The Man Who Convinced Red Bull to Co-Own a Ski Brand
In the long, occasionally wild history of energy drink companies muscling their way into extreme sports, Red Bull has done it all — Formula 1 teams, cliff diving circuits, air races, skydiving missions from the edge of space. But one thing Red Bull had never done, despite decades of sponsoring skiers across the Alps, was actually co-own a ski manufacturer. That changed when Marcel Hirscher came calling. In 2022, Red Bull became a 50% owner of the new company VAN DEER-Red Bull Sports, contributing the necessary financial investment. It is, by any measure, an unusual arrangement — and it says as much about Hirscher's gravitational pull in the ski world as it does about Red Bull's appetite for controlling equity in the sports it funds.
To understand why this partnership happened, and why it matters well beyond the Austrian Alps where it was born, you have to understand what Marcel Hirscher actually meant to alpine ski racing — and what he was quietly cooking up in the years after he walked away from it.
The Career Behind the Brand: Eight Titles, Sixty-Seven Wins
There is no clean way to summarize Hirscher's competitive record without it sounding like something from a press release, because the numbers are simply that outrageous. Hirscher accumulated 67 World Cup wins, 12 small crystal globes, 8 overall World Cup victories, 7 World Championship titles, and 2 Olympic gold medals. To put that in context: under the Austrian flag, Hirscher captured an unprecedented eight consecutive overall World Cup titles from the 2011/12 season through the 2018/19 season. He did not just win — he made winning look procedural, which is the rarest and most disorienting kind of dominance in sport.
Hirscher stepped away from racing while at the top of the game back in 2019, after winning his eighth consecutive World Cup overall title and one year after taking home Olympic gold in the giant slalom and combined in PyeongChang. He was 30 years old. The decision shocked the skiing world, partly because there was no obvious reason for it — no injuries forcing his hand, no dynasty crumbling around him. He was simply done competing, at least for a while. The man who had defined alpine ski racing for nearly a decade walked off the hill on his own terms.
Project 68: A Childhood Dream Wearing Racing Armor
Retirement, it turned out, did not agree with Hirscher's particular flavor of competitive obsession. The hour zero of what became VAN DEER dates back to June 12, 2021, marking a milestone on the timeline of ski history: on that memorable Saturday, Marcel Hirscher decided to make his childhood dream come true, planning to build 50 pairs of high-end skis from premium components for himself, family, and friends.
That number did not stay at 50 for long. Almost two years after his retirement, with the unrivaled career track record of 67 wins, 12 small globes, 8 overall titles, 7 world titles, and 2 Olympic golds, Hirscher had the idea of building a few pairs of high-end skis for friends and family — the best of the best, with the best components. After a few phone calls, the list of pre-orders already included 1,000 pairs. That was the moment a personal project became a business.
VAN DEER was originally born from something Hirscher calls Project 68 — a reference to the 67 World Cup wins he achieved and his desire to get the next one for VAN DEER-Red Bull Sports. "Project 68 was always about winning on my skis, so the Hirscher name could continue to win, even if I wasn't skiing myself," he explained. That framing — the idea that his legacy could keep accumulating victories through the equipment rather than the man — gave the whole enterprise a sense of mission that went beyond simple entrepreneurship.
The founding members of the VAN DEER brand are Marcel Hirscher and his long-time manager Dominic Tritscher, who began development in 2021. Together they set out to build something deliberately unlike the established ski industry — smaller, more focused, and uncompromisingly performance-driven from the first plank off the production floor.
Red Bull Steps In: A 50-50 Bet on a New Kind of Ski Company
The partnership with Red Bull was not simply a matter of securing a check. Hirscher had been a Red Bull athlete for years, and the relationship was built on a shared vocabulary around performance and pushing limits. "Red Bull is a long-standing supporter and partner of mine," he said at the time of the collaboration announcement. "We share the same values and pursue the same sporting vision. I know that by working together, we can take skiing to the next level."
What makes the deal structurally notable is the equity split. Red Bull does not typically co-own the brands it sponsors — it sponsors athletes, events, and teams, but the brand stays Red Bull. In 2022, Red Bull became a 50% owner of the new company VAN DEER-Red Bull Sports, contributing the necessary financial investment. That kind of arrangement, where an energy company holds half the equity in a physical product manufacturer, is genuinely rare, and it reflects both Red Bull's confidence in Hirscher's market position and the strategic value of having the VAN DEER name tied to the most recognizable brand in action sports.
The two partners also moved quickly to secure manufacturing infrastructure. In 2022, they acquired the niche ski manufacturer Augment Ski, including its production location in Stuhlfelden. That acquisition gave VAN DEER-Red Bull Sports immediate production capability and access to the kind of skilled Austrian craftsmen who build skis with their hands rather than with automated assembly lines. The sister brands AUGMENT (backcountry/touring) and VAN DEER-Red Bull Sports (slope/racing) cover the full spectrum of manufacturing methods currently available under the joint umbrella of VAN DEER-Red Bull Sports Equipment GmbH.
What Makes VAN DEER Skis Different — and Why They Cost What They Do
Handmade in Austria, Personally Approved
The skis are handmade in Austria, from superior materials sourced right at the doorstep. That distinction matters in a market where most high-volume ski brands manufacture at scale in facilities spread across multiple countries, with the inevitable quality control trade-offs that come with mass production. VAN DEER does not do volume for its own sake. The company has made it their mission to democratize the high quality of ski equipment that was long the privilege of racers for all skiers.
Whether you're a youngster going into your first FIS race or an established podium racer in the Europa Cup, VAN DEER-Red Bull Sports skis are identically constructed and handmade from the exact same high-end materials in their factory in Austria. From junior and race skis all the way down to freeride and touring skis, each VAN DEER-Red Bull Sports model has been developed and personally approved by Marcel Hirscher.
That last point carries real weight. Hirscher spent nearly two decades as the most demanding customer in alpine ski racing, working with service technicians and product engineers to squeeze every hundredth of a second out of his equipment. The skis are developed, built, tested, and tuned with the same know-how, meticulousness, and obsessive drive for perfection that helped Marcel Hirscher become who he is today.
Race Room Finish for Everyone
One of VAN DEER's more audacious claims is that amateur skiers get the same race-room treatment that World Cup athletes receive — a standard that most major brands reserve exclusively for their professional athletes. Every DEERS ski is individually hand-tuned and finished with the same race-room finish that Hirscher used to reach the top of the podium. Hirscher's own terminology for his products reinforces this intimacy with the craft — he affectionately refers to each ski as a "DEERS" rather than a "ski."
VAN DEER builds its junior race skis in the same way as the "grown-up" World Cup skis, with the exact same world-class materials and race room finish — no B-grades just because a racer hasn't reached the age limit and needs a shorter ski length. For serious junior racers and their parents, that commitment is a significant differentiator in a market where youth equipment is often treated as an afterthought.
The Lineup: From FIS Slalom to Backcountry Touring
The lineup includes the world's lightest model, the "RACE TOUR 65," aimed at ski mountaineering competitors and those seeking peak performance, the "TOUR 95," a model for backcountry explorers that emphasizes buoyancy on steep slopes and deep powder, and the "TOUR 85," an adventure model with an excellent balance of performance characteristics. The brand has moved well beyond its racing origins to serve skiers who spend their days chasing couloirs and skin tracks, not just race courses.
Building a Headquarters Worthy of the Vision
If there was any doubt that VAN DEER-Red Bull Sports was meant to be taken seriously as a long-term company rather than a vanity project, the construction of a new headquarters settled it. Marcel Hirscher welcomed the top VAN DEER-Red Bull Sports athletes with a tour of the new headquarters, factory, and flagship store in Scheffau. The place radiates pure ski inspiration across all 6,900 square meters.
In just 16 months, his childhood dream became what the company calls the most modern ski factory in the world — a meeting space for ski enthusiasts who share one belief: only the best equipment enables the better turn. Thirty companies turned Hirscher's childhood dream into reality following the architectural plans of X ARCHITEKTEN. That kind of investment in physical infrastructure signals something beyond an athlete brand extension. This is a company with a long-term manufacturing thesis, not a logo slapped on skis built somewhere else.
Racing Success: Project 68 Gets Its Win — and Then Some
Signing the Greatest Rival
Perhaps the most telling early move VAN DEER made was signing Henrik Kristoffersen. The rest, as they say, is recent skiing history: Henrik Kristoffersen, once the greatest rival of founder Marcel Hirscher, joined the VAN DEER-Red Bull Sports Racing Team. Norway's Kristoffersen was one of the most sought-after athletes on the ski transfer market in the summer of 2022. After leaving Rossignol, the technical specialist signed with VAN DEER-Red Bull Sports, the brand developed by Marcel Hirscher.
The symbolism of that signing was hard to overstate. For years, Kristoffersen was the man most likely to unseat Hirscher at the top of the World Cup standings. The two raced against each other in some of the most electric slalom and giant slalom battles of the last decade. Bringing Kristoffersen onto the team was VAN DEER's clearest statement of intent — that this brand was coming to win at the highest level, not just to put a famous name on skis.
World Cup Victories and a World Title in Year One
The results validated that ambition almost immediately. Project 68's aim was achieved with Kristoffersen winning on the skis at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen slalom Alpine World Cup race, and VAN DEER-Red Bull Sports skis also took Kristoffersen to the World Championship slalom gold medal in 2023. A brand that had been operating for less than two years as a registered ski manufacturer was already collecting World Cup victories and world championship gold. The speed of that success caught even experienced industry observers off guard.
The third World Cup season since founding by Marcel Hirscher became the most successful "Wow-Winter" to date, with exactly 113 victory celebrations. The development curve, which began with his idea of creating his own skis in June 2021, is steep. The two-man show starring Kristoffersen and Timon Haugan secured 14 podium finishes and 6 victories in the World Cup that winter, and Kristoffersen claimed the small crystal globe in slalom — the fourth of his career and the first for his ski brand.
