Ski Trends 2027

The 26/27 gear announcement season is here! Instead of diving into specific launches, I want to talk about macro shifts in the market to get better context for both new and retiring gear as the seasons change over.

Do you even carve? The ski industry has this funny way of moving the goal posts about what it means to be a “good” skier. In the late 2000s, it was park skiing. In the 2010s, it changed to powder skiing. The pandemic accelerated a shift into backcountry skiing. And now we’re coming back to fundamentals – technically proficient carving. And a few low snow years out West have only increased interest in specialty groomer skis.

The trend’s really grown with Stockli. When the market was fawning over powder and touring skis, they stuck to their core competencies on the frontside. Materials are high quality. High price tag adds cachet. Unforgiving for novice skiers. Instant favorites for the “grew up in a race program” or “annual private lessons at Aspen or Deer Valley” crowds.

Everyone’s chasing a piece of the pie. Most Euro brands have always had piste-y, race lines. But Faction? The park ski brand? They added the Dancer 79 last season. DPS? Short for “Drake Powderworks?” They added a Pisteworks line this past season as well. Feels like pigs are flying. What’s next? Line and Armada release cross country skis?

So, we’re seeing more newness in this realm. The existing Dancer 79 comes with a layer of titanal and will now get a softer sibling without. Likewise, Armada’s getting in on the game with an Antimatter 75 (descendant of the outgoing Reliance & Declivity lines).

I also think it’s so funny that most of these new-age carvers are sold flat when the legacy carving lines always came with system bindings. Is this a North American thing? Are we conditioned to associate integrated bindings with beginner skis? Are we deeply attached to a binding of choice? Is a flat carver just a way to trick Americans into thinking it’s a ski for us?

There are a few other factors driving demand. The two big ski generations are hitting groomers. Boomers are sticking to pistes. Still active but favoring technique over intensity. And millennials are family skiing. Social media also plays a role. Youtube drove a lot of interest in park skiing; Instagram favored the scenic shots from backcountry touring. Tiktok likes carving. There’s no “money shot” thumbnail needed. Helmet cams have improved dramatically. And they pair well with “how-to” content that the algorithm loves.

The economy’s on the downslope. In the early 2010s, brands started experimenting with carbon laminates and made things light – and not even just for touring. The Wailer and the Soul 7 were both smash hits and everyone rushed to imitate it. Then the Enforcer swapped back to metal and the rest of the market did too. Since that time, we’ve seen a lot more titanal. The Black Pearls added two layers. The Head Kore became the Kore Ti. Salomon launched the Stances to compliment the light QST line.

But titanal adds a lot of cost to the production process. It’s a branded metal alloy that’s mostly made in Europe. It doesn’t laminate as easily as other components. And it doesn’t help that the market for burly skis is oversaturated. (This is what happens when we rush to duplicate best sellers on the market).

So, we’re seeing some movement out of the category to manage price points. Nordica started this in 2025 with the Unleashed 98 CA, saving customers $100 from the “OG” 98 with a partial sheet of titanal. This year, they’re expanding with a 106 CA that’s $50 than the metal 106. We’ll also see this sort of move from Faction with the Dancers and Dancer Ti. And K2’s dropping the “C” and “Ti” lines from the Mindbender and replacing both with “Dark Matter,” a dampening polymer.

To me, it seems like brands and lines that resonate in North America are the ones doing this price point management strategy. No one’s duplicating cheaper versions of the Fischer Curv or Atomic Clouds or Volkl Peregrine because the rest of the world isn’t hellbent on torpedoing their own economy. Thanks tariffs!

Bents are the “it” ski du jour. The Bent Chetler came out in 2008, but Atomic treated it as a niche, one-off athlete ski for a number of years. It wasn’t really central to the brand DNA, more a departure for a company that favored the European market. But it was a little ahead of the curve when it came to the lightweight powder ski era. And once that trend peaked, it became a ski shop staple. The graphics got better and more trend-aligned. The ski got a temporary weight cut to capture demand during the touring boom. Once it became the reference powder ski, it was time to iterate.

They launched the Bent 100 in 2018, a more directional, versatile interpretation at a compelling price point. The young gun immediately outsold its older sibling, and the line expanded further with 3 new widths. Most models undercut their peers by $50-100.

Brands are chasing. Some are focused on the “athlete” story, like the Armada Antimatter release focusing on Max Palm. Some brands are chasing the artistic topsheet on a playful ski like the Blizzard Canvas (wow could you be more subtle about the inspiration source) and line expansion / aesthetic choices on the Volkl Revolt. Some brands are chasing price, like the “CA” versions of the Nordica Unleashed and the continuation of the K2 Reckoners.

Touring is dead. The industry pulled forward a lot of touring demand in 2020, so a lot of folks are riding fairly current gear. It’s also a sign of the economy. Touring requires a large, committing upfront investment. Resort skiing is usually a slower progression from a one-time day ticket customer on rentals to a season passholder with custom footbeds, aftermarket liners, and a quiver of skis.

A lot of brands that hopped on the trend have hopped off. It’s been a year or two, but the Nordica Unlimited line is long gone, the Blizzard Hustle is dead. There’s conflicting information as to whether the Armada Locator existed in 2026 and rumors that the Line Vision’s not coming back in 2027.

Touring skis that will stay in production aren’t being featured at annual ski shows. Even highly popular lines like the Atomic Backlands and Black Crows Freebirds aren’t getting any PR space. Expect product development and major innovations to slow down considerably.

The biggest loss here is variety in touring skis. The leftovers are pretty vanilla – directional, but not too demanding. All-mountain versatility. We lose a lot of the easy, pivot-y skis that work well for progressing intermediates like the old Armada Traces or the Line Visions.

No word on if this will actually impact the crowds in your favorite local touring zone.

Women’s lines are mostly dead. Four things made women a hot marketing target in the mid-2010s: Lots of women joining the sport, the Blizzard Black Pearl ranking #1 for unit sales, Coaltion Snow launching a women’s only brand, and the #MeToo movement giving more credence to women’s experiences.

Turns out, selling skis to women involves way more than an @ArmadaWomens Instagram account.

Since then, many lines have gone unisex. More just make the same ski for men and women and change the topsheets. There aren’t many women-specific lines left. Blizzard’s got differentiation for each gender across the entire assortment (except the new Canvas). Nordica’s Santa Ana and Enforcer have different laminates. Same for the Atomic Maven vs. Maverick (note that Atomic never bought in to the big “girl power” marketing push). K2 just shifts the mount points forward. Head’s frontside Joy line is the only one that shares no molds with a men’s or unisex sibling.

On one hand, skiers are skiers. On the other, women are statistically newer to the sport, socialized to be more cautious, yet still experience more sport injuries. Not to mention, each gender tends to have socialized aesthetic preferences. There’s money to be made adjusting to those differences.

It seems like the market’s consolidating behind a few lines. Learn on a Joy. Progress on a Black Pearl. Shred on a Santa Ana or Sheeva (or sometimes a quiver of both). The last major overhaul for these lines was back in 2018. Personally, I’m hungry for something new and innovative.

There is one bright spot on the boot wall. The K2 Anthem is coming out in 2027 as the first boot built solely for women. Instead of scaling down men’s boots, K2 boot engineers measured women’s feet and played with ramp angle and forward lean and built molds accordingly. They’ve got narrower heels and push skiers more forward to account for center of gravity differences. Plus, they size down to a true 21.5. Really hope this spreads to other brands.