Black Crows: The Indie Ski Brand That Flew Out of Chamonix

Born in Chamonix, France, Black Crows is an independent ski company founded almost twenty years ago. A completely unplanned venture, company founders Camille Jaccoux and Bruno Compagnet fell in together over their passion for big mountain skiing. Besides their shared devotion, the two have little else in common. Bruno was a quintessential ski bum, chasing the next big line as a pro skier. Camille also tried to develop a professional ski career but never felt totally at home in the mountains. His eye for art and marketing brought him back to the city until it became clear over dinner one night that with some financial help from Christophe Vellmin, creating the brand Black Crows was their destiny. 
The goal for Black Crows was never to become the biggest ski company. The only thing that mattered was to make a ski that they loved and could be skied by everybody. Bringing their first ski, the Corvus, to market in 2006, they took a "build and they shall come" approach. They strongly believed that if they made skis that could make skiing easier, people would buy them. With this philosophy in mind, they have hit a sweet spot on skis that rewards strong skiers with a smooth ride but doesn't punish the aspiring expert either. They now offer men's, women's, and kids' skis with a freeride focus that can be used on any part of the mountain. 

Iconic ski designer Julien Regnier was instrumental in the brand's swift rise to the top. After years at Rossignol and Armada, he saw how rockered skis were allowing people to push their boundaries and ski more terrain. He is perhaps most well known for designing the Armada JJ which joined Shane McConkeys "Spatula" skis with a more realistic every day shape. The result was a ski that made powder skiing what it is today. 

Joining innovative ski design with sharp graphics, Black Crows has become a success story in the indie ski market. Evolving from a small group of friends to a top-tier brand in less than 20 years is a meteoric rise that the big brands could only dream of. Black Crows never intends to follow the traditional path laid out by the classic ski companies. They seek to grow in their own way, staying true to the core values and keeping that French attitude.