Twelve years ago when we started Faction, we were outcasts. A rag-tag bunch of Australians, Canadians, English and Americans who spent the first winter testing, learning about materials and refining shapes in one of the biggest winter playgrounds (and après ski party scenes) in Europe.
We started Faction as ski bums – the things we made needed to be affordable, they had to last 100+ day seasons, survive without servicing and be thrown in the cupboard for the summer. But more than anything, they had to increase our stoke factor. They had to be fun.
For the first couple of years of Faction we made our skis in a tiny factory just south of Evian in France. In our first production year we ran the skis across the border to our home in Verbier, Switzerland on Christmas Eve in the back of a rented station wagon covered by a blanket… 40 pairs fresh off the press.
As the years went by, our design and production processes became more sophisticated but we never lost sight of why we started Faction. We still strive to make products that push boundaries, that rebel against the norm, products that we want to use: tools of escape.
