Chad SpectorA different kind of white room: Eric Hjorleifson works on his new pro-model ski, the Renegade.When you ask most pro skiers what they did with their summer vacations typical replies range from trips to South America to coaching on glacial snow patches. Not so with pros Cody Barnhill and Eric Hjorleifson, who have spent a huge chunk of the dog days huffing epoxy fumes in a not-so-small corner (coined the White Room) of the new 4FRNT building in Salt Lake City, Utah. They've been handcrafting 290 pairs of a limited production run of Renegade skis, Hjorleifson's newest pro-model from 4FRNT.
The Renegade is billed as the next evolution of Hjorleifson's former pro-model, the EHP -- it's wider, stiffer and has more rocker. For this year, the 122-millimeter-underfoot ski is available only in a 186 centimeter length. "The Renegades are basically the evolution of the EHP's design developed from my experiences skiing on the EHP over the past four seasons," Hjorleifson says. "I focused on the potential of a fully rockered design and was impressed with the performance on all types of snow."
Chad Spector"The idea to build a limited production of specialty skis for educated consumers that want a product built by North Americans who are passionate skiers is more then just a great marketing angle, it's the truth," says Eric Hjorleifson.
The fact that 4FRNT is using the White Room not just for prototyping but for building customers' skis in house is unusual in an industry where most manufacturers are farming out designs to be built overseas. "We wanted to prove that we're not just a bunch of kids designing graphics on a computer," Barnhill says. "We felt we needed to show that we have the knowledge and skill to design, prototype and build a ski completely in house."
"Having prototypes made in European factories is cost prohibitive, slow and we were really sick of hearing the same old answer every time we wanted to try something new: No, we can't do it that way," Hjorleifson added. "Once we were capable of building skis in house at 4FRNT, it was only a natural progression to start building more than just a few pairs of prototypes."
Before a single ski was even built, 200 of the 290 pairs were pre-sold. There are only about 50 pairs still available (buy them here for $860).
When asked what was the single most valuable lesson the two pros learned from the project Barnhill quipped, "Everything that can go wrong will." Hjorleifson said, "Always wear a shirt while working with resin."
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