Elan is a world-renowned producer and supplier of sports and leisure equipment and of technologically advanced composite components for the wind-energy market. Over nearly eight decades, Elan has established itself as an innovator and trendsetter, having changed the history of skiing and sports in general. In the past two decades, its products have received numerous awards from independent institutions for innovation, quality, and design.
Most people know Elan as a ski-manufacturer; however, its factory in Begunje also produces the finest vessels, gym equipment and composite components for elegant windmills that generate clean electricity. Elan’s winter division, its most famous, manufactures skis and snowboards, while its marine division builds top-quality sailboats. Elan Inventa produces equipment and innovative seating solutions for sports facilities.
Elan's products are used in more than 60 countries around the world. The legendary Ingemar Stenmark raced exclusively on Elan skis. When the Swedish ski jumper Jan Boklöv pioneered the V-style in ski jumping, he did it on Elan skis.
Slovenian mountaineer and extreme skier Davo Karničar used Elan skis during his Seven Summits project. He became the first person to successfully ski down the highest peaks on each of the world's seven continents, including Mount Everest.
Elan has been innovating for decades with one single purpose – to make the skiing experience better for everyone, from beginners to professional skiers. Its products are not only innovative and technologically perfected, but also keep up with design trends.
An innovative company
Elan did not invent skiing but the company has been responsible for numerous innovations that have changed skiing throughout the world. In the 1990s, Elan's engineers shook the skiing market with the introduction of the MBX, the first cap construction ski on the market. With the MBX and later with carving skis or the SCX model, which debuted the extreme sidecut, Elan changed alpine skiing forever. Afterwards, Elan also pioneered the Waveflex, Fusion and Amphibio technologies and once again redefined alpine skiing.
The company has undoubtedly set high standards for the design of the best-performing, highest-quality, state-of-the-art products for skiing enthusiasts.
Elan's equipment provides the maximum sporting pleasure and the ultimate technological capabilities for customers all over the world. Thanks to the use of digital printing instead of screen-printing, Elan has managed to reduce emissions and water consumption.
Folding skis
The breakthrough solution with which Elan became an ambassador of the Slovenian economy is the Ibex Tactix folding ski. The Slovenian Armed Forces also participated in the development of the ski. Historically there have been quite a few attempts to manufacture folding skis, but for one reason or another they all failed. Making a ski that folds without sacrificing its fundamental features was an impossible task. Until now.
The two parts of the ski are connected by means of a revolutionary folding mechanism attached to a fixed carbon plate that rotates through 180 degrees. The folding mechanism is the first of its kind. Furthermore, folding skis are easy to carry along non-skiable sections of a route.
Date: 2. June 2020
Time to read: 3 min