Nordica’s opportunities as a ski brand took a fundamental turn for the better when the Tecnica Group bought the Blizzard factory and shifted Nordica production to their new, refurbished facility. Prior to this happy development, Nordica skis had endured a checkered history. It began when the self-important sweater-maker Benetton owned Nordica—an investment they would come to rue. As Benetton has managed to do with all their sport properties—we believe that they single-handedly destroyed the in-line skate market with their shredded stewardship of Rollerblade—they drove Nordica and Kästle directly downward. By the time Nordica was re-acquired by its original ownership for dimes on the dollar, the Kästle brand had been euthanized and replaced with the first Nordica skis.
Nordica’s sustained importance as a boot brand allowed the ski line to survive a rocky adolescence.
Now that it has a permanent home, it also has emerged as a major player. As Nordica developed as a ski brand, it earned a foothold in the Carving world with a series of exceptional Frontside models, then busted into the critical All-Mountain categories with the Steadfast and the Hell-and-Back, two of the best all-fiberglass skis we’ve seen in recent years. They proceeded to hit a series of home runs with the Big Mountain models Patron, Helldorado and El Capo.
He who sits still gets run over, and so Nordica modified their all-terrain construction by adding a latticework of Titanal on top of their already torsionally rigid I-Core construction in the NRGy series introduced in 2015. In keeping with Nordica’s technical heritage, the NRGy models are strong skis that all but require the skier to drive them from a high edge.
Nordica’s ability to make lighter weight, non-metal skis gives the brand the inside track on making a great women’s ski. The eternal quest for a lighter structure has seen the creation of the I-Core, with one wood stringer replaced with foam, the WI-Core with 2 foam channels and now the Balsa Core CA, with micro-laminates of balsa wood as the ski’s central component. The persistent focus on weight reduction has won Nordica a faithful following among women of all skill levels.