Johanna Matintalo on March 16th, he shot his life in the World Cup of skiing in Falun. In a race skied in wet weather, he advanced excellently with a low starting number and would have won if the race had been 10.3 and not 10 kilometers (p). The second place was the best of the whole career in the individual competitions of the World Cup, and the winner by a margin Kerttu Niskase only 4.2 seconds left.
Usually, after such a performance, Matintalo would praise his equipment, i.e. his Salomon skis, to the delight of his sponsor. But this time an athlete, his maintenance man Petteri Lepistö and the whole other team kept silent about the excellently functioning equipment – and out of necessity. It wasn’t until more than a month after the full-hit competition that Matintalo agreed to talk about the matter – after receiving separate permission to deviate from the paper, on which he gave his electronic signature at the World Cup in Lahti at the beginning of March.
“Made under strict conditions”
– The non-disclosure agreement drawn up under strict conditions was signed by about 20 people from the Finnish team, including Johanna, says the partner and entrepreneur of the CustomSki ski company operating in Kärkölä Pasi Vironen.
His brother, the company’s CEO Esa Vironen collected the signatures personally and now allowed Matintalo an exception to comment on the events in Falun.
The reason for even agent-level secrecy was found in the soles of Matintalo’s skis in Sweden. The holding areas had been treated in a completely new way, for which CustomSki filed a patent application in January. Although innovation has already been proven in the World Cup, Matintalo’s second place and Krista Pärmäkoski tested up to the 9th place achieved in the same competition, the matter has been kept very low profile.
A few years ago, a person from Gotholle presented his idea for a new floor plan to Viros Esko Savolainen. Together with him, the brothers have developed the innovation to this point. The key person has also been Iivo Niskanen maintenance man, still skiing at a competitive level Niko Nättinen.
He has skied a lot on the new surface and, among other things, finished 4th in the Finlandia skiing last winter. Pasi Vironen says that through Nättinen, the idea was sold to the A national team, which started to become skiers’ skis for base processing for CustomSki. Iivo Niskanen already tested the base with last spring’s snow.
– The foundation solution is not about lubrication, because there is no chemical preparation involved. It’s not sanding, patterning or roughening either, but something else entirely. Its ability to repel dirt is very good. Perhaps at this stage it is most natural to call it just processing of the holding area, Pasi Vironen describes.
No close-ups
Until the patent application is settled, the Viroset do not allow close-up pictures of the soles, but Urheilu got newly treated skis from their finger grip area in Kärkölä, which are processed by a specially tailored machine for this purpose. The basic invention is brand-independent; it can be made on the bottoms of all ski brands.
At least by finger feel, you can tell that the grip area is very slippery, which is a necessary condition for success at the top level of traditional skiing. On the other hand, at least the knowledge of the author of this story was not enough to understand what, in a layout that looks like some kind of taping, produces the grip a skier needs, so far best in wet weather.
Pasi Vironen understands that strict secrecy can seem like an exaggeration. But until now, the company known above all for the product development of fur-soled skis knows the legalities of the world of sports equipment and inventions:
– It’s about preventing industrial espionage. Even one picture in the wrong hands could be fatal. We have a patent application in, and a lot of money and even more time has gone into the product.
A few years ago, Pasi Vironen wondered with his brother why there hadn’t been much new product development for traditional skis since the hair soles.
– We got to know Esko Savolainen, who also had related ideas, and that’s where it started. By trial and error of course, the first versions were much worse than the current ones.
Familiar to Iivo Niskanen
The skis of the national team skiers got their base treatment at the time of the World Cup in Lahti, at the turn of February-March. Petteri Lepistö brought some of them from Matintalo’s toolbox. Matintalo says that he was mainly curious.
– In Falun, I knew that there would be such pairs treated in a new way, but of course my best skis were not immediately given there. I approached it without prejudice. When such a pair was the best in the test, it was easy to choose it. It was a calculated risk in that situation, the company wins, says Matintalo.
In Falun, he hoped that the skis would retain their top quality longer than the more familiar so-called grip sole skis, which Kerttu Niskanen, for example, used in Falun. That’s what happened too. Matintalo progressed in Falun for the rest of the race with clearly the best equipment of the whole group, and for example, Niskanen’s lead quickly disappeared in the rest of the race.
