Author Topic: Head iM78  (Read 1650 times)

jbotti

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Re: Head iM78
« on: May 06, 2010, 11:33:56 am »
Everyone here (and pretty much everywhere) knows that I am a huge fan of Head skis. I own many pairs and over the past 5 years they have made some awesome skis. I'm sure the fact that Kastle skis are made in Head facilities has a lot to do with how well they perform and are made (just like Scott Skis are made well by Fischer).

Having said this, I really don't understand what Head is doing. They are spending huge sums of money on landing the biggest name WC skiers and at the same time they are cuttinng down the race ski lineup that they carry in the states. And whereas Head has made great race oriented and carving skis as well as traditional all mountain skis that are all great (like the Monster/Peak line) they have never had even a remotely decent ski in the true big mountain free ride category. Actually the old IM 103 was a monster, but so stiff that only real pros could ski it. The rest of this lineup has pretty much blown. I don't think they have gotten much traction with the Joe, John, Jimi (I think a Carlos is coming) and that's because they were just repackages of existing skis (save the Jimi which was a rocker intro).

So next year they are de-emphasizing ther strength, race oriented carving skis and ther other strength, strong and powerful all mountain skis, and moving to all mountain skis with flappy tips. I think this is a sure fire way to hurt your business. The rocker buyer is not looking at all at Head and won't for a long time until they have some innnovative product that gets talked about for a few years. Their traditional buyer is going to get quite frustrated.