Air Partner Magazine A/W 25 - Magazine - Page 41
A/W 2025
For snowsport lovers, the appeal is
Today, the brand is renowned for unwavering
undeniable. Why settle for mass-market
quality and is the only company that designs
models built for statistical averages when
and builds 100% of the ski just for you.
Pete Wagner,
Founder & CEO.
you can have a pair engineered to your
body, riding style, aesthetic whims, and
T H E I M PAC T
even the exact sti昀昀ness and 昀氀ex pattern
But what truly changes when a ski is
you crave underfoot? We caught up with
this sought-after brand’s founder and
CEO, Pete Wagner, to discuss everything
from his inspiration for the business to the
transformative bene昀椀ts of custom skis.
custom-made? In a word: everything.
Mass-market skis are designed for averages,
whereas Wagner builds from scratch for an
individual. The result is better balance, more
control, greater e昀케ciency, and less fatigue.
“Customers often say they didn’t realise how
THE STORY BEHIND THE SKIS
much they were 昀椀ghting their skis until they
weren’t anymore,” Pete says. “With the right
Pete Wagner is far from your stereotypical
昀椀t, you don’t have to work as hard, it's easier
ski-industry entrepreneur. A mechanical
on your body, and you can ski for longer. It’s
engineer with a 昀氀air for software
a privilege to see the di昀昀erence it makes.”
development, he 昀椀rst made his mark in the
golf industry, writing algorithms to match
shaft speci昀椀cations to a player’s swing.
“In golf, and later in cycling, people saw how
much more performance they unlocked
when their equipment actually 昀椀t them,”
Pete recalls. “As an avid skier, I couldn’t
understand why the snowsport industry
hadn’t caught up. It was standard for boots to
be custom, but we were still expected to buy
skis o昀昀 the shelf and just hope for the best.”
So, Pete set out to change that.
In 2006, he launched Wagner Custom
Skis, adapting the proprietary software
he’d developed for golf into a ski-speci昀椀c
algorithm able to translate a skier’s body,
requirements, and preferences into precise
blueprints – customising everything from
length and width to 昀氀ex patterns, sidecut,
camber, and materials. Not one to do things
by halves, he opened his Telluride workshop,
昀椀lled it with cutting-edge technology, and
hired an experienced team of ski builders.
Pete's Telluride workshop.
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