In the past, many North American ski resorts had signs that said uphill skiers would be prosecuted for trespassing.

Today more and more ski resorts are allowing uphill skiing, and German outdoor gear and apparel brand Dynafit has positioned itself as a key player in the growth of the category.

In addition to uphill, ski touring is a commonplace activity in Europe and a big part of the culture. That’s on top of backcountry skiing growing in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic when ski resorts were closed.

As more North Americans are coming around to the different sports, Dynafit is targeting this market for expansion.

“This is becoming a more accepted part of ski culture, which it always has been in Europe, and it’s really cool to see it being more adopted in North America,” said Eric Poore, North American territory manager for Dynafit. “There are still areas where you can’t have uphill travel, you have to check resort policies, but the resorts that do allow it and have dedicated routes and really buy into it — I think there’s a lot of opportunity there.”

The Daily spoke with leadership at Dynafit about how the brand is pushing to grow market share in the U.S., its retail strategy, and its foray into trail running.

Expansion of Ski Category

With U.S. headquarters in Boulder, Colorado, the company is poised to capitalize on the growing trend.

Drew Saunders, North America general manager for Dynafit, said the brand hit a high point during the pandemic and sales have slowed somewhat since then, but the customer base is still much larger than it was in 2019.

“A good portion of the people who got into that activity liked it, and they will graduate and progress as a backcountry skier,” he added.

Uphill Positioning

Dynafit got its start as a binding brand in the early 1980s when Fritz Barthel invented the pin binding. The pin system is popular among the ski touring crowd.

Originally, Life Link in Jackson Hole, Wyoming was distributing Dynafit. After the 2006/2007 winter season, Dynafit established a North American subsidiary and Dynafit helped to establish the pipeline of brands for the Oberalp Group, which owns Dynafit, Salewa, Pomoca, Wild Country, Evolv, and LaMunt. Oberalp employs about 40 workers in the U.S.

Brand Growth

At Neptune Mountaineering, an outdoor specialty retailer in Boulder, Colorado, general manager Aaron Kutzer told The Daily that Dynafit has been a top seller in not only uphill ski gear, but in outerwear.

Saunders said when he joined the company about 15 years ago, sales were less than $1 million. It was mostly a bindings company at the time.

“We’ve grown the business significantly since then,” he added.

Drew Saunders of Dynafit at the brand’s headquarters in Boulder, Colorado. Photo by The Daily.

Although the company saw a sales peak during the pandemic, it’s now experiencing a slowdown in sales at retail, partly due to inventory overhang. In the past, a retailer might buy 85 units and anticipate carrying over 15. Right now, they’re buying 60 or 70 units because they anticipate carrying over 30 or 40, Saunders said.

Dynafit is currently selling in for fall ’24, and Saunders is seeing similar trends as fall ’23.

“It’s a little softer in the marketplace and even out to fall ’24, retailers are anticipating having more inventory than they wanted to carry over from this winter,” he said. “There’s a long tail there.”

Saunders said the market isn’t recovering as quickly as he had hoped.

“If we go back 12 months, we were anticipating that the retail market would be working through the challenges of very promotional activity, a high level of inventory,” he said. “Then it was clear that it was going to push out into spring ’24. And now it’s clear it’s going to push out into fall ‘24.”

Saunders added that he hopes 2025 will be the year of the healthier marketplace.

Swing Back to Alpine

Poore said a lot of his retail accounts are reporting that the market has shifted back toward resort-focused alpine gear.

“Everyone in the last two to three years bought a ski touring setup and neglected their alpine gear,” he added.

Photo courtesy of Dynafit.

That means many core ski touring shops have been selling a lot of crossover and hybrid boots.

Poore expects the market will come back to the middle, where both categories are selling closer to historical norms, sometime soon.

Retail Strategy

Dynafit is a technical, premium brand that wouldn’t be a good fit with a retailer carrying a lot of “general” outdoor products, according to Saunders.

“We look for premium dealers who will support the product and the activities in a deep way with a full-price strategy with staff who know the product and can speak to it well,” he said. “That’s a mix of specialty retailers like Neptune or Bentgate in Golden (Colorado), but also REI and Backcountry.com.”

Other good examples of ideal retail partners are Skimo in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Cripple Creek Backcountry in Denver, Colorado.

Poore added that these retailers do a good job of speaking to the activity of ski touring as a form of transportation to the mountains and a way to enjoy the mountains.

“They represent the flagship dealers for Dynafit, where they’re super technical, but they’re also translating the sport and the activities in a very accessible way,” Saunders said.

Dynafit does not have any branded retail stores, but the brand is sold direct-to-consumer online. Oberalp in Europe also has a “robust” retail presence in Europe.

“In North America that hasn’t been a part of our strategy yet,” Saunders said.

According to Saunders, Dynafit generates over $100 million in sales internationally. The company has five mono-brand stores globally, and its North America business serves more than 250 active dealers in the U.S. and Canada.

Product Approach

European brands that are looking for success in the North American market often butt up against established market leaders in certain categories and need to find a different angle than the one they might take in their home country.

For Dynafit, its apparel is specifically designed for uphill skiing, and their jackets are designed differently than a bomber jacket that might be good for resort skiing, Saunders said. A Dynafit jacket has pit zips and a focus on breathability, for example.

“It’s purpose-built for that activity,” Saunders said. “That differentiates it from an Arc’teryx shell or a The North Face shell.”

Dynafit Tigard 110 Alpine-Tech-Boot. Photo by The Daily.

Poore pointed out that Dynafit focuses on full systems, meaning it provides almost all the gear a skier needs, including bindings, jackets, base layers, goggles, helmets, sunglasses, and headbands. Often those products can be purchased together under one naming convention. For example, the Tigard line offers head-to-toe products.

“There are very few brands that have that capability,” Saunders said. “I’d say that differentiates us.”

Warm Weather Offerings

Another area where Dynafit is striving to carve out a niche is in trail running. The brand has had a summer collection for about 10 years. Saunders said Dynafit is continuing to build out its trail running products, including footwear, vests, backpacks, and poles.

A point of differentiation between Dynafit and some other trail running brands is Dynafit’s focus on the core mountain consumer, according to Michael Casarrubia, community marketing manager for Oberalp.

Photo courtesy of Dynafit.

“Unlike a lot of other brands that are maybe crossing over from road to trail running, we’re not really speaking directly to the consumer who is not mountain focused,” he said. A customer wouldn’t find Dynafit shoes in a specialty run shop in the Great Plains, for example.

In the face of some stiff competition from footwear brands like Hoka and Altra, Dynafit sees its opportunity in appealing to a more niche market where a customer might be looking for a different brand that’s slightly more technical.

“Dynafit is a very mountain-endurance focused brand,” Poore said. “We’re trying to attract customers that relate to that.”

Bart Schaneman can be reached at [email protected].