K2 Mindbender - Ski Boots
Role: K2 Design Director
Change the Conversation
Over the past few years, K2 has changed the conversation of who they are as a brand as well as the overall perception of what a ski boot is. In a sea of rules, we’ve brought life and energy into what is usually the pain point of the act of skiing. With the internal joke to “Change The Boot Wall” we’ve ushered in progressive product through both technology and design that has propelled us to the front of the industry and ruffled a few feathers of certain legacy brands along the way.
My contribution to the collection has been largely focused on Design Direction - color, graphic, and industrial. The pleasure has been all mine working with this all star team of engineers, product line managers, industrial design firms, athletes, and production teams to help lead this business to the front of the pack in the world of ski boots. Working alongside this team - we’ve grown the award winning category over the course of this short while to the largest single category in the Elevate Outdoor Collective portfolio - even surpassing the sales of our ski business.
Artist’s Pallet.
A standout point for the collection these past few years has been with K2’s color pallet - especially with our ski boots. We kept the goal simple - to create ski boots that people actually enjoy wearing and and get excited to put on their feet. Both from a visual, performance, and comfort perspective. Since the start of skiing, ski boots have been uncomfortable and dare i say….ugly? The goal was to change that.
We designed with a set of rules in mind…
Unique colors that added to your “kit” instead of simply conflicting with it. Progressive technology that other brands were afraid to commit to. Bold blocking that could be recognized from across the mountain. Finally finished off with clean details to push ourselves away from the world of ski racing and looking like a race car was on your foot.
A Side of Skis With That.
When I began working with K2 in 2018, ski boots still came second to the ski collection. It wasn’t an afterthought by any means but it was second in line of priority from the design team. The ski collection would be wrapped and then boots would get added to the equation after the fact in terms of merch, color, and stylization. As they years progressed and the collection grew, this quickly changed. These past few years we’ve established a new merching formula where we start with the ski boots and then bring the skis to merch with them. It’s drastically allowed for us to bring new colors into the ski category instead of being controlled by what “skiing” tells us to make. We’ve flipped the script on our own process and ultimately the ski industry as a whole.
Additional Contributions:
Skiers: Sam Kuch, Sean Pettit, Lexi Dupont, Delilah Cupp
Ski Boot Engineering: Austin Peters, Christie Burrow, Regan Lane, James O’Connel,
Additional Design: Tim Benasich, Health Fugate (for setting the path a few years before)
Product Line Management: Tom Pietrowski | Marketing and Brand Direction: Tom Johnson, Julia White, Khai Krepala
Photography: Jack Dawe, Christian Raguse, Theo Acworth, Colton Jacobs