My first ski reviews were shit posts about topsheets. I wanted to get into ski reviewing. I did not have skis to review. But I did have pictures. I started sharing my hot-takes and readers used the DM function to share theirs back. I realized that these “superficial ski reviews” became a lot more interesting and useful as a group project and pivoted to a poll format.
Method: All major women’s and unisex ski lines (39 total) are put into an IG story poll for readers to “toot” or “boot.” I separate men’s responses and use the rest of the data to crown a winner, a loser, and find trends. And now with several years of data, I can look at changes over time.
Winner: Coalition Snow came out on top with 90% approval. They’re a repeat champion. No surprises since the colors are so dialed to women’s fashion tastes. The Fall-Winter 2025 fashion palettes featured “Neon Flare” – that punchy, poppy, neon coral – especially in unexpected combinations with soft, cosmetic pink and beige. Spring-Summer 2026 palettes feature the “jelly brights” like Mint Jelly, Peach Jelly, and Frosted Grape. They’re a continuation of recent pastel trends, but favoring bolder interpretations over softer, muted pastels. It’s such a special skill set to predict what will resonate with customers 6-18 months in the future. It’s a complicated blend of math-y business trends, emotional forecasting, and creativity. Add on the skills needed to execute that framework into visual artwork, and it’s that much more impressive to see in a small, entrepreneurial team. Seriously, below the skis, I’ve got a handful of forecasted color trends from winter and spring that match up with the line perfectly.
Runner Ups: Moment Sierras came in 2nd with 87% approval and Faction Agents in 3rd with 85%. We see more of the jelly brights and a frosted grape color that’s part of that palette. I also think the bold orange colors are very compelling. They’ve been popular on ’25-’26 runways and are generally reserved for men (Stiffest Tecnica boots are always orange, Scarpa Maestrales, many iterations of the Bonafide and Cochise, Black Crows Nocta and Mirus Cor). Faction’s ratings are also significantly higher this year when we included the full line vs. prior years when the more feminine, Easter-egg skis were the women’s “X” topsheet.
Loser: Line Skis. Particularly the Visions with an 11% approval rate from women. But none of their graphics appealed. The Optics got 20% approval, Pandoras 25%, and Bacons 38%. I genuinely think they’re tanking their women’s market share. When they collapsed their gendered product lines in 2024, they make a lot of noise about being “gender inclusive.” But then, they immediately cut a lot of shorter sizes. And while the women-specific era of the Pandoras held down 70-85% approval rates, these new ones aren’t clicking. It’s also interesting to compare against men’s scores. No one really loved these topsheets, but men did like them more. Isolating men’s votes showed 25% approval for the Visions, 40% for the Optics, and 52% for the Pandora. Bacons were roughly equal across gender.
Also Bad (Runner Downs?): The Armada Reliance had a 13% approval rating and the Head Kore Ti W had 15% approval. Both are minimalist design. Minimalist graphics were popular… 5-8 years ago. Solid topsheets, especially black / white / grey. Simple serif fonts. Both Head and Armada made similar choices on the men’s side of the line. I don’t think Head can do better, but I love Armada’s more traditional skis and would love to see an ARW-caliber graphic on top.
Best Glow Up: Having several years of data means I can track creative choices over time. The Nordica Unleashed improved from 38% (gender combined) last year up to 79% approval for 25/26. Women drove a more dramatic increase. I would love to see penetration across gender because, anecdotally, I feel like the Unleashed has sold more since launch to men. But it’s a ski that I think a lot of women would love. I hope the creative choices and some new size additions drive more awareness and interest from women.
Biggest Glow Down: Icelantic Mystic and Natural saw a big decline from the top spot last year (90% approval down to 48%). The leaf graphics from last year did a lot of things right. The greens were trendy colors. It felt familiar to the “put-a-tree-on-it” nature motif that’s predictable in ski gear, but with a novel twist with a deciduous variety. The update to snowflakes felt less original. The black and white colorway called back to 2010s minimalist aesthetic.
Most Polarizing – Women Favored: Faction Agent received an 85% approval rating from women but only 62% approval from men. And the Atomic Bent Chetler surprisingly also appealed more to women despite the legacy as a men’s ski (56% approval with women, 35% with men).
Most Polarizing – Men Favored: The Line Pandora received a 52% approval rate from men but only 25% approval with women, despite historically being a women’s-specific line. The Elan Playmaker had a similar delta (60% approval with men vs. 34% with women). I find that reaction to the Playmaker interesting given that the colors and soft swirls feel very “basic.” Maybe that swap feels novel and interesting for men, especially as purple gains traction in men’s gear (‘27 Blizzard Peregrine race skis, ‘26 Salomon Shift Alpha BOA 130, ‘26 Armada ARVs, ‘26 Anomaly 102, Faction Studios, Fischer Rangers. I could go on. Purple’s ferda boys now).
There’s a right and wrong way to unisex. We’ve seen a big shift towards unisex lines since 2020 and this year, we had 13 unisex lines in the survey. Five of those lines do a “two topsheet” approach where one colorway’s a little more masculine or feminine. The other eight offer a single graphic. Two-topsheet is far more popular. Those lines average 63% approval. That’s even higher than women-specific graphics (averaged 54% approval). Single-topsheet lines averaged 39% approval. And there was much less gender spread on the two-topsheet options (i.e. men and women approved at very similar rates). Single-topsheet lines showed very strong favoritism from either men or women. The delta between genders was 11-28%. The only exception was the Faction Prodigy with equal approval across genders.
I am very curious if this translates to sales penetration. Maybe more options mean higher odds something resonates with a customer. Or the signal “we specifically thought about women’s taste in graphics” gets interpreted as “we probably thought about them during the product development phase too.”
Repeated topsheets lose popularity. Carry-over graphics largely lose some approval in their second season, but not much (an average of -5%). Somehow the Dynastar M Pro W got slightly more popular since last season.
Men and women were equally critical. While tastes shifted from line to line, overall they each averaged 52% approval throughout the voting series.
FemiGnarly 
