Video on manufacturers who have come and gone:
Defunct Ski Brands of the 60s and 70s
Seniors on the Slopes
11,988 views May 20, 2026
Olin. Hart. Hexcel. Dynamic. Names that felt like they’d be around forever. Most of them are gone. This is the story of the ski brands that disappeared — and why the most innovative companies in the sport didn’t survive. From Northland and Gregg, the wooden ski giants that couldn’t make the leap to metal, to Hart, destroyed by a conglomerate, to Hexcel, the aerospace ski killed by 23% interest rates, to Dynamic, whose VR17 became the most copied ski in history before the brand mostly vanished — and yes, True Value, the hardware store that sold skis during the boom and then simply stopped — these are the brands that changed everything and then disappeared. Did you ski on any of these brands? Did you buy skis at a hardware store? Tell me in the comments.