The Comeback Nobody Saw Coming — On Skis He Built Himself
Even while building a ski company from scratch, managing a race team, developing new product lines, and overseeing the construction of a new factory, Hirscher apparently found himself still craving the one thing that had defined the first half of his adult life: racing down a mountain faster than everyone else. Marcel Hirscher, known as the "King of the Mountains," announced his return to competitive skiing on April 24, 2024.
The comeback came with a twist that even his most dedicated fans did not see coming. Eight-time overall World Cup globe winner Marcel Hirscher announced his comeback to international ski racing for the 2024-25 season — but not for Austria. Like Lucas Braathen, who announced a ski racing comeback for his mother's home country, Brazil, Hirscher planned to re-enter ski racing for his mother's native country, the Netherlands. His mother is Dutch and his father is Austrian, so he has always held dual citizenship.
The move was polarizing in Austria, where Hirscher is a near-mythological figure. But Hirscher was clear about his motivation. "For people asking, why are you doing this, for me it's clear — because the joy of skiing never left, it's just so much fun for me." He had described the comeback as a passion project from the beginning, with no illusions about challenging the current generation of World Cup leaders for overall titles. What he wanted, on some level, was simply to race again — and now he would do it on his own skis.
Hirscher and Vonn returned to the circuit thanks to the newly implemented "wildcard" rule for the 2024/25 World Cup season, introduced during the FIS pre-season meetings in Zurich. His comeback race at the season-opening giant slalom in Sölden drew enormous international attention. Even without landing on the podium himself, Hirscher was able to celebrate success with his ski company VAN DEER-Red Bull Sports, as Henrik Kristoffersen placed second.
A Setback, Then Another Return
A severe knee injury abruptly ended Hirscher's return to competition. After only three appearances in Sölden, Levi, and Gurgl, the 35-year-old's season ended prematurely. Hirscher suffered a torn ligament in his left knee in December 2024, shortly after returning to alpine skiing as a Dutch athlete. It was the kind of injury that would have ended most comeback stories before they got started. But Hirscher, characteristically, treated it as another problem to engineer his way through. The 36-year-old returned to the slopes in September 2025 and announced on Instagram that he would return to professional skiing in January 2026, in the middle of the Alpine swing of the World Championships.
What VAN DEER Means for the Ski Industry — and for Skiers Who Actually Buy Gear
A Challenge to the Established Order
The major alpine ski brands — Rossignol, Atomic, Fischer, Head, Salomon — have dominated the World Cup and retail markets for decades. They operate at massive scale, with enormous R&D budgets and deep relationships with national ski federations. VAN DEER entered this landscape as an outsider with a radically different philosophy: small production runs, obsessive quality control, direct involvement from the most decorated skier alive, and manufacturing rooted in a single Austrian location.
VAN DEER-Red Bull Sports describes itself as a young, dynamic company in the ski industry with a focused racing philosophy and a clear commitment to a small racing team, having made it their mission to democratize the high quality of ski equipment that was long the privilege of racers for all skiers. That democratization pitch — you ski on what the World Cup athletes ski on — cuts directly at one of the most persistent frustrations in the gear market, where consumer models and race models often share nothing but branding.
The PRO BOOT Expansion
Skis were never going to be the whole story. VAN DEER-Red Bull Sports skis are the product of Hirscher's exceptional talent and uncompromising professional passion, and his keen inspiration and exceptional sense for gear was quickly translated into the next innovation — the development of boots. The PRO BOOT represents the brand's logical extension into the full performance package. With the VAN DEER-Red Bull Sports Pro Boot, skiers achieve a perfect combination of racing precision and high comfort, inspired by the World Cup racing boot and optimized for maximum performance. As any serious skier knows, the ski-boot interface is where races are actually won or lost, and control of both sides of that equation gives VAN DEER a systems-level argument that neither pure ski brands nor pure boot brands can match.
Kristoffersen's Departure and the Road Ahead
No brand story runs without turbulence. After a remarkable run together, Kristoffersen and VAN DEER-Red Bull Sports marked their time together by noting they had "celebrated our first victory, our first World Championship gold, our first slalom crystal globe, and our first Olympic bronze — now it's time for a new chapter," as stated in a joint Instagram post. VAN DEER COO Toni Giger emphasized Kristoffersen's impact, noting the Norwegian played a key role in helping the brand establish itself quickly on the World Cup circuit. Losing your headline athlete after four seasons is never easy, but for a brand as young as VAN DEER, the achievements accumulated in that window — world titles, crystal globes, Olympic hardware — provide a foundation that few startups in any sport could claim.
The broader racing team remains competitive. In the Nordic disciplines, VAN DEER-Red Bull Sports and AUGMENT athletes stood on the podium a total of 60 times in their "Wow-Winter," with 20 victories among them. At the Nordic Ski World Championships in Trondheim, they celebrated 23 medals, including five golds. The brand's reach across disciplines — alpine racing, ski touring, backcountry, and now Nordic competition — reflects an ambition that goes well beyond what any single founding athlete could have imagined when he was making phone calls about a few pairs of skis for friends.
The Bigger Picture: Athlete-Owned Equipment Brands and What They Get Right
Hirscher is not the first