Praxis Skis Needs Your Support

[Muggydude]

Passing this along. Very sad to hear this today, small businesses are struggling, and Praxis is feeling it.

https://www.praxisskis.com/skis/

Many of you have probably talked to Keith over the phone or email, and some have met him in person (definitely worth a stop if you’re in Tahoe). I remember the first time I met him years ago when I was just a high school kid doing a road trip through California before I started college, he endured my endless questions about skis, showed me around the factory, and hooked me up with lift tickets (for the weekend). When I was part of the ski team in college, I reached out and he sponsored our annual charity fundraiser and donated shirts and our grand prize (free custom skis). Just the kind of guy he is.

Keith has always been a standup member of the skiing community. He represents what’s best about skiing - which is just a love for the sport and the people in it. He also has put his heart and soul into building some of the best made skis in the business. Even more than that, he’s catered to providing endless customization options and new models for all us gear-whore nut jobs that roam this forum. And sold them to us for years at $500-$600 most summers to boot. His referral credits were one of the main ways I could afford new skis in high school [emoji23] He’s bent over backwards to make new models, ski lengths, do small collab ski press runs, rocker profile tweaks, etc for all of us.

I’ve always appreciated having just the right ski for the conditions and my skiing style, and Keith has made that possible. I’ve personally owned about 10 pairs of Praxis skis (currently own 5 pairs I will never sell), and all of them have exceeded expectations. Most durable skis you can buy, awesome core layups and shapes - just pick what suits your style and you’re good to go. They’re also truly works of art, particularly the veneer layup skis.

Making money has never been a priority for him, Praxis has always been about making the best skis possible and putting them in the hands of skiers without costing an arm and a leg.

Anyways, really hoping that Keith and Praxis can pull through and keep making dope skis - but he definitely needs the community’s help. So tell your friends, make an excuse to your wife about why your quiver really needs one more ski, get some American made skis, buy some t-shirts - anything helps. All my friends and family are getting Praxis T-Shirts for Christmas! Someone special might be getting some sweet new MVPs too. It’d truly be loss for the community if Praxis ends up closing its doors.

Don’t forget to check the discount section of the website too, he’s got GPOs of all lengths and shorter lengths of a few models on there.

(Disclaimer, I have no ties to Praxis other than being a loyal customer for many years and appreciating well engineered and well made skis)

[Island Bay]

Good work, Muggy. Very sincerely seconded.

[waxoff]

Great call Muggy. Having a pair of GPO on the way makes the purchase feel even better now. Happy to support Keith!

[Core Shot]

Wow. As a small biz owner that was a sad read.

Best of luck to Keith. He’s done some great stuff over the years.

Don’t need more skis but might buy some tees

Selling new product at discount right before the next season sucks.

[Duffman]

Damn, hope he can raise the funds he needs. I have 3 pairs that have lasted forever , including my cold dead hands resort charger Q. Love the skis and Keith's discussions on what to build before was always amazingly helpful. Bump to the top and buy some badass skis!

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[toast2266]

Damn, that's a bummer. Love my praxises (praxii?). Hope they can pull through!

[halliday]

It's a shame to see these prices at this time of year. I hope they sell everything and get their problems fixed. I might have to make an addition to an already bloated quiver.

[Duffman]

Wish they had some more of the kids skis in stock. The GPO Jr is a touch wide for a 10yo EC based skiier would def buy the narrower underfoot MVP Jr . But if you are looking for a bigger mtn ski for your grom, buy that one!

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[frorider]

Thanks for the heads up, I haven’t talked to Keith in a while & didn’t know the situation. I have too many pairs of skis (incl Praxii) but T shirts etc are a good call.

I paid him cash in the Mammoth parking lot for his first product (reverse reverse that came in one length) waaay back in the day. Crazy how the years go by.

[Relica]

Wish they had some more of the kids skis in stock. The GPO Jr is a touch wide for a 10yo EC based skiier would def buy the narrower underfoot MVP Jr . But if you are looking for a bigger mtn ski for your grom, buy that one!

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He has 154 MVP 94s in stock https://www.praxisskis.com/skis/disc...54-cm-2022-23/

[toast2266]

Really what Praxis needs is a good marketing manager. They make awesome skis, quality is high, they have good shapes, pricing is very competitive, and they've been around for quite a while. But based on chairlift conversations while I'm skiing them, lots of people have never heard of them. The days where a ski brand could survive on word of mouth are probably behind us.

[Muggydude]

I agree ^ marketing manager, demo days (could start in Tahoe and spread out to other big resorts in CO, Utah), I’d love to see Warren Miller or TGR do a segment on the factory for the next movie.

