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Vail Introduces "My Epic Gear"

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
What are your thoughts on this?

Here are mine:

• I think this is targeted to the occasional skier who probably skis just a few times a year, and maybe doesn't want to 1) haul their equipment to or fro the resort; and/or 2) doesn't have room to store ski gear at home (I'm thinking small NY City-style apartment).
• For someone who skis more than occasionally, this could get very expensive. $50 to register and then $50 per use? Good grief. We're talking big bucks here.
• This only works if you're going to ski exclusively at Epic resorts. If you're not, no gear.
• I can't imagine this would really work for boots.
• Does this eliminate a mountain's rental program?

So here's Vail's press release::

Vail Resorts Introduces “My Epic Gear,”

Reimagining Gear Ownership and Gear Rental


  • Guests choose the gear they want, for the full season or for the day, from a selection of the most popular and latest models
  • Gear will be tuned and available to guests at any participating resort, guaranteed, with free in-resort delivery plus pick up and drop off slopeside, every day
  • Low daily fee for only the days the guest skis or rides
BROOMFIELD, Colo. March 27, 2023— Vail Resorts, Inc. (NYSE: MTN) today announced My Epic Gear, a new membership program that provides the best benefits of gear ownership but with more choice, lower cost and no hassle. My Epic Gear provides its members with the ability to choose the gear they want, for the full season or for the day, from a selection of the most popular and latest ski and snowboard models, and have it delivered to them when and where they want it, guaranteed, with free slopeside pick up and drop off every day. In addition to offering the best skis and snowboards, My Epic Gear will also offer name brand, high-quality ski and snowboard boots with customized insoles and boot fit scanning technology. The entire My Epic Gear membership – from gear selection to boot fit to personalized recommendations to delivery – will be at the members’ fingertips through the new My Epic app.

My Epic Gear will officially launch ahead of the 2024/25 winter season at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, Whistler Blackcomb, Park City Mountain, Crested Butte, Heavenly, Northstar, Stowe, Okemo and Mount Snow. Further expansions are expected in future years. A limited number of Epic Pass Holders will pilot the membership at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone during the 2023/24 season.

“Having the right gear is essential to the experience of every skier and rider, however, the traditional model of gear ownership and gear rental has not changed in decades,” said Kirsten Lynch, chief executive officer of Vail Resorts. “My Epic Gear reimagines gear ownership and gear rental, whether guests want the certainty of their gear for the season or for the day, transforming the quality, service, convenience and cost of one of the most critical parts of the mountain experience.”

“Like many other business models in lodging and transportation that leverage technology and scale to allow guests to transition from ownership to the benefits of the ‘access economy,’ My Epic Gear will leverage our extensive footprint and experience selling, renting and delivering gear, our prime slopeside locations across our mountain resorts, our data, the relationships we have with top gear vendors and over two million Pass Holders, as well as the scale to invest in the technology and most popular gear for the guest,” continued Lynch.

My Epic Gear Membership Benefits
  • Choose a model of ski or snowboard at the beginning of a season, and be guaranteed that model will be available any day of the season, fully tuned.
  • Try a different model of ski or snowboard any day, such as powder skis, based on availability.
  • Select from the most popular and latest skis, snowboards and boots.
  • Choose from name brand, high-quality ski and snowboard boots with customized insoles and boot fitting process. Option to opt out of choosing boots, if guests prefer to use their own.
  • Ease of free in-resort delivery, and slopeside pick up and drop off every day, at every participating mountain resort.
  • The new My Epic app will manage the entire experience, from gear selection to boot fitting to delivery.
  • Low daily fee for each day the gear is used.
The Gear You Want

At the beginning of the season, My Epic Gear members can select a favorite model of ski or snowboard and that gear will be tuned and available to them every day, at any participating resort, guaranteed.

My Epic Gear will have 15 different leading brands and more than 50 of the most popular and latest ski and snowboard models available, including personalized recommendations to help guests determine the right gear for their needs. My Epic Gear’s customized boot fittings will leverage scanning technology, and members will have access to name brand, high-quality boots with insoles for a customized fit. Members can also opt out of choosing boots, if they prefer to use their own.

In addition to choosing their favorite gear for the season, guests can also sample from the most sought-after brands and models of skis and snowboards for all terrains, weather conditions and skill levels, subject to availability. My Epic Gear will collect guest feedback throughout the season and will recommend the best option for a guest based upon their experience level, conditions, and the latest equipment choices, as well as reviews from members in the program.

