Thor Verdonk: A Life in Ski & Ski Boot Design

BLISTER Podcast

BLISTER

Wilderness, Bike, Gear, Snowboard, Outdoor, Sports, Ski, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 560 Ratings

🗓️ 20 January 2020

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS

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Summary

In the world of ski and ski boot design, Thor Verdonk is well known and very well respected. So we talked to Thor about his background, his 25+ year career with the Rossignol Group and how he became the Global Brand Director for Lange. Then we discuss the history of ski design and ski boot design, including the pendulum swings we see in the ski industry; the biggest advancements in skis and ski boots; developing the Rossi S7; and we get Thor’s predictions about what the ski industry will look like 10 years from now.

And to hear Thor talk about the brand-new Lange XT3 and the future of Lange, check out our GEAR:30 conversation.

TOPICS & TIMES:

Growing up in Vermont (3:45)
Coaching ski racing (7:20)
Getting connected with Rossignol (9:10)
Pendulum swings in product design (16:40)
Biggest advancements in skis? (24:25)
Biggest advancements in ski boots? (27:25)
Developing the Rossignol S7 (35:27)
Most overlooked ski boot developments (42:06)
Thor’s industry predictions for the decade (50:05)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Blister podcast, a program dedicated to interesting people, the great outdoors,
0:06.5	and a bunch of other stuff we like. I'm Jonathan Ellsworth, the founder of Blister, and you can
0:11.9	check out everything we're doing and reviewing over at blisterreview.com.
0:20.2	In the world of ski and ski boot design, Torr Verdunck is well known and very well respected.
0:28.7	So I talked to Tor about his background, his 25 plus year career with the Rosignal Group, and
0:35.9	how he came to be the global brand director for Lang.
0:40.6	Then we discussed the history of ski design and ski boot design, including the pendulum swings
0:47.2	we see in the ski industry. What Tor thinks were the biggest advancements in skis and
0:53.6	ski boots in the past 25 years. We talk about
0:57.0	his work on the development of the incredibly influential Rosignol S7, and we get Torr's predictions
1:04.1	about what the ski industry will look like 10 years from now. And if you'd like to hear Tor break quite a bit of news and talk about the new for next season
1:15.0	Lang XT3 Ski Boot and the future of Lang, you should definitely check out episode 83 of our
1:22.3	Gear 30 podcast that we aired just this past Friday.
1:26.9	And with that, let's get to my conversation with
1:29.9	Tor. Well, Tor, how are you today and where are you today? I'm doing great today, Jonathan,
1:39.4	thanks for asking. I'm actually in Salt Lake at my home, which is a rarity, since I'm normally on the road,
1:46.3	but you caught me at home today. Well, I've been looking forward to this conversation for quite a while.
1:53.6	We got a lot of ground to cover, and so, you know, that's my task with you, cover a lot of ground,
2:00.4	basically.
2:08.5	So I want to try to personally get clearer on your background and backstory here.
2:12.9	We can kind of start by saying, I believe I have this right. You took a new position at Lang maybe two years ago. What is your official title? My official title
2:22.0	is a global brand director for Lang. So two years ago, I was asked by our president to take over
	...

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