Regular visitors to realskiers are most likely aware that we haven’t covered Elan for a few seasons. It hasn’t been for lack of interest on the part of our membership, several of whom have voiced intense displeasure at our elision of Elan. The brand has been selling skis in this country for half a century, more than enough time to incubate a cadre of followers who want to keep current. So how come our coverage of Elan shrank out of sight?
The answer lies in our methodology. Realskiers reviews depend on input from our test shops; if we don’t have enough test cards on a given model to be comfortable making (or not making) a recommendation, we have no foundation for a review. Our network of specialty shops submitted only a handful of test cards over the last two years, a reflection of Elan’s retreating market share.
Another limitation imposed by our model is realskiers’ intention to direct our readers to specialty shops who carry the models we review. We feel it’s important to support the shops that provide the services that make high performance skiing possible, so we in turn support the brands that have a history of backing the specialty channel of independent retailers. If our only recourse is to send the consumer directly to the supplier, we feel as if we’ve only done half our job.
We are insufficiently visionary to predict how Elan’s fortunes will fare in the year that lies ahead. The Slovenian brand seems to be out of the EU’s doghouse and ready to pursue a more penetrating presence on the American market. We’re covering Elan again because our first loyalty is to our readers and members. Enough of you have asked for our impressions of current Elans that we took pains to ensure at least some coverage of key models. How much more coverage there is in the future will depend more on Elan’s efforts than ours.