“Most gear owners have their skis and snowboard sitting idle, untuned, for most of the year, but they want the certainty of having the gear they want when they get on the mountain. My Epic Gear will offer a much lower cost option, without the hassle of transporting, maintaining, or upgrading to the latest models, while still providing the certainty of having the gear they choose when they get on the mountain. For gear renters, My Epic Gear gets them the best skis and snowboards, name brand, high quality-boots with a customized fit, and the specific gear they want, ready for them, when and where they want it,” continued Lynch.

Gear When You Want It, Where You Want It

My Epic Gear members will have their chosen gear delivered to where they are staying in-resort, and every day have the benefit of slopeside drop-off and pick-up, eliminating the need to haul gear to and from or around the resort.

The My Epic Gear experience will be completely managed seamlessly on the company’s new My Epic App, eliminating the need to ever step foot in a store. Members will select their favorite gear in the app, and where and when they want it every day.

A full season My Epic Gear membership for adults will cost $50, which will unlock the benefits of all the premium gear and convenience and enable daily gear reservations for $50 per day (less than the average daily cost of owning gear for a destination guest and less than the price of premium demo rentals). Child pricing will be introduced as part of the full launch of the program for the 2024/2025 season.

Pilot Season

My Epic Gear membership will be offered exclusively to a limited number of Vail Resorts’ Epic Pass Holders during the pilot program throughout the 2023/24 season at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone.

Expansion is planned for the 2024/2025 season at Whistler Blackcomb, Park City Mountain, Crested Butte, Heavenly, Northstar, Stowe, Okemo and Mount Snow, with further expansions planned for future seasons.

My Epic Gear is the latest innovation from Vail Resorts, which also owns and operates retail and rental businesses, including Epic Mountain Gear and Epic Mountain Rentals.
 
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contesstant

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Definitely seems to target the skier who doesn't ski a lot of days. That being said, I can see a lot of high-dollar folks taking advantage, and I can also see a lot of people wanting the boots. I base both observations off of what my husband sees in lessons and also that the Learn and Earn program at my home mountain offers a season's worth of equipment and people fully take advantage of it, including the boots.

I hope people still use local shops, though.
 

leia1979

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
This definitely sounds like it's aimed at people who go different places and don't want to lug gear or don't go enough days to justify buying. I actually don't think the price is bad. My nearest Vail-owned resort (Kirkwood) charges $60/day for the cheapest rentals. Even a one-day rental at my local sporting goods store is $45 day for a basic package. I'm paying $115 for a weekend rental of Black Pearl 82s because I want to try them--and that's skis only, the other prices I quoted include boots.
 

TiffAlt

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
The price doesn't seem bad at all to me. This being good at a ton of Epic resorts means you don't have to schlep your gear around to be at the mercy of luggage handlers. If you're planning to travel, that in itself sounds to be worth it.

Crystal Mountain has a Quiver Pass for $399 that allows you unlimited access to all their demos for the season. Of course Crystal is on Alterra, so Ikon, but it's only good for Crystal as far as I know. A one day demo at Crystal costs around $80 bucks, unlimited switches. Base rentals are $65.
 

kmb5662

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Yup, as a New Yorker with friends that live in small apartments without much storage space or cars that ski a couple days a year at most I imagine this would be really appealing to them... You can get higher quality gear than what's typically offered for your basic rental. Higher end demo skis are often more expensive and easily >$100 a day that I've noticed. You don't need to haul skis to/from the airport/resorts and risk losing your luggage. Another big plus is you don't need to worry about maintaining your skis with tunes/waxes which isn't the easiest/most convenient thing to do living in NYC without a car and lack of nearby ski shops.
 

snoWYmonkey

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I think this is quite smart. All it really is doing is a centralized rental record of what the guest last had and wants again, but across the resorts at a very decent price, which the bonus of being able to switch out as needed for the conditions. The delivery part is great as the guest already knows that the gear they are choosing fits them so they save a trip to the rental shop too. Smart use of tech in my opinion. So so many of my guests rent at least the skis and poles.
 

Amie H

Angel Diva
I think it's a great idea if traveling with kids/multiple people so you don't have to slog so much gear AND worry about it all fitting in a rental car w your kids, and everyone's luggage.

