{"id":41191,"date":"2018-02-05T09:33:06","date_gmt":"2018-02-05T16:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=41191"},"modified":"2021-02-07T20:18:16","modified_gmt":"2021-02-08T03:18:16","slug":"ex-oil-patch-engineers-turn-their-passion-for-skiing-into-a-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2018\/02\/05\/ex-oil-patch-engineers-turn-their-passion-for-skiing-into-a-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-oil patch engineers turn their passion for skiing into a business"},"content":{"rendered":"

A<\/span> recent arrival on the ski scene, <\/span>93 North Skis<\/a>, has combined craftsmanship and engineering to produce Canmore made and\u00a0designed skis that are hand-made and expertly tested.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

S<\/span>am McEwan and Max Flowerday, previously engineers at Fluor, and Pembina Pipelines in Calgary, decided to give up their stable careers to pursue their passion for skiing, by building skis.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were talking one weekend about doing it, then the next weekend got excited about it, and then two weeks later we handed in our notices,\u201d said Flowerday, co-owner of 93 North Skis.<\/p>\n

The two had been skiing in the 93 North Parkway area when they started discussing building their own pairs of skis.<\/p>\n

The pair wanted a change from the purely intellectual work of their past careers and craved the hands-on approach of their university days.<\/p>\n

McEwan said it was a combination of things aligning in their lives that made the circumstances ideal to start and grow a business.<\/p>\n

\u201cStarting a project that you\u2019re passionate about, having a business partner who\u2019s aligned with your kind of views, and then just having the flexibility to do that\u201d is the key said McEwan.<\/p>\n

The Andromeda was the duo\u2019s first ski.<\/p>\n

It was designed to be an all-mountain ski made from poplar and maple wood. The idea was to get the performance of a downhill ski but at a weight that supported agility and was forgiving enough for touring.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a crossover for people that want to start getting into touring or using it for maybe yo-yoing,\u201d said McEwan.<\/p>\n

Yo-yoing is a method of skiing that involves hiking up a section of the mountain, skiing down, and then hiking back up for multiple runs, which can offer more varied terrain than resort skiing.<\/p>\n

This season, they are building a lightweight back-country ski and playing around with a big-mountain, big-powder ski, designed for advanced and expert skiers.<\/p>\n

The touring ski will be tested by the Association of Canadian Mountain Guide (ACMG) ski guides throughout the 2017-18 ski season and the product will go through several phases of redesign until the two are happy with the final product.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, we\u2019re going to have a product that people believe in because it\u2019s been tested by a bunch of experts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two first learned how to build skis at a hobbyist level through various ski forums.<\/p>\n

As they moved from hobbyist level to small production, they had to learn to design their own systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is where our design thought process comes into play, from our engineering backgrounds,\u201d said McEwan.<\/p>\n

At this point, each pair of skis typically takes close to nine man-hours to make.<\/p>\n

\u201cMax and I have that oversight from the design phase to every stage of the production,\u201d said McEwan.<\/p>\n

Because they share a passion for skiing, the pair can maintain a higher level of accountability to their products.<\/p>\n

They don\u2019t want to sell something that\u2019s going to negatively affect the sport, or that they wouldn\u2019t ski on.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing passionate about skiing makes us want to create the best product possible,\u201d said Flowerday.<\/p>\n

McEwan and Flowerday never saw themselves as entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n

But, once they found skiing as an avenue to apply themselves to, it became a lot easier to imagine a future in developing products for the sport as a business.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, we\u2019re going to have a product that people believe in because it\u2019s been tested by a bunch of experts. \u2013 Max Flowerday.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Their engineering backgrounds came in handy when it came to things like designing prototypes and machinery to make the skis.<\/p>\n

However, they had little experience in marketing and brand development.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the business is very quantifiable, whereas, in the realm of marketing and sales it\u2019s floating points, and you\u2019ve got to change your mindset,\u201d said McEwan.<\/p>\n

Having a partnership that shares the same vision and passion was instrumental in the success of the business.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not afraid to tell the other one that they are out to lunch on something,\u201d said Flowerday.<\/p>\n

Their ski shop is located close to many other local businesses in the industrial area of Canmore, and they also sell through Ski West in Calgary.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

93 North Skis has combined craftsmanship and engineering to produce Canmore made and designed skis that are hand-made and expertly tested. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":435,"featured_media":41203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S3. 93 North Skis ","footnotes":""},"categories":[1432],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-41191","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-image","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business-jobs","8":"post_format-post-format-image"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/435"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41191"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42780,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41191\/revisions\/42780"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}