Basecamp Podcast: The Daleys bring Northland Skis back to life

Father and son Peter Daley Sr. and Peter Daley Jr. hold a pair of their Northland Skis.

Rossignol. Atomic. Noridca. Volkl. These are just some of the names a skier might see frequently when checking out other peoples’ gear while cooped up in a lift line.

To those of an older generation, Northland was that brand. The Minnesota-based company was an early ski manufacturer and shortly after the first trails were cut across New England on mountains like Stowe, Cannon and Wildcat, Northland opened a factory in Laconia, N.H., in the late 1930s.

Fast forward decades later, Peter Daley Sr. was in his home in Steamboat Springs, Colo., trying to improve his favorite carving skis (Atomic B5i) after they were discontinued and he could no longer get his hands on them. It turned into bringing the old name back to life and producing them commercially.

In the most recent episode of New England Ski Journal Basecamp Podcast, hosts Mike Specian and Keith Pearson spoke with Peter Daley Sr. and Peter Daley Jr. of Northland Skis about the history of the original product, why they brought the name back to market, what makes them a great quiver to have in your ski collection and where the brand hopes to go in the future.

It also asks the big question regarding skis today, how fat does a ski really need to be?

Watch the pod:

Highlights:

What made the decision to bring back the Northland name?

“We were making them with a hickory core. We didn’t really start with the history of Northland, but soon realized Northland was built around the hickory ski. Because we were making the cores with hickory, I was sitting there one night trying to figure out how we were going to name the ski and there were an old pair of Northland Bantam slalom skis in the corner, and the light bulb went off.
“I went and researched (the name). It had been abandoned in the mid ’70s, and the patent and trademark office, because it was already a brand and had a copyright on it, they were easy to work with to bring that back. That’s how we got the name and went back to the original logo on the skis.” – Peter Daley Sr.

How did you decide to build your own ski?

“(Pete Senior) was trying to find a ski that he could go with once that Atomic (B5i) was discontinued and we approached a couple different companies here in Colorado, and most of them told us, hey that’s a great idea but that’s an East Coast ski and we’re not going to make that. That kind of turned into us saying, well I guess we’ll do it ourselves then. That’s how you get into making your own ski, when other people say that’s not going to work.” – Peter Daley Jr.

Listen: