Overview
Atomic can’t help being obsessed with speed. They’re Austrian down to their toes, thereby making it a patriotic obligation to assist Austrian natives in winning World Cup titles. They’ve been very good at meeting expectations, delivering a horde of gold to Austrian athletes. An interesting side development occurred on the way to the podium: non-racers discovered the amazing tranquility at speed that Atomic’s race-room skis exude. At one ski area we frequent, hardly a racing hotbed, there is a knot of very fast, talented skiers who crush the groomers on Atomic GS sticks, and every one of them said “aloha” to their 50th birthday several seasons ago.
Point being, if you understand when and how to tip a ski, if you realize “ski” is an active verb, you may decide to pass over the entire flotilla of Atomic all-mountain skis and attach yourself to their nearest race model. We don’t review true (FIS) race skis here because it lies outside the scope of our expertise and we have too much respect for the coach-racer relationship to pretend we ought in any way to intervene; but, if we did delude ourselves into declaiming on the subject, we’d tell you to try an Atomic.
All that said, gold medal lust is hardly unique to Atomic. The competitive flame burns no less brightly at Head or Fischer. All brands also compete for shelf space at retail and mind space among skiers. In the struggle for sales supremacy, Atomic strives for manufacturing efficiencies that will allow it to compete on price up and down the recreational ski market.
After Atomic’s parent company, the Finnish conglomerate Amer, acquired Salomon in 2005, it adopted some of the French brand’s savvy manufacturing methods. Cost/value relationship and price advantage at retail remain a brand focus that’s most evident in the entry-level and mid-level price points. Atomic offered exceptional value to price-conscious skiers with models like the Vantage 75 C system ski, the all-mountain Vantage 86 C and women’s Vantage 86 C W, all of which retailed at a mere $399.99 in the U.S. market.
While Atomic enjoys a competitive advantage at either end of the price/performance hierarchy, the majority of retail activity takes place between these extremes, where Atomic’s success has been driven as much by price as performance. For the 2018/19 season, Atomic launched a slew of new models based on a then-new, Lighter-Is-Better technology called Prolite. The Prolite concept began with the most skeletal ski Atomic can concoct, then added just enough mass and damping to match the skier’s expectations for performance. The principal damping elements Atomic deployed were Carbon Tank Mesh and Titanium Tank Mesh, alternating between the two to hit different key price points across the Vantage and Vantage W lines. This is the series that was supplanted by Maverick and Maven four years ago.
Atomic’s devotion to racing runs so deep that it renews its Redster technology at a faster clip than any of its other product families, even though the development costs are higher. All the attention lavished on racing pays dividends for non-racers who want a taste of the real deal, now embodied in a technology introduced just four years ago, called Revoshock. A series of spring steel rectangles that ride on a cushion of shock-snuffing elastomer adorn the forebody, converting disruptive vibrations into propulsive energy as they travel down the loosely linked chain. Revoshock is standard issue with the Non-FIS Redster G9 Revoshock and S9 Revoshock, the spin-off, combi series, Redster X9S and X7, and the top models in a line of Frontside cruisers, Redster Q.
Four years ago, Atomic jettisoned Prolite in favor of the Omatic Construction embodied in the Mavericks and Mavens, built with a more robust poplar, glass and Titanal sandwich. What sets the Mavericks and Mavens apart is a new version of Atomic’s unique, multi-axis HRZN Tech Tip that isn’t perturbed by choppy terrain. While there’s little doubt the Mavericks that use Titanal are better all-terrain skis than the Vantage models they replace, the surprise of the series is the Maverick 86 C, a $549 mid-market marvel that punches well above its weight. The Maverick 86 C continues a tradition of stellar skis that use carbon stringers as their primary structural element. All it’s missing is stability at speeds its intended pilot has little interest in reaching.
On the race course, precision is paramount and compromise is unthinkable. In the freeride world of buttered turns, imprecision is built into the program, and some compromises better be made or the skier is in for a very rough ride. The proof that Atomic is as adept at making buttery off-trail skis as race rockets lies in the Bent Chetler 120, a monster than moves with balletic grace through terrain that would torpedo a technical ski. Eight years ago, Atomic created the Bent Chetler 100, like its big bro adorned with Horizon Tech, tips and tails that are rockered on both axes for maximum swivel-ability. Both the Bent Chetler 120 and Bent 100 were redesigned for the 2025 season, with a particular emphasis on reducing the environmental impact of their construction and manufacture.
Four years ago, Atomic commissioned Chris Bentchetler to expand the Bent series with three new models, the Bent 110, 90 and 85. The Bent 110 slips in between the 120 and 100, and terrain park acrobats will want to check out the Bent 90. The 2024 season also saw the introduction of Redster Q, slightly wider system skis meant to extend the Redster name and associated technology into the recreational, Frontside genre. In Atomic’s home country of Austria, classic carvers like the Redster Q’s still have a strong consumer franchise, but the American market has largely rejected Old School carvers in favor of all-terrain baselines and sidecuts. I included a review of the current Redster Q9.8 Revoshock S among Realskiers’ 2025 coverage, just to remind my Dear Readers that Atomic makes three tiers of world-class carvers that rarely see the light of day on this continent.
As the world leader in ski manufacturing, Atomic is aware that its design and manufacturing choices have an out-sized impact on the environment. If there is a single, overriding theme to both Atomic’s 2025 collection and the global direction of the ski-making community as a whole, it’s a commitment to assessing the environmental impact of every decision in the manufacturing process. Atomic calls its new, big-picture analysis “life cycle assessment.” Henceforth, LCA principles will be applied to every new product in the Atomic pipeline, including decisions on materials, sourcing, design and recycling.
The first manifestation of LCA in action is the reduction in the use of fiberglass and its eco-unfriendly resins in the new 2025 Mavericks, Mavens and Bent Chetlers. The application of LCA to the new Maverick 115 CTi and 105 CTi resulted in a 24% change in Carbon Footprint Reduction, compared to the Maverick 100 they replace. This is only a first step on what Atomic expects will be a long journey. Atomic understands that for its efforts to be truly impactful, advances in CFR must be industry-wide. As befits the world’s largest ski manufacturer, Atomic intends to play a leadership role in the development of eco-friendly practices all along the production chain.
The 2026 Season
For the 2026 season, the changes brought to the Maverick/Maven series last year in models like the Maverick 105 CTi have been extended to the new Maverick 88 CTi and 96 CTi and their women-specific escorts, the Maven 94 CTi and 88 CTi. The principal upgrade is the eco-friendly substitution of tip-to-tail CTi laminates in lieu of fiberglass and its pernicious resins. The poplar/ash wood cores of Mavericks and Mavens now extend into the multi-axis HRZN tip and tail, for a more solid feel in the rockered extremities.
At the head of the Atomic product parade are its race skis, the Redster G9 Revoshock S and Redster S9 Revoshock S. Both models have been tweaked by adding carbon in the tail, for a more supple, connected feel and more energy exiting the turn, and modifying the plate/binding combo that completes the ski/binding package. Atomic makes a slew of Redster (and Cloud, for women) spin-off models that make exquisite, clean arcs on the firm snow that allows them to shine. These are some of the finest non-race skis made by anyone anywhere, but most American dealers stubbornly refuse to stock them for the very good reason that their customers aren’t interested. What a shame…