Another perspective comes from Tim Jamieson, president of Nordica/Kaestle, who points out in *The Ski Industry Letter* that what you are doing is positioning yourselves as a sort of *Consumer Reports* for ski equipment. If that is the role you seek, he correctly asks, is it compatible with being a vehicle for paid advertising from the producers of the ski equipment?
And no matter that many of the team members of the testing teams are under some sort of contract to equipment suppliers. Who cares about objectivity? Or even perceptions? It is pizzazz, hype and an energetic projection of what’s new and exciting that sells—both magazines and the equipment.
Ed, this stuff is essentially well-crafted techno-babble—escape literature that allows Joe Skier to fantasize about what it must feel like to ski like an elite racer. And it gives him instant, packaged opinions on equipment which he can recycle as his own over a bottle of imported mineral water. By all means run it, because it clearly is very successful. The magazines have created sort of a monster: skiers believe the reports more than they should; manufacturers are uncomfortable about a powerful influence on their consumers over which they would like more control; conscientious retailers are frustrated when their customers, test report in hand, question their recommendations; and editors are perhaps a little sheepish about the power in the market place they have, but never sought.
Best wishes from your friend and fellow editor, who also sells advertising,
David Rowan
PS. A historical note: *Ski* once really did do engineering analysis on ski equipment. It was called SkiPP—standing for Ski Performance Prediction. It was based on objective bench testing for both static and dynamic properties, including foreflex dynamics, effective torsion, effective compression and damping. The resulting analysis was compared with on-snow tests. The analyses were terminally boring—accurate, objective, but mind-numbingly technical.
No wonder it eventually evolved into today’s glamourous equipment testing teams with their sexy special uniforms and hip phrase-making. E.g. *Like fresh lemonade on a hot afternoon, the ski is refreshing…I spent an entire morning pushing [the MX61 boot] all over Mt. Bachelor—through mung, chip-chopping through the race course and motoring right up to ticketpulling speeds on Old Skyliner—and it never quit on me…* File under “Reports I never finished reading.”
