DPS Skis

DPS Skis was founded in 2005 in Salt Lake City, Utah by ski-engineer Stephan Drake as a small American ski-manufacturer workshop specifically focused on producing technically-engineered carbon-fibre powder-and-backcountry skis for the broader American ski-mountaineering and powder-skiing community. The brand has been one of the defining post-2005 American-anchored 'carbon-fibre powder-ski' brands. The DPS Skis vocabulary settled around several specific products: the iconic DPS Pure 3 Wailer powder-ski programme (the brand's defining post-2010 product — a carbon-fibre powder-ski widely considered one of the most-engineered powder-ski products globally), the DPS Foundation Wailer backcountry-ski programme, the DPS Cassiar all-mountain ski programme, various deliberately-experimental ski-engineering programmes (including the DPS Phantom permanent-base-wax treatment programme), and a colour palette anchored to alpine-blue, washed-cream, oxblood, washed-charcoal, ecru, plus the brand's recurring use of saturated red-and-yellow safety colour combinations. The brand is independent and held by Drake plus institutional outdoor-industry investors. DPS Skis operates flagship retail in Salt Lake City (the brand's home factory shop), plus international wholesale through specialist ski-mountaineering retailers globally (REI, Backcountry, the broader US-and-European ski specialty retailer network, the substantial Japanese ski-mountaineering specialty distribution), and the broader luxury-outdoor specialty retailer network. The brand has been one of the most rigorously committed post-2005 American-anchored 'carbon-fibre powder-ski' brands.