Atomic Skis

Atomic Austria GmbH is a ski producer located in Altenmarkt, Salzburg, Austria. It is wholly owned by Finnish parent company Amer Sports, which also owns Wilson Sporting Goods, Suunto Oy, Salomon and Precor USA. Its products are sold worldwide. It has provided the skis for many professional skiers such as Hermann Maier and Bode Miller.

Alpine Racing

Atomic is especially known for their racing skis, and many World Cup champions have used Atomic equipment. Recent winners on Atomic include Hermann Maier (in 2007 he changed to Head), Benjamin Raich, Stephan Eberharter, and Aksel Lund Svindal. The powerhouse Austrian ski team has an especially close relationship with Atomic. Atomic skis became widely popular in the U.S. following the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, at which Bill Johnson won the gold medal in the Downhill on 225 cm Atomic "Red Sleds".

Atomic's History

In 1955 the company was founded by Alois Rohrmoser in Wagrain, Austria. He bought a wheelwright shop, and expanded its production to incude winter sports equipment, using local timber resources and a crew of four craftsmen. In addition to making wheels and sleds, by 1957, the company was making 2000 pairs of wood laminated skis. The following year, the company discontinued making wheels and sleds, and manufactured 5,000 pairs of hand-made wood laminate skis. By 1966, the company had added modern electronic controls and automatic presses, permitting improvements in quality and quantity, as well as advances such as a metal sandwich skis. Atomic's reputation spread when, in the 1968 Winter Olympics, Olga Pall won the women's downhill using Atomic Skis.

In 1971, the company built a new factory in Altenmarkt. By 1985, the company had two factories, covering 4 acres, with 590 craftsmen making 720,000 pairs of skis, approximately 89% alpine, and 11% nordic. Approximately 120,000 pairs were sold in the US that year.

The company was later bankrupted by Austrian union bank BAWAG and sold to Amer Sports.

Source: Wikipedia