ON3P had a similar start and product around the same time, I think their focus on park which brought a lot of younger kids into the fold ended up helping them go mainstream eventually. Moment skis just pushed hard with getting their skis into stores. Blister reviews also helped those two companies a lot I think. Praxis had 1 or 2 unfortunate reviews with them (tune and possibly layup might have been off?) which wasn’t really representative of the product


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[Huskier]

10 years with a Praxis of some type in the quiver. I've really, really wanted them to change up their model for so long, for their own sake. Three problems come to mind:

1) Marketing, not much of it. How do you get people to buy skis they've never heard of?

2) Choice, namely too much of it. I can sort out which ride best suits my needs looking spec sheets, but John Q Customer is faced with a catalog at least 10 models deep at this point, and that's before all the customization options. It's overwhelming.

3) And this is the more minor critique, but they needed a new graphic designer 10 years ago. Topsheets just look...dated. The website, dated. Eye candy factor, for better or worse, is important.

Great skis, but I just can't help but feel like Keith has always focused front and center on the quality of the product and really neglected the shitty but necessary business side of things. Really hope he can partner with someone who can help with that..

[2FUNKY]

Agree whole heartedly with the last three d00ds. Betterer marketing!
I get a ton of questions whenever I’m on my Praxis but no one has ever heard of them.


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[Velomayniac]

I agree. They make top of the line skis.

[Ted Striker]

The skis are too good. They never need replacement! Years ago I needed some tune work on one of my pairs, and the tech was like "whoa! who made these?"

Agree that the graphics & website are out of sync with current trends - which is silly, but still matters.

[singlesline]

I think the first thing a marketer would do is kill the stock top sheet designs.

Not everyone will be happy about it, but tattoo art of a skull with an octopus inside is sort of a divisive design (gonna go out on a limb and guess they’re weren’t a lot of women lusting after GPOs). A lot of the other tops just look dated and lack a cohesive recognizable design language across the line.

It would be more boring, but cohesive designs with a prominent logo/name on the tips where people can see it when on the chair, being held after a competition, etc. The pair I just ordered only say Praxis underneath the bindings…

I think heritage is doing well with this. 4frnt has a unified “4” element, ON3P has distinctive branding.

Especially since I don’t think Praxis is hitting at quite as young a crowd these days. Designing for more of a “I want a mature looking super high quality ski” crowd could help sales. At least I know I’ve tried to suggest them to people who are like…well off dads from the Bay Area that ski Tahoe (should be PRIME customers) and I think they are immediately turned off by the aesthetic.
Yes, they could custom order from any number of great top sheets, but first impressions matter.

Edit: I should say I am just thinking out loud here. I wish them the best and hope they are able to make things work doing it the way they want to.

[Velomayniac]

edit:I'm dreaming

[NBABUCKS1]

really hard to figure out what all those skis do w/o clicking on them.

any deathwish 112 equivalents?

[pfluffenmeister]

really hard to figure out what all those skis do w/o clicking on them.

any deathwish 112 equivalents?

Probably the Jedi Mind Sticks.
Which I have been eyeing for awhile.

[Muggydude]

MVP 108 probably a good Deathwish like ski too


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[nickwm21]

Hopefully they pull through. Anyone on the fence; the Protest and GPO really are masterpiece shapes.

Seconding that they need better marketing, they need more mass-appealing top sheets.

But also - I believe their semi-custom program has been a net negative to their business. It’s great for us ski dorks, but to me it seems to alienate some customers. It also complicates their online reviews. A quick scroll through the praxis reviews on these forums, you’ll quickly find people who made a build or rocker change to a legendary shape and ended up with a dud…


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[grinch]

I agree on all accounts. I really really like both the gpo and protests. Soo fun, just amazing skis. Its frustrating seeing some people buy them and mount them at recommended then sell them because of tip dive, although recommended does work for some albeit a minority. My gpo's came alive in the -1 to -1.5 range and the protest at -2. I wonder if the new protest and mvp 108 profile has made "recommended" proper for me. I'm dreamong of both starting w the mvp 108. I loved my piste jibs and the mvp is essentially a wider pj and possibly with an even funner rocker profile

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[CHAIR_97]

Love you Keith

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[Island Bay]

I agree on all accounts. I really really like both the gpo and protests. Soo fun, just amazing skis. Its frustrating seeing some people buy them and mount them at recommended then sell them because of tip dive, although recommended does work for some albeit a minority. My gpo's came alive in the -1 to -1.5 range and the protest at -2. I wonder if the new protest and mvp 108 profile has made "recommended" proper for me. I'm dreamong of both starting w the mvp 108. I loved my piste jibs and the mvp is essentially a wider pj and possibly with an even funner rocker profile

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Another big Protest fan, and possibly an outlier in that I've never had tip dive on the line - after hundreds of days on mine.

I'm very curious about the new MVP too, but can vouch for the old 110 version. Hadn't skied mine for 3 years, having been on a Monster/LP105 bender, but was very happy back on them recently. Big turns, full speed, no problem. And on the line.