Something like this for the one or two MLK/Pres Day/Spring Break trip(s) might work nicely. My sister's husband rents all his gear wherever they choose to ski as a family once or twice a year. Something like this would be great for him/them. Also, if you are not premium status w an airline or don't have an airline credit card, those baggage fees add up quickly if traveling as a family. If it's $35 one way to check skis (and boot bag) that's $70 RT. I think this program is very competitively priced, especially with the true "ski valet" aspects of it.
 

brooksnow

Angel Diva
My Epic Gear’s customized boot fittings will leverage scanning technology, and members will have access to name brand, high-quality boots with insoles for a customized fit.
This seems to be one step above the typical measure-the-foot-length-and-deal-with-the-generic-fit rental boot situation. I'd be curious to try the scanning technology to see what boot it would recommend for me. The "with insoles for a customized fit" part is interesting. Is that custom insoles, off-the-shelf but fitted insoles, or just generic insoles?
 

skinnyfootskis

Angel Diva
This seems to be one step above the typical measure-the-foot-length-and-deal-with-the-generic-fit rental boot situation. I'd be curious to try the scanning technology to see what boot it would recommend for me. The "with insoles for a customized fit" part is interesting. Is that custom insoles, off-the-shelf but fitted insoles, or just generic insoles?
I agree. The boots…super interesting on how they would fit. A few friends this year tried the rental boots with the boa. They weren’t super satisfied.
 

BlueSkies

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Great for a demo year if skiing EPIC, but for if I were to use only that it would cost me north of $2000 for skis for the season!
 

TiffAlt

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Great for a demo year if skiing EPIC, but for if I were to use only that it would cost me north of $2000 for skis for the season!
But consider how much it would cost if you just demo'ed through a shop by the mountain. And they deliver!

I'm kinda skeptical on how this will work out for them with boots though. They are personalized to YOU - so I assume you can't opt into another pair after the first personalization? Do you continue to pay $50/day everyday you use the boots? Do you have the option to buy?
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
I'm kinda skeptical on how this will work out for them with boots though. They are personalized to YOU - so I assume you can't opt into another pair after the first personalization? Do you continue to pay $50/day everyday you use the boots? Do you have the option to buy?
I also wonder about the rental boots. Customized insoles could be kept by the Epic Gear skier. But can't see any other customization such as getting a hot spot punched out that could be replicated at any resort someone chose to ski at during an entire season.
 

Cantabrigienne

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
My suspicion is that the degree of customization might mean 9 basic fits - narrow, medium, wide lasts & then potentially 3 types of insole (low arch, high arch, overpronation?). Now if it meant a custom-ish insole that you kept with you and put into whatever rental boots you get on the Epic program, that would be impressive.

I think this program makes a lot of sense - esp for the kind of people who might regularly tack on a couple of days of skiing to a business trip, or who live in large cities & don't have room for storing ski gear (I had a colleague in NYC who would lug her skis on the subway from the Upper East Side to World Financial Center on Fridays or before long weekends!)
 

Sokolva

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I could be miscalculating something here, but it does seem fairly expensive to me. Part of the price is you are buying ahead of time not knowing what the weather conditions, pandemic status, and your own life is going to bring in the next year. And it’s just as pricy or more than getting gear from a rental shop in most cases. Also, it can only be used at Epic resorts which is limiting.

But then again, I haven’t seen much renting that is economically a better alternative than buying in most cases, except in the scenario of someone skiing very very infrequently, wanting to avoid owning skis, or wanting to try out lots of different skis. The prices for skis, especially in the off season, buying used, or buying when the sales are really good, makes gear so affordable that the rental prices quickly overtake them. We found my husband new skis and bindings by Elan for about $299, and he loves them way more than any of the other skis he was learning on. His boots we also bought from a small shop for very affordably and he loves them. We already eclipsed the cost of these purchases, from a single week ski trip, all the money that we would have spent on rentals, and now he has gear he trusts, knows, and can learn about.

The same skis he’s skiing dropped within the next month to the even lower price of $250, and another similar Elan model with bindings included was dropped to a clearance of $190 at one small store to get stock moved (we bought these as a gift for a family member who wants to get into skiing and come with us on trips). All this isn’t even taking into account used skis that will sell like crazy at the end of this season to clear out space for new stock. Renting just doesn’t make sense to me anymore except in very specific circumstances, and this rental agreement with Epic makes even less sense for most people.
 

TiffAlt

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I could be miscalculating something here, but it does seem fairly expensive to me. Part of the price is you are buying ahead of time not knowing what the weather conditions, pandemic status, and your own life is going to bring in the next year. And it’s just as pricy or more than getting gear from a rental shop in most cases. Also, it can only be used at Epic resorts which is limiting.
It's only $50 dollars to register though. And then you pay $50/day you actually use the equipment. I am unsure about the prices at other places, but out here in the PNW, both Crystal Mountain and Snoqualmie are $60 a day for base rentals.

