It’s an age-old question. What the heck is a “women’s ski”?
There is a lot of confusion out there over what differences there are between men’s and women’s skis. Between the variety of ski selection out there, and different brands doing different things, it can be tricky to navigate what exactly a men’s vs. women’s ski can offer. Let’s break it down a little.
Historically, brands build women’s skis to be more lightweight, softer, and with a slightly more forward mount point. This is because, generally, women are a bit shorter and lighter than our dude counterparts. If you have less mass behind you, it can be more difficult to drive a really stiff or heavy ski. On the other hand, if you have a little more weight behind you (or a more aggressive skiing style), really lightweight or soft skis may feel less stable. Women’s skis will also come in some smaller sizing, and longer sizes for men given our general size differences.
These labels and categories are a little old school. Folks come in all different shapes, sizes, preferences, and skier types. There are people out there who love to ski aggressively, some who prefer to ski with a more centered playful stance, and some in between. All of these groups need different skis for their use case. Whether they are ladies or not doesn’t really matter. It’s all about getting set up on the right gear for you.
Why do we even call them men’s and women’s skis then?
Great question. I think would be fair to say that sometimes the ski industry makes assumptions that women want to ride softer, more forgiving skis that are pink or have floral designs. This is just clearly not true (see Angel Collinson ripping the unisex Volkl Confession). For sure, some women want something on the softer side or more lightweight, but that certainly doesn’t include all of us. Some folks who aren’t women want that, too.
The industry heard the hollers from women asking for unisex design. These days, loads of ski brands share the exact same construction for their men’s and women’s skis, just with different graphics. Black Crows’ “Birdie” line features the exact same construction as the unisex models, but with alternate top sheet colors. They aren’t offered in a full size run, but hit the most popular sizes for women.
We’re seeing other brands take it further. Line’s new 24/25 lineup is completely unisex, with all skis being offered in a full size run. DPS has been running that unisex system for a few seasons now. Other brands like Volkl, Salomon, and Elan run completely identical skis between their men’s and women’s “lines”. Just with different names and graphics.
There’s still a place for women-specific models though.
All of this is not to say that women’s-specific skis are a bad thing. Historically, ladies haven’t been included in the design room, which leads to the industry producing these stereotypically soft and forgiving skis.
That’s changing. Blizzard/Tecnica kickstarted their Women 2 Women program in 2015 with the idea of creating spaces for women to share what they are looking for (and need) out of their ski equipment. Leslie Baker-Brown leads the charge on organizing the development of new skis and boots. The most recent iteration of the Black Pearl line was developed start to finish with women’s feedback and input. These are not soft, wimpy skis. These are strong skis that appeal to a wide range of skier types, and look great.
Nordica has always run the terrain-specific metal in their Santa Ana series, with great success. Again, depending on your use case, a softer and less torsionally rigid ski when you don’t weigh a whole lot is usually a lot of fun. For a 200 pound dude, he might want that full width of metal.
Coalition Snow is a rad, women-owned and operated company that specializes in making skis by women, for women. They are a group of women designing skis that they want to ski. Having more women and other non-dude folks throughout the whole design process of ski manufacturing is more important than making everything unisex.
So, which one do I choose?
Whatever you want! I’ve mostly owned men’s skis because I like the graphics more, and the stiffer construction. But Volkl recently won me over with their rose gold, Secret 102. I like the graphic more than army green/black, but it has the ski platform I like.
I also thoroughly enjoy riding many women’s-specific skis. The new Black Pearl was one of my favorites coming away from demos for the 24/25 season, along with the new Icelantic Maiden 102. And, the Nordica Santa Ana 104 Free will go down in my personal history books as one of the best skis ever.
It just depends what you want out of your new pair of sticks. Maybe you want a hot pink top sheet (because let’s face it, looks matter sometimes), or you want a slightly stiffer, more burly ski. Skiing is whatever you want it to be. No need to stick with what the industry thinks you might want.
