Line

Since 1995, Line have concentrated on two things: skiing and building skis for riders who want to have even more fun. Nothing more and nothing less. Line’s simple concept and catalyst is that it takes innovative products to push riding style and the sport. Thanks to the evolutionary era in the 80’s and 90’s, the popularity of many action sports grew exponentially, except for skiing! For years on end, the designs of skis did not change and skiing was judged as a conservative and traditional sport. Many ski companies completely ignored the concept of what skiing could be in the future. That’s when 21-year-old Jason Levinthal decided to do something about it. He had been switching between skiing and snowboarding for too long, and wished that his skis offered the same level of performance as his snowboard. So, during a semester project at his university’s carpentry workshop, he created a pair of skis with all the qualities of his snowboard. In doing so, he created a completely new type of skis, that would one day play an important role in the birth of his promising ski company and the revolution of skiing. As soon as he finished with college, Jason started up a little ski business called LiNE in his parents’ garage. He spent 16 hours a day, 7 days a week and his entire summer building the equipment to produce his skis. In the end, he had a one-man enterprise that could produce a pair of skis in 8 hours. So far, so good! During the visit of the Snowsports Industries Association (SIA), one of the biggest events in the ski business in Las Vegas, no one paid much attention to him. But after the event, he got his first order of 1000 pairs of skis from a Japanese company. All of his family and friends were mobilised and the little garage was no longer enough. That’s what set it all off. Line made its final breakthrough during th 1998 X-Games. All of a sudden, people were recognising the potential of these new skis. Line began to work together with Kris Ostness, one of the most progressive skiers of his time. They developed the first twin-tip skis with the name Ostness Dragon. Further cooperations resulted in the legendary Twelve Sixty ski, that was designed specifically for park riding. The garage-based one-man enterprise became history.

The stroy of Line is less affected by business deals than by the passion for the sport, which you can see first hand on any pair of Line Freeski. They also produce matching Line Poles with designs as cool as those on their freeskis. Line want you to know that you are the most important thing for the sport, because you’re what spreads it to the world!