W2W Product

said Sam Tischendorf, a female senior bootfitter, Masterfit trainer, orthotic technician, and a member of the W2W focus group. She was explaining how, even though she was deeply entrenched in the ski world as a bootfitter, she still felt incredibly intimidated as an intermediate skier—until W2W gave her the right space and the right gear in which to learn comfortably.

The gear is legitimate, approachable, and spans every level—from never-evers to elite athletes, she said.

But the real-world effects the W2W program has had on women—effects Tischendorf sees every day in her shop—aren’t just the result of superior design. It’s the program as a whole, with marketing, educational components, community, and athletes, that is moving the needle. W2W is giving women self-assurance, wherever they are on the ability spectrum.

“Women are 100 percent more confident walking into a ski shop now,” said Tischendorf. “In the early days of W2W, we focused on how to get women into a ski shop instead of having their significant other purchase for them. This has been an evolution of how we present hardgoods to women. We are seeing so many more women coming into buy hardgoods who are asking how it should fit and verbalizing their goals as skiers.”

For Tischendorf, the W2W program differs from other brands’ women’s specific gear because it asks the question, “What do women want from their gear?” It’s not just about what women and men like or how their anatomy differs. It’s about recognizing and being aware of us as individuals, and how our needs may differ.

This has led to not only a greater awareness but a better appreciation of those differences and a cascade of newfound confidence is the result. On the shop floor, for example, she sees the attributes typically ascribed to be female—finesse, grace, and agility—now being increasingly recognized as skillful on the hill.

“I see a lot more women recognizing that they’re the more beautiful skier in the family,” she said. “I see that general trend of confidence in women growing, and they’re wanting to make smarter purchases for themselves.”

As a female bootfitter—an extreme rarity in the industry—Tischendorf knows how rocky the path to becoming confident can be. While she had great support from her boss, she encountered great opposition from both her colleagues and customers.

“It was definitely a really tricky journey through the world of bootfitting,” she said, pointing out the amount of pressure put on her as a woman far outweighed that of her male colleagues. “I had to work to prove myself,” she said, a ubiquitous refrain for nearly every woman in any male-dominated profession. “I am surprised I stuck with it.”

and her desire to dive into the technical aspects of the job and keep learning. But the attribute she credits most to becoming one of the industry’s finest? A “female” one.

“It worked out that I was quite good at listening to people,” she said with a satisfied little smile. “And because of that, I became better as a bootfitter.”