Skis Rossignol history

No ordinary skis, they were awarded first prize at a contest sponsored by the Touring Club of France, and in 1911, bolstered by his success, Rossignol established a new "skis and sleds" division of his company.

After the war, the company pursued its twin businesses—weaving-machinery parts and skis—and furnished skis for some of the athletes in the first winter Olympic Games at Chamonix in 1924.

Boix-Vives, son of a local grocer in Brides-les-Bains, was born in 1926, and at age 10 had watched Allais win local races.

Skis Rossignol S.A. is one of the world's premier manufacturers of ski equipment. Its skis, for example, were used in the 1936 Winter Olympics, the very first to include alpine ski events, and have in later years been worn by numerous Olympic and World Cup champions.

In 1937, Émile Allais of France became triple world champion on Rossignol Olympic 41 skis.

Emile Allais left for America in 1946 to help build lifts and trails in Quebec and, the following summer, at Portillo, Chile.

In 1947, Dynamic’s Paul Michal had introduced the first celluloid plastic base.

Then he coached racers in Canada and at Sun Valley, landing at Squaw Valley in 1948 as ski school director.

He coached the United States Ski Team at Oslo in 1952.

In 1953, the state government began offering contracts to develop lifts there; Boix-Vives jumped on the opportunity and got permission to build six lifts at Bozel, serving about 2,000 vertical feet of terrain, most of it tree skiing down to the valley towns below Courchevel.

Then he returned to France in 1954 to help develop the new ski resort at Courchevel.

When Laurent Boix-Vives bought the company in 1956, the company only focused on skiing equipment and began to sell them worldwide.

Rossignol had a breakthrough during the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California, United States, when Jean Vuarnet of France won the downhill on Allais 60s, the company's first all-metal skis.

Boix, accompanied by Duvillard and Allais, made an initial trip abroad in 1962, and he hired Lee Russel—father of the future racing star Patrick Russel—as international marketing director.

Wooden skis were still best for slalom (the three medalists in the 1964 Olympic slalom all used the ash Kastle Slalom, and Guy Perillat set the fastest first-run time on the Dynamic Leger before straddling a gate in the final.

The engineers Maurice Woehrle and Maurice Legrand determined that they needed a thinner, lighter, softer-flexing structure for the glass ski, and the result was the Strato, introduced for the 1965 season, retaining the Olympique sidecut dimensions.

The World Championships in 1966 would prove a watershed in promoting the Strato.

In 1967 the plant grossed 16 million francs—about $3.2 million at then-current rates—and lost 16 million francs.

At the 1968 Winter Olympics, held in Grenoble (near the Voiron factory), the Strato was worn by five medalists, including Canadian Nancy Greene, winner of the giant slalom.

In 1970, Rossignol built a new, fully modern plant near Barcelona.

Also important to the company's success was its decision to produce other types of ski equipment. Its first major diversification was in 1971, when the company introduced a Rossignol brand of cross-country skis.

The first generation of production foam race skis—the metal Roc 550 for GS and the ST-650 for slalom—reached the market in 1972.

Boix-Vives was honored in 1976 by Prime Minister Raymond Barre with the title Manager of the Year.

In 1980, global ski sales reached a peak of 11.2 million pairs.

Performance and comfort were enhanced, for example, by Rossignol's patented Vibration Absorbing System (VAS), introduced in 1981.

In 1982, Boix-Vives ordered the United States factories shut down, laying off hundreds and firing senior managers.

At the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Rossignol triumphed, winning six out of 10 gold medals in alpine events.

The eventual compromise, introduced in 1989 under both the Lange and Rossignol brand names, was the MID line of ski boots.

In 1990, Rossignol acquired the Caber boot factory in Italy and rebranded the product under the Rossignol label (Rossignol already controlled the Lange ski boot brand). The company also acquired the Geze and Look ski-bindings ranges, rebranding Geze.

Another notable improvement was the "Rossitop," introduced in 1992, which was an eight-millimeter-thick layer of transparent plastic that protected the ski's cosmetics.

Over the next five years Rossignol would scramble to match Salomon’s sleek and well-marketed cap ski technology, and then, after 1993, play catch-up to Elan, K2, and the Austrians in the new shaped-ski revolution.

The ski bindings! It is therefore thanks to the acquisition of Look in 1994 that Rossignol can now offer a complete range for winter sports enthusiasts.

Duvillard and Abondance retired during the 1996-97 season. “Roger’s departure left a big hole in the racing organization,” Duvillard now says.

Several board members—including Boix-Vives—resigned in the spring of 2007.

In 2008, the company was acquired by the Australian bank Macquarie.