Thread: greg hill is now on salomon

Originally Posted by Big Steve

Not all successful business models require paying full time salaries to a team of athlete personalities.

while i totally agree, in general terms, with this, i would like to point out the counter-arguement: these folks don't SELL the product (i use this and so should you), they VALIDATE them (i beat the living piss out of this, and didn't break it). of course you are right about greg being pretty low vis in europe, where 90% of dynafit's business is...



and to throw a total conspiracy theory out there, anyone want to guess who know employes federico? (the mastermind behind the tlt5)

hint: the name is in the title of this thread.
hint #2: he is not employed by greg hill.

No shit?

Originally Posted by Big Steve

No shit?

http://www.wildsnow.com/7480/federico-sbrissa-dynafit/

Originally Posted by marshalolson

anyone want to guess who know employes federico? (the mastermind behind the tlt5)

I forgot about that... Interesting times ahead...

Well, Silas ( a local PNW TLT5 devotee) will strongly disagree that Fede was the mastermind having recently stated his opinion that Fede was just a paper pusher and marketer on WildSnow recently and that some older d00d was the mastermind( Mario, I think?). However, it is quite amazing to see how many skier's up here in the PNW are adopting the TLT5. There's fucking gangs of them, up to 8 in a group....all clad in $700 to $1000 ( depending on source) TLT5's. Now these are cost conscious people who pride themselves on not following fads and optimizing cost/performance.
When you can get these fuckers to drop $700-$1000...then there's obviously some decent profit to be made.
End result= good for us skiers.

........

Originally Posted by CookieMonster

The world's most high profile backcountry skier

Any basis for that?

I'm fucking glad Dynafit ain't forking over more $ for sponsorships. They're fucking stupid. Apparently they work for the boyband groupies on TGR though.

Yeah, Federico Sbrissa and Greg Hill on the same team - I'm looking for a sub 1,000 gram DIN 14 tech binding and a tech boot that doesn't self destruct real soon. And a race version. Salomon isn't in this to fall flat on their face (again).

Buy Plum? Buy Pierre Gignoux? Kilian Jornet's already on the payroll . . .

Originally Posted by Hugh Conway

Any basis for that?

I'm fucking glad Dynafit ain't forking over more $ for sponsorships. They're fucking stupid. Apparently they work for the boyband groupies on TGR though.

how the fuck are sponsorships stupid? they enable some of the most talented athletes in the world to make a living doing what they love while testing and advertising products for the companies they represent. if you want a company to just push a product to market that was tested by it's developers or other people who are mediocre athletes and are paid to say they like the product, you'll have more incidents such as the salomon failure a couple of years ago. i do agree with your assertion that GH is not the worlds most famous backcountry skier though, that is just moronic.

Originally Posted by bestskieratsnowbird

how the fuck are sponsorships stupid? they enable some of the most talented athletes in the world to make a living doing what they love while testing and advertising products for the companies they represent.

Because I don't give a shit about any of that - except testing - and it's paid for by product purchases i.e higher prices? the world would be a better place with fewer sponsored whores running around

Originally Posted by bestskieratsnowbird

if you want a company to just push a product to market that was tested by it's developers or other people who are mediocre athletes and are paid to say they like the product, you'll have more incidents such as the salomon failure a couple of years ago.

isn't that why athletes are sponsored? to say they like the product? because somehow people believe because it works for Shaq/Kobe/Ron Jeremy/Greg Hill it'll work for them?

minimal testing and a brain should have found that fuckup, it doesn't take a rocket scientist. I'd rather have 20 decent skiers beating up on gear than one superstar.

so you're an asshole and don't want people who just happen to be talented at something and get free shit or even money to do something they love... got it. ski prices aren't coming down any just because someone sponsors less athletes, i can tell you that with 100% certainty.

*I forgot to add jealous in there, my bad.

Originally Posted by bestskieratsnowbird

so you're an asshole and don't want people who just happen to be talented at something and get free shit or even money to do something they love... got it. ski prices aren't coming down any just because someone sponsors less athletes, i can tell you that with 100% certainty.

pull your head out of your broheim dipshittery and explain to me why, as a consumer, any of that shit benefits me?

really man, if you think I'm jealous of them, you must be a middle schooler or one of those mentally retarded action sports industry idiots

Originally Posted by Hugh Conway

mentally retarded action sports industry idiots

that's a distinct possibility. it's a money-making industry though. they're going to be marketing their products, which means they need someone willing to give up their time to represent them, which no normal person is going to do for free. if you'd like the ski magazines, movies, awesome photos from guys like gunder and steve lloyd disappear, then by all means lets just cut out the sponsored/paid athletes. the only reason we get that awesome media coverage is from companies like salomon (by no means a company i like all that much) dropping cash into the industry, whether to the film crews or the athletes working their ass off to get the coverage. it's pretty clear you don't understand how the industry "works", that's fine, just don't rip on the guys on the front lines making a living doing what they love. that's not even getting into the product design/development aspect i mentioned.

