Whats up TGR? Matt Sterbenz here. I’ve been thinking of you lately, largely from the time I dropped the news of the White Room and the debut of the Renegade, and more recently when I sold 4FRNT. It’s been a while now so I thought I should write in again, but this time under a new name, WNDR Alpine.
So as some of you know, about a year ago, I left my post at 4FRNT to join a materials company called Checkerspot, who specializes in biotechnology, to head up fabrication efforts with new materials derived from algae. I’m opening this thread up to shed a little light on my journey since I last wrote and what it means for my future, and skiing as a whole.
As those of you who are close in the industry are well aware, the diversity of raw materials available to ski builders is typically very limited. Everyone has access to roughly the same suppliers and largely the same limitations of what materials each of those suppliers have to offer. This limitation over the years made me hungry for new materials – ones that were responsibly designed to boost performance when integrated into a ski.
When I learned about Checkerspot’s science platform, I started to get really excited. The root of the technology is leveraging the natural oils derived from microalgae as a way to elevate performance over the current material standards that petroleum offers. The limitations of traditional material suppliers made Checkerspot’s capabilities all the more interesting to me, as these materials can be engineered from the ground up to produce novel performance characteristics for specific applications. I was so intrigued I couldn’t resist. So I decided to join forces with them and we immediately began building out a Design Lab in SLC to start prototyping these materials into better products.
With our HQ lab in Berkeley producing the oils, and now a home in the mountains for fabrication, we began testing how the existing materials Checkerspot created would react in ski design. For the first time in my career, I had the opportunity to isolate materials and test their characteristics in a form no longer than my index finger. From there we tooled up and by January we had prototype skis to prove the formulations performed in the field. We felt they worked so well, and that the Design Lab was already so close to being able to run serial production, that we decided to launch a new brand, proving the function of our technologies first hand, in our own skis, sold direct to skier.
So a few weeks ago, we launched WNDR Alpine - a new outdoor brand that utilizes a new technology to take product performance in our industry to new heights. Our first product is the Intention 110 – a balanced backcountry ski that incorporates a high density algae composite in its core which has torsional stiffness and strength to weight benefits for superior performance on descents and up the skin track.
I just did a fun interview with Max Ritter, up on TGR right now. For those curious about what we’re doing, it’s a great place to start, and I'm happy to continue the discussion here on the TGR forum. Stoked to be able to share the news and even more so to see our skis at trailheads this upcoming season!
Keep your tips up,
Matt
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