– It was not allowed to talk about it in Falun at the time, and the matter was kept completely secret from the other teams as well. I used the same floor plan at the Äänekoski SC a week later, but I didn’t get a competitive advantage there. The situation was very different from Falun. If this innovation hits really well, then it’s great that I was the first to achieve international success with it.
Duty to help
Matintalo says that he even feels it is his duty to help if a Finnish company develops something for the Finnish national team that can give a clear international competitive advantage.
– It would be great if we had such an international competitive advantage that fully complies with the rules for certain weather and conditions. Then why not hold it in Finland when the World Cup in Trondheim is coming up and you don’t know what the weather will be like there? Matintalo asks.
On the Atlantic coast, humidity is the basic condition in March.
Through this, we get to an interesting point, i.e. the economic utilization of innovation. At the moment, there are no new skis for sale, and every processed ski is in CustomSkin’s possession. All pairs made for the athletes were collected at the end of the season in accordance with the contract in the name of business secrecy. The test skis given to the exercisers have been allowed to be tried on under strict supervision, and the equipment has been taken away immediately after the test run and taken away.
Pasi Vironen says that so far CustomSki has thought more about the quality of the invention than its economic utilization. Product development is still in progress, and the goal is to widen the optimal areas of functionality from humid weather to freezing weather. Top skiing alone is too small a business for the company to even get its own. You have to be able to sell to the masses.
– Of course, it would be great in itself if this was only used in Finland, but it’s about our business. If a manufacturer offers X amount of money for the license of our patent, we will think about it, says Pasi Vironen.
– In any case, it is realistic that these will win a prize medal already in Trondheim 2025, at the latest at the Olympic Games in Milan 2026. I believe that we will also reach larger consumer sales then in 2026, Pasi Vironen calculates.
“The wheel was reinvented”
The first big talking point of the ski season that ended was the complete ban on fluoride creams that finally came into force. After this, before CustomSkin’s invention came out, there was a stir about another innovation: ski and mono manufacturer Madshus and binding manufacturer Rottefella presented a new kind of skating ski mono-side system, where the attachment point is located under the boot, several centimeters further back than in previous versions. According to the companies, the new location of the workstation increases the athlete’s stability on the equipment – and through it, speed.
This combination was immediately adopted by, among others, Madshus’ Finnish number one Krista Pärmäkoski and Nove Meston’s biathlonist who won gold and two silvers at the World Championships Sturla Holm Lägreid. The consumer price of the combination has been estimated at around one thousand euros.
– You could say that the wheel had been reinvented, laughs the resident of Helsinki’s Torpparinmäki, who has operated in the sports equipment industry for decades Juha Tirinen.
At one time, among other things, he founded the Yoko brand and through it by Thomas Alsgaard, Kristina Smigunin and Johann Mühlegg Tirinen, who acted as staff sponsor, presents the application he submitted to the Patent and Registration Board in 2002 and the affirmative answer he received in 2004. MX-Sport Oy was granted a patent called Sovitelma for attaching a ski boot to a ski.
– The idea is exactly the same as in this Madshus-Rottefella patent. The workstation was located under the log, and the benefits proved to be obvious even then. I am happy that the decades-old idea has finally been made available to athletes. Better late than never. Admittedly, I laughed a little when this was talked about like a completely new thing.
Prototypes in the trash
Tirinen emphasizes that he has not been a mono or bandage manufacturer, but rather the idea was worked into the products of existing manufacturers at the time. A cobbler from Helsinki carved mono, and was successful in marathon skiing in his time Alpo Virtanen modifies bond. Tirinen, who has worked in motocross for a long time, also regrets that some of the prototype blanks were thrown into the trash during the massive garage cleaning.
Tirinen took the mono and tie to the 1999 Ramsau World Championships and asked the Swedish legend Thomas Wassberg as a tester. The feedback this gave after a ten kilometer run was overwhelmingly positive.
– However, I lacked the millions with which I could have started industrial serial production, and the big brands did not activate.
The patent right expired in 2011.
– I don’t feel any bitterness about it. The Norwegian brands (Madshus and Rottefella) have now realized good things for free skiing. I’m waiting to see what happens with traditional monos and ties.
In his retirement, Tirinen is still working on product development. Currently, he is involved in a development project whose financiers include the German car group Volkswagen.