Awards & Preise ·Apr 02, 2019

ISPO Brandnew Award Ceremony

ORIGINAL+ is the ISPO Brandnew Overall Winner 2019. The sports start-up impressed the jury with its custom-made skis.

Anyone looking for happy faces recently would have found them in Hall B4 at ISPO, where sports start-ups had the chance to showcase their innovations at the ISPO Brandnew Area. This created a unique atmosphere, filled with pride and excitement, for the exhibitors at the world’s largest sports trade fair.

Out of hundreds of applicants, 50 finalists were chosen to exhibit at ISPO. This year, the 12-member ISPO Brandnew jury faced particular difficulty selecting their favorites, ultimately narrowing the field to seven winners.

These are the winners of ISPO Brandnew 2019.

"These companies are just at the beginning, and I’m very excited to see how they will develop," said David Badalec, Head of ISPO Services and host of the awards ceremony.

At the center of the celebrations was Siegfried Rumpfhuber, founder and CEO of ORIGINAL+, who was honored as the ISPO Brandnew Overall Winner 2019.

His start-up company from Salzburg, Austria, offers custom-made skis that are tailored to the customer’s skiing style and terrain preferences. "Our skis are made from 32 components, allowing us to create 600 different variations," explains Rumpfhuber, who worked for two major ski companies for years and tested skis before developing his innovation, which earned him the overall victory in the sports start-up competition.

Customized ski manufacturing with a satisfaction guarantee

The concept is simple: a customer provides their individual parameters, such as skiing style, ability, weight, height, age, and region ("In Colorado, the snow crystals are completely different from those in South Tyrol"). A software program based on artificial intelligence then calculates the best combination of ski width, length, stiffness, binding settings, and tuning for the customer.

Despite the customization and production in Austria, ORIGINAL+ skis are sold starting at €860—comparable to the price of mass-produced skis. "We also offer a satisfaction guarantee," says Rumpfhuber, "if a customer isn’t satisfied with their skis, they can get their money back or receive new skis—but this has only happened once so far."