Skevik Skis’ beginnings can be traced to a residential Vernon, British Columbia garage. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson’s garage, to be precise. The Anderson’s sons, Gregg and Glenn, are life-long skiers, growing up on the slopes of Silver Star Mountain Resort, just up the hillside from their northern Okanagan community. It was here where a love for skiing was fostered and nurtured. It was the garage where their curiosities, ingenuity, entrepreneurial spirit and good old fashioned book smarts spawned the quickly maturing ski manufacturer that is Skevik Skis.

The eldest Anderson, Gregg, spent a season working in the Silver Star repair shop and would occasionally tinker with the broken skis that would pass through the establishment’s door. After ripping a few apart and inspecting them with his brother, Glenn, the two decided that they could probably manage to put something similar together. They hoped it would be able to slide them down a snow covered hill. A year later, they had what can best be described as a prototype.

That original ski wasn’t much to write home about, but it did manage to make it down the mountain without any catastrophic failures. In fact, it continually arrived at the bottom of the lift largely unscathed, boosting its makers’ confidence with every run and providing a necessary catalyst in the development of Skevik.

That development took a giant leap forward when Glenn managed to convince the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Victoria that his “co-op” work terms should be spent on his and Gregg’s start-up ski company. It was then, in 2008, when Skevik really started to happen. The dedicated engineering time allowed Skevik to flourish and with a small budget, the brothers started selling skis to the public, using a healthy relationship with many local artists to help their very functional products garner warranted attention wherever they went.

Glenn has since graduated, the shop has moved out of the garage, the product lineup has expanded, the artists are one-upping themselves every year, sales have continually increased and Skevik Skis can now be found in shops throughout Canada and Europe. The journey from tinkering to full-fledged manufacturer didn’t happen overnight and it certainly wasn’t easy, but ten years in, Skevik Skis stands a fitting tribute to the Andersons’ Great Grandfather, Anton Skevik.