Ever heard of ISPO?
Us neither. We’re engineering nerds at Renoun.
But we’re also pretty darn competitive, so when we heard there might be a chance for us to win something called ISPO Gold, we applied.
Cyrus Schenck receiving the ISPO Gold Award in Munich, Germany
Turns out ISPO is a trade show in Munich, Germany. Eight (yes, 8) airplane hangers house just about every outdoor brand from around the world. And every major ski company spends big bucks developing a product they think will capture the attention of judges in the merits of innovation and design.
We didn’t have big bucks. But we had a big ski made with HDT. So we sent it to be judged alongside K2, Fischer, Rossignol, Elan, Salomon, DPS and many others.
Of course, we thought HDT was pretty cool since it could adapt any ski we put it in.
The judges thought it was pretty cool, too. Above all others, they awarded Renoun a Gold Winner trophy for the innovation. It was 3 months after our launch and we hadn't even sold a ski yet.
The trophy weighs 19 pounds — about the same as 80 sticks of butter, 2 gallons of water, or 4 large rainbow trout. It isn’t gold. But, sitting in the office today as a reminder to the hours and hours of work we put into HDT long before we even knew what ISPO was, it sure looks like gold.
RENON became an International Gold Winner 3 months after launching in 2014
So the best way to strike gold is to get after it — even if you don’t know what “it” is.
And now? We have a patent for our technology that this big guys are trying to copy.
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