Originally Posted by bestskieratsnowbird

if you'd like the ski magazines, movies, awesome photos from guys like gunder and steve lloyd disappear, then by all means lets just cut out the sponsored/paid athletes. the only reason we get that awesome media coverage is from companies like salomon (by no means a company i like all that much) dropping cash into the industry, whether to the film crews or the athletes working their ass off to get the coverage.

I'd love for all of that shit to disappear and have stated that repeatedly for years. It's mostly stale boring crap. It's anti-stoke.

Originally Posted by bestskieratsnowbird

it's pretty clear you don't understand how the industry "works".

I understand how it "works", I just think it's bloated and fucking retarded. I buy skis as tools. I don't buy a hammer because some douche on This Old House uses it, I buy it because it does the job I need to do. If it doesn't work I research out something that does. Some proho is of little concern to me and their spammy bullshit is stupid. I'm not going to change to whatever Greg Hill uses because Greg Hill uses it, I'm going to change to something he uses if it's light and better than what I own.

If I want to fund people "living the dream" and "doing what they love" I fund projects I find interesting. I don't need some retards in marketing to do it for me.

Hugh, the skiing world is full of wannabes crying themselves to sleep at night because they aren't sponsored and so their ego is yet to be validated. So the next best thing is to idolise those who are. There is no point going up against that, and you know this.

In the meantime, everyone else - like you 'n me - we just ski.

With fuck all data to back this up, I'd say that company coin is better spent having full-time skiers use gear where those full-time skiers are are seen by a large number of holiday skiers. No matter where that holiday skier goes, he sees the local shred/patrol/guides using Acme Skis. Aka, a well managed proform program for skiers beats a pro team program for a very select few.

Ron Jeremy... lulz.

Originally Posted by Big Steve

North America represents a small fraction of Dynafit's biz.

This.

Originally Posted by marshalolson

hint #2: he is not employed by greg hill.

Awesome.

IMO what is retarded about this argument is the idea that Dynafit is in trouble because they "lost" Greg Hill. It's not the NBA.

Even those who think sponsorships are important should acknowledge that they work in a positive, not negative, sense. Sort of like Hjorleifson encouraging people to trust tech bindings (although he wasn't actually sponsored, right?). Some dude into lightweight gear might think "Oh, maybe Salomon will be making shit I want" and pay attention when they come out with a new boot or whatever. It's very unlikely the same type of dude will go "Greg Hill dumped Dynafit, it must be crap now."

I don't know if sponsorship is effective marketing - it seems unlikely to work on some demographics. OTOH, I bet it doesn't really cost that much to sponsor a skier, especially a tourer, compared to what it costs to get an endorsement from athletes that actually make money, like Shaq or whoever. Greg Hill probably isn't getting rich. And you don't even have to buy him lift tickets.

Everyone knows that feeding the TGR monkeys all the pap they can eat works the best to get the true viral effect. Look how well it works for Plum. OOhhhh shiny bit... brain off.... STRONG BUY. Really Dynafit should spawnsor Hugh Conway - he has threads started about him. Hohes is just jealous as am I.

Congrats to Greg btw

I've been working on a shakedown racket in the ski industry whereby I'm paid not to endorse things, or for extra money, paid to endorse their competitors products.

I think I remember Federico saying that he was going into the shoe (like running shoe) division, which would support the theory that he is a paper pusher. He sure bitched enough about people tweaking their shit.

Though, I could be remembering wrong or it's all some guise to obscure salomon's interest in the tech game.

I think dynafit is killing it with their boots, but they need to get back to purity in the binding department. They seem to be added more and more gizmos and weight, without really innovating. I'm not saying other companies are either, but who know's what's coming.

Yeah, Federico is supposedly working in the shoe department over there. Then again, do you think he's going to publicly announce "I'm moving to Salomon to help with a tech 2.0 binding/boot". Nope.

Wait... so this guy went from designing the TLT5 to doing that goofy Dynafit magnetic running shoe?

Let's hope Federico 1.0 shows up at Salomon.

Personally, I'm stoked to see what Greg brings to the table. It'll be interesting to see what he's going to say in the product dev meetings and how he will push the engineers.

It's also interesting to see a company so based on going up (Dynafit) bring in a guy like Hoji to help expand their foray into freeride while a company so based on going down (Salomon) grabs a guy like Hill to expand their foray into touring. An interesting analysis into where many think skiing is going.