The prices for skis, especially in the off season, buying used, or buying when the sales are really good, makes gear so affordable that the rental prices quickly overtake them.
I agree with this, but I'd see this appealing to the segment of people who ski infrequently and don't want to own or schlep their own gear. From what I've gathered from the forum, people like us are a minority, who ski for the love of the sport, while most people only ski a week per year on vacation with friends just to say they did. Correct me if I'm wrong though.

I do think this might appeal to our crowd if we have someone looking to change up or add to their quiver and wants to demo what they have to offer. You can demo the skis under the various conditions at multiple Epic resorts. And you can compare and contrast since you can swap!
 

mustski

Angel Diva
It would work fine for the occasional skiers who usually don't get their boots fit anyway. For me, not ever. I am way too hard to fit in boots. We went to Europe, we used the skis available through club med and brought our own boots. It worked out ok. They didn't necessarily have my preferred ski, but the gear was top notch and in great condition. It was a lot cheaper than the airline cost of skis as oversized luggage!
 

TiffAlt

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
It would work fine for the occasional skiers who usually don't get their boots fit anyway. For me, not ever. I am way too hard to fit in boots. We went to Europe, we used the skis available through club med and brought our own boots. It worked out ok. They didn't necessarily have my preferred ski, but the gear was top notch and in great condition. It was a lot cheaper than the airline cost of skis as oversized luggage!
This is a sensible approach and one I would mirror once I start travelling to farther places to ski. The boots are most important! Still, I think I'd be tempted just cause I see case (travelling with just boots) this as license to demo. I've been checking out the demo list at every potential ski resort we are looking into that's not in reasonable driving distance, lol.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
The prices for skis, especially in the off season, buying used, or buying when the sales are really good, makes gear so affordable that the rental prices quickly overtake them.
That is very true, but requires that the skier knows how to buy boots and shop for skis for the long run. The investment in good boots will be at least $500 and perhaps as much as $1000. That as likely for someone who flies to ski for a week at most once a year. When I was a working adult, I took a ski trip out west every 2-3 years and only skied groomers. I had old boots, but didn't bother buying skis until I was skiing more than 15 days a season after my daughter became an intermediate skier around age 7.

But then again, I haven’t seen much renting that is economically a better alternative than buying in most cases, except in the scenario of someone skiing very very infrequently, wanting to avoid owning skis, or wanting to try out lots of different skis.

Epic Gear is a concept with a pilot program at Colorado resorts, the home turf of Vail Resorts. There is the most historical data from Epic passholders who travel and stay in resort lodging for the pilot resorts. The resorts planned for the next season are destination resorts. For the expansion list, note that Kirkwood is not included, only Heavenly and Northstar in Tahoe. Just as Sunnapee, Wildcat, Attitash in NH are not included, but only Stowe and Okemo.

" . . .
A limited number of Epic Pass Holders will pilot the membership at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone during the 2023/24 season.
. . .

Expansion is planned for the 2024/2025 season at Whistler Blackcomb, Park City Mountain, Crested Butte, Heavenly, Northstar, Stowe, Okemo and Mount Snow, with further expansions planned for future seasons.
. . ."


Part of the price is you are buying ahead of time not knowing what the weather conditions, pandemic status, and your own life is going to bring in the next year.
People who buy an Epic pass already must make a commitment long before it's known what the snow conditions will be like for an upcoming season. Sales end in early December. Adding $50 for a membership for Epic Gear is a minimal investment.

The same purchasing timeline applies to Ikon and the MCP. Prices are announced in early March. Sales end by mid-December.

VR taps into a subset of the people who take an annual ski vacation but aren't necessarily skiing much beyond that. So far, their business model based on the Epic pass and providing a turn-key experience has shown it's possible to make money that way.

I do wonder what the people at Black Tie think about Epic Gear. Black Tie provides a premium rental experience at several of the Epic destination resorts. They bring boots and skis to a customer's lodging, which doesn't have to be resort lodging.
 

TiffAlt

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I do wonder what the people at Black Tie think about Epic Gear. Black Tie provides a premium rental experience at several of the Epic destination resorts. They bring boots and skis to a customer's lodging, which doesn't have to be resort lodging.
I definitely think this is where Epic may have gotten the idea and now are trying to cut the middle man out, plus give those Epic pass holders more reason to stay at resort lodging at their own destination resorts. Win for both Epic and the resort.
 

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