SCARPA N.A. leads market in alpine-touring, telemark ski boots

BOULDER, Colo.– Heading into Winter 2011-12, SCARPA – for the first time since establishing its own wholly owned North American subsidiary in 2005 – topped market share in both alpine-touring and telemark ski boots in all three consumer sales categories tracked by Leisure Trends market research sales data. Those three categories include outdoor specialty stores, chain stores and internet sales.

The news follows SCARPA receiving four media awards in the past month for 2011/12 ski boots, two Editor’s Choice Awards from Backcountry Magazine for the Maestrale and Terminator X Pro, and two Skier’s Choice Awards from Powder Magazine for the Mobe and the T1.

“Innovation is what drives sales in technical categories like alpine-touring and telemark, and unleashing innovative new products in all categories over the past two years, along with a commitment to superior customer service and a lot of plain-old hard work, took us to this market-leading position,” said Kim Miller, CEO of SCARPA North America. “We’re very proud of that, but at the same time we also recognize that future innovation is critical to helping us continue to the lead the market, so as we savor this honor and vote of confidence, we will remain focused on the future and always strive to do better.”

In recent years, SCARPA has introduced new products and ski boot families in all areas of its ski line.

In more backcountry-focused products in the alpine touring category, SCARPA introduced the Maestrale and Gea last season, the lightest, stiffest four-buckle ski touring boots available. This season, it builds on those with the new Rush and Blink, even lighter, three-buckle versions of the Maestrale and Gea.

In the Freeride segment of alpine-touring, SCARPA introduced the Mobe and Hurricane in recent years, lightweight but powerful boots designed for sidecountry-style skiing – boots powerful enough to drive big skis and ski in-bounds, but light and comfortable enough for backcountry use. This year, it builds on the category with a redesigned and stiffer version the Hurricane, the new Hurricane Pro.

In telemark, SCARPA has led the charge in developing boots for the Rottefella NTN binding with its Terminator X series boots, including the first ski boots in the world to work in both a telemark binding (NTN) and an alpine-touring binding (tech). This year, it builds on that category with a new version of the Terminator X Pro specifically designed for women, and it also redesigned the Terminator X Pro and Terminator X Comp with a more powerful walk/tour mode and stiffer Intuition heat-moldable liner.

In traditional 75 mm telemark, SCARPA redesigned its category-defining T-Race, T1 and T1 for women last year with many of the same upgrades – a more powerful walk/tour mode and stiffer Intuition heat-moldable liner.

The data from Leisure Trends Group, a leading outdoor and winter sports research firm, compares retail sales by units and dollars in the three core outdoor channels from August 2010 through July 2011 to the prior rolling year. The three retail channels include outdoor specialty stores, chain stores and internet merchants.

About SCARPA and SCARPA North America

Founded in 1938, SCARPA builds performance footwear for climbing, hiking, skiing, mountaineering, trail running and other outdoor pursuits from its headquarters in Asolo, Italy. SCARPA has been owned and operated by the Parisotto family since 1956. In 2005, SCARPA opened its North American headquarters in Boulder, Colo., staffed and directed by veterans of the North American outdoor industry, to oversee sales, marketing and distribution in the U.S. and Canada. For more information about SCARPA footwear, visit www.scarpa.com.