chain got “Waffle House”, the small co that sells waffles on ski slopes, to change their name to “Waffle Cabin”. In this case if Peak goes anywhere and cares, it would be easier to just pay them to change. Like Vail buying epicski.com
 
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Philpug

Philpug

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Thinking know one knows why Bode put Tyrolia demos on an elan ;)
He doesn't have to. We saw 3-4 pairs of them and all had different bindings on them. We are using Salomon Strives, which actually Bode liked and might start. Elan is just building the skis, other than the 88, they are all Bode's own molds.
 

Brian Finch

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He doesn't have to. We saw 3-4 pairs of them and all had different bindings on them. We are using Salomon Strives, which actually Bode liked and might start. Elan is just building the skis, other than the 88, they are all Bode's own molds.

Just adds to the intrigue - so many better bindings out there in terms of steering & relevance. But then, that’s Bode.
 

Swiss Toni

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Elan will be doing a lot more than “just building the skis”. The molds will have been designed by Elan and their toolmaker, which is likely to be Plamtex int d.o.o https://www.plamtex.si/tool-making/ski-molds/ Plamtex is located in Komenda, which is about 25 miles from the Elan factory. Peak will have had to pay for them, but Bode will have had no involvement in their design and manufacture.
 

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