I gree with Phil that Kastle is a boutique company rather than an Indie. Do you really think they would be able to produce what everyone says are incredibly made skis in a garage somwhere? They were smart. They found a high level facility to use and then added their own design and QC.
But again this is my point. Innovation is great. QC and quality production facilities are also important.
As for blindly supporting Indies vs other companies, I beleive in evolution and extinction. If the indies can't get their QC up to reasonable standards they should go out of business. The fact that they don't have to spend marketing dollars and because they sell direct (getting the full price of the ski in pocket vs 50% when sold by the Brand names) helps them a lot. At the end of the day, superior product should drive superior sales.
The truth of the matter is that making skis is a very bad business. I have looked at the financials on all the public ski companies. It's a horrible business. You ship your skis out to retailers in August. They pay you nothing until January and in April they are telling you why the skis didn't sell and that they need further discounts to clear out the inventory so they can buy skis for next year. The ski co's compound the problem by changing the top sheets every year so last years skis automatically sell for a 50% discount vs this years ski, and every retailer puts them on sale in February.
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