Ski Builders Forum

Hello, new this site, and I'm extremey interested in producing some skis. I have been looking into all the aspects and pitfalls of building skis and the biggest hurdle I am having is the aspect of protecting myself. I have contacted a few insurance companies about liability insurance and keep coming up with a generic $5,000 annual fee, mainly due to them not knowing anything about the ski industry. What is everyone out there doing to cover their butt?

1. Waivers, signing the dotted line

2. Warranty, how long do you have to cover a product with liability insurance and how does the warranty play into this? After the warranty expires do you still need to cover the skis?

3. Binding installation, is it extra to cover this and how much is it?

4. Are there any insurance companies that deal with small time ski builders?

Any info on this subject would be appreciated

1. I think that's more of a rental thing

2. Warranties are exactly how you word it. Have lawyer do it.

3. According to another person on this forum, yes it is. Better off having a shop do it. Unless you're going to have dealership from Marker or something, it's probably not worth it.

4. Dunno, haven't gotten that far either.

Another good reason for a separate forum index for this topic. The builders here share a lot of info. Why not share info for business start up, cost of business, etc ? It would be like an online job sharing fair.

liability insurance will be quite high.

5k is a low estimate imo.

roll the dice, or pay the price.

Here's a good overview of it:

http://businessinsure.about.com/od/liab ... liains.htm

A family friend of ours sells commercial insurance. She got a price of $3500 for liability insurance. No details on how much the coverage is and she's waiting for another quote.

I asked about a rider of some type to put on my homeowners that would be cheaper and still provide some coverage but they don't exist, it has to be a separate commercial policy.

Even at that price, ski/board building has to be beyond a hobby IMO. Otherwise you're basically working to pay insurance with a little left over for a weekend of skiing with the family.

It's out of the picture for this year. If I get more interest this season I'll take another look at it for next year.

wtblank wrote: 1. Waivers, signing the dotted line

See my other post from today.

wtblank wrote: 2. Warranty, how long do you have to cover a product with liability insurance and how does the warranty play into this? After the warranty expires do you still need to cover the skis?

Your state will have specific requirements for warranties. Attempting cute tricks like “novelty item only” or “no warranty at all” won’t fly. If you sell it, then you sold someone a snowboard and you’re responsible for correcting defects in construction. A business lawyer will be able to explain why this is.

wtblank wrote: 3. Binding installation, is it extra to cover this and how much is it?

For the love of all that is good and pure, do not do anything with bindings. At all. Ever. Bindings are the path to liability death for you and yours. Again, consult with a liability lawyer and have them do a search for lawsuits related to skis and snowboards in the US and you’ll see why. Or just go dig up the info on what happened to the Bomber Online guy.

wtblank wrote: 4. Are there any insurance companies that deal with small time ski builders?

None that I'm aware of. This stuff is expensive, and only a few underwriters in the country actually provide the insurance. Something on the order of $10k/year is a reasonable estimate (and on the low end of quotes I myself received repeatedly between 2002 and 2008.)

Good luck. Don't be discouraged by my answers!