You’re correct in saying the internet has become a great place to purchase about anything. It’s convenient, informative and can save you time and money. But making your purchase on-line for skis, bindings and boots IS CRAZY and probably won’t save you a dime.

Equipment manufactures are very concerned with your safety. Their main concern is for you to have the proper model, correct size or length and the right binding for your safety. This is why they spend hours training a staff in a specialty ski shop and have authorized dealers.

A specialty ski shop has many other advantages besides being authorized. They offer a full selection of gear from the beginner to experts and from young to old. They offer rentals, have a in-store certified service departments and have trained sales people. Many times the store employees are skiers themselves and have experienced the same things you do on the slopes. This usually results in proper gear selection which can save you money and help you enjoy skiing more.

You may think getting a boot sized and then purchasing on-line may be cost effective until you have a fitting problem. These problems usually occur when the boots break in after a few days of use. A specialty shop will adjust the fit at NO CHARGE if you bought them from the shop. And if they can’t fit them, they’ll put you in another model or refund your money. You won’t get that service if you buy them on-line.

We are a specialty shop and an on-line store. When someone makes a purchase from another place like a ski show swap, a friend, eBay or on-line, they’ll bring it into us to have the bindings installed and/or have the boots fitted. Like any other shop, we charge for these services when the equipment is not purchased with us a fee that is many times waived if they had purchased the equipment from us.

Most of the equipment purchased on-line and brought into our store for service create more problems than what you saved on-line if you saved at all.

I’ll give you some problem examples we’ve had;
We’ve had mismatched serial numbers on skis. If you have different serial numbers on your skis, one ski will be stiffer than the other and you’ll have one ski making a turn differently than the other. We’ve had bindings come in with missing parts. We’ve had the the wrong binding for the skis. When any of those situations happen, and they happen often with on-line purchases, we then call the customer and they must take the time and effort to have it corrected with the place they made the purchase. We’ve had customers that needed to rent from us because we couldn’t do the binding work due to wrong bindings were shipped. With a specialty shop, this would not happen.

And if it comes down to price, almost every specialty ski shop will match a price you find on-line to make a customer, all you need to do is ask. If they don’t, just try another shop wanting your business.

We offer all our equipment and clothing on-line because customers want to see what we have. But to purchase equipment on-line when you can walk into a store and get the same price just doesn’t make sense.

I agree that purchasing accessories on-line like a ski carrier, boot dryer, ski rack or travel bags isn’t a bad idea. But equipment is different.

Alpine Accessories takes a unique approach with our on-line shoppers. Everytime we get an on-line order for equipment, we contact the customer to make sure they are getting what they need in the correct size. It’s amazing how often they make a wrong decision based on what they hear or read. Especially when it comes to ski length but that’s another story.

Thanks for hearing me out and have fun on the slopes.

By all means just plan it yourself, don’t pay some jerk to do all your research for you. Get some Lonely Planet books, save as much money as you can, and hit the road, it will all work out. Another good value is to buy round-the-world tickets (just do a search for this), usually the more stops on the itinerary, the better the value.