Dynafit OEM lineup for 2015/2016.
The day has come when you can walk into any ski shop and ask for a tech binding to be mounted on your ski.
Dynafit has created exclusive partnerships with three select brands for 2015/16: Fischer, LOOK/Rossignol/Dynastar, and Movement skis.
Thirty-one years after Fritz Barthel was granted his patent for the tech binding it has reached mainstream ski sales. Since Lou has the experience for the long view of all this, I asked him his opinion:
“Good or bad?” Said Lou, “hard to say.”
“Perhaps the plethora of bindings will eventually drive the price down, but any product that’s over supplied brings the possibility of stifling innovation due to reduced profit. The ideal situation is competition to keep innovation up and the price reasonable, rather than an inflated supply dumbing everything down.
“We backcountry skiers have been privileged to have been coddled with an amazing spate of binding innovation over the last two decades, do we want tech bindings to end up like alpine bindings, with nearly the exact same thing in a different color coming out every year? Could happen. On the other hand, it’ll most certainly be easier to get a shop deal or pro price, and a lot of ski gear is sold that way. So the world domination of the pintech binding will continue.
“Another point I’d bring up is that most tech bindings are not in any way ‘indemnified’ to protect ski shops from lawyers. First step in that is the current “standard” of having a TUV certification to the ISO norm, but few tech bindings have that. It appears some of the re-branded Dynafit bindings are models that do not have TUV certification — I have to wonder how a mainstream ski shop can sell a non-certified and technical binding to a customer who may not have much in the way of chops when it comes to using tech bindings.
“More, it is known that tech bindings have modes and angles where safety release may not be as effective as that of an alpine binding, you thus don’t want to put a learning skier on them who will experience a higher frequency of falling. The rebranded bindings, if they’re ‘mainstream’ could end up with many more skiers of varied ability, and thus might more often be used by beginners. The slick mainstream rebranding might even imply that the tech bindings are bonafide resort bindings — will there come a day when you see a tourist from Mexico in a first-ever ski lesson in Aspen, sporting an OEM tech binding? Like, how in Spanish do you say “sorry sir, but even though you’re a billionaire we can’t let you ski in a lesson with those bindings?’ So much for that private jet ride to Portillo.
“One other thing, the term ‘OEM’ can be confusing. I’ve always used it to define stuff that’s made by the Original Equipment Manufacturer under their _own_ brand. For example, if I bought a trim part for our truck that was from GM it would be OEM, but if it was aftermarket without their brand on it then it would not be OEM. The term OEM now has two meanings in business, as it also refers to rebranded merchandise such as these Dynafit bindings.”
In any case, for each OEM product Dynafit will co-label, introduce exclusive colors, and have different quantities available.
Look toe piece.
Look heel piece.
Look/Rossignol/Dynastar 15/16 partnership specifics:
-Bindings to say “Engineered by Dynafit”
-4 year contract
-Radical 2 FT – Less than 2500 pairs
-Radical 2 Test – Less than 1500 pairs
Fischer toe piece.
Fischer heel piece.
Fischer 15/16 partnership specifics:
-Bindings to say “Engineered by Dynafit”
-5 year contract
-Low Tech Race – less than 1000 pairs
-Speed Radical – approximately 1500 pairs
-Radical 2 ST – less than 4000 pairs
-Radical 2 Test – less than 500 pairs
-Beast 14 – less than 50 pairs
-Beast 16 – less than 50 pairs
-Partnership to include bindings & boot inserts
Movement Skis 15/16 partnership specifics:
-5 year contract
-No specific binding selection available at this time.
Joseph Risi was raised on pasta and meatballs in the “backwoods” of Long Island before seeking higher education in the mountains of Vermont. Always looking for adventure, building treehouses, working too many odd jobs around the world he now lives in the Aspen area of Colorado.
