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KINGSWOOD BACKGROUND
A hand-made ski company from New Zealand, Kingswood is different because we make each pair of ski to order, considering the customer's size and skiing style in the construction.
Kingswood Skis was started by Alex Herbert after 14 back-to-back winters roving from Canada to Europe to Australia. He settled in New Zealand in 1997 and started the Ski & Snowboard Surgery in 1999.
Frustrated by the diminishing quality of ski construction, Alex took his experience from fixing skis and applied it to making his own.
Kingswood Skis hit the market in June 2005. Each pair is hand-made by Alex using bamboo cores and the toughest materials available.
FAST FACTS
First prototype 2002
Company founded 2005
Directors/Owners
Kris Herbert
Alex Herbert
Location: Lyttelton, New Zealand
Annual production: 150 pairs
Export: 45-55% annually
ANGLES
Kingswood backs Snowpool
Kingswood Skis sponsors Snowpool.org, a ride-sharing website in Australia and New Zealand and soon to be launched into North America. It's a clever, web-based system that connects drivers with passengers for fewer empty seats on the mountain. Snowpool was designed to get more people on the ski fields with less petrol and polution. It enables skiers to save money, meet people and do the planet a favour. Full snowpool press release.
Kingswood pioneers bamboo in ski cores
All Kingswood Skis are made with a 100% bamboo core. We pioneered the use of bamboo in skis. It's stable, responsive and renewable. Bamboo in skis is now catching on and many manufacturers are experimenting with this amazing material.
"Quote unquote"
"Our philosophy is about simplifying snow skis," says ski maker Alex Herbert. "We believe construction was better 20 years ago than it is today. We're a bit unconventional because we don't have retail outlets and we don't have a team of pre-pubescent gangsters. We're just trying to make solid skis for off-piste skiing."
On kids skis:
“There are no compromises,” says Kingswood Skis founder and ski maker Alex Herbert. “They’re like adult skis for kids.”
“I started making skis because the major manufacturers weren’t doing the simple, burly, fat skis that I wanted. My son, Obi, was born in 2008 and when he starts skiing, I want him to have the best so I thought, well, it’s time to do a kids’ range,” Herbert says.
