Checking In With Josh At Slant Skis

For the last 2 seasons, people have been asking me in lift lines and on chair rides “What’s happening with Slant skis?” The pandemic threw much of the ski world into a shambles back in March of 2020, and a lot of companies did not make it. I wondered myself what the fate of Slant Skis was after closing their shop near Alpine Meadows.

Last fall, I heard Josh Bennett was making skis again. We’ve been trying to pull this interview together all season. This year’s models are currently on sale at 50% off…and Unofficial Alpine readers can take an additional $100. Shipping is  free too. Details at the end of the article.

Mark: Tell us about the challenges of making and selling skis during the pandemic. Obviously, you needed to close the old storefront and were flying under the radar somewhere. Did you manage to build much of anything over the last year? Has it been a one man show to get things off the ground again? 

Josh: There have been challenges across the board the last couple years. Supply chain issues have hit US ski manufacturing hard. I have been forced to buy topsheet and other supplies from resellers, which raises my costs considerably. Also not being being at a store front on the way to a major ski resort has undoubtably hurt sales. 

I ended up moving all my equipment into storage in March of 2020. I was shut down until I found our current warehouse to rent in Carson City in November of 2020. It was a very hard decision to make. I had a working and growing business model, with so much face to face contact with customers from all over the world. At the time, shutting down was the right decision for business and family. I have a 3 year old daughter and have really enjoyed spending more time with her and my wife. Family and skiing are my two passions and now that my daughter is on skis I get to enjoy both more often. 

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Mark: You’ve got a couple of new skis in the line up, the Aviator and Provacateur. How do these compare to previous models? Conspicuously absent is the NoPro, which kind of targeted the ladies market. Comments?

Josh: We are constantly evolving our ski line-up. Although I believe some skis are perfect as they are, we are always looking for something different. That’s what most people want is something new and exciting. It’s also fun for us to be working and skiing on new models and improving past designs, both in shape and material selection. Skiing is always evolving. 

I’ve been skiing on the Provocateur the last 2 seasons and am in love with them. They are the Blaze + 8mm of width throughout. The Ambush BC is essentially the Nopro with a wider range of sizes and a new name. I have decided to drop gender from our lineup altogether, it puts skiers and skis in a category not everyone feels aligned with and using gender as a marketing tool excludes more people than it attracts. When picking skis your size, ability, style and terrain preference are important, but your gender isn’t. We make skis for all skiers. 

Mark: Just offering a two year warranty on skis was far beyond what many major brands offer. Besides that a few other indies started offering the same, what was the impetus for the unheard of Lifetime warranty? Just looking at how poorly I treat my skis and how well they hold up, I would guess your warranty rate must be fairly low.

Josh: I’m trying to show that we are worth the extra sticker price in terms of quality and customer satisfaction. It’s hard to compete with skis mass made overseas, where living and working standards are lower and margins are thinner. 

We get less than 1% of skis returned for warranty claims each year. I’ve always wanted to (and in most cases always do) offer a lifetime warranty for Slant.

Let me be clear about the fine print here: This is not a do anything to Slant Skis and we’ll just give you a new pair. This warranty covers anything that shouldn’t happen to your skis based on how they were manufactured. If you hit a rock, ski them across the parking lot, or they fall off your ski rack and get run over by a semi truck then that’s your skis’ fate.

If your skis break under typical skiing conditions and they shouldn’t have, then we will repair or replace them at no cost to you. Either way we’ll do our best to take care of you if something unexpected happens to your skis, that will never expire. 

Also, to qualify for the lifetime warranty you’ll need to purchase your skis at or near full price. Purchasing with more than a 10% discount will get you our solid 2-year warranty. 

Mark: I honestly avoid Tahoe City as much as I can except for shoulder seasons…do you have a new shop someplace in town? I’ve heard a couple of rumors about you having a new shop, but haven’t seen it. Anything on that?

I am actively searching for a new space on the north shore. There are very few spaces that exist in Tahoe that meet the needs of ski manufacturing. If anyone hears of a space around 1,500-2,000 sq ft that would work for manufacturing please send me an email. 

I would also like to mention that we are doing our biggest sale of the season right now on our website (Slantskis.com). All of our in-stock skis are over 50% off retail.

Unofficial Alpine readers get an extra $100 off as an incentive to purchase now. This includes free delivery. Please use the code ‘unofficialalpine’ at checkout for an extra $100 discount. Getting skis on the boots of core locals and visitors (UA readers) always makes me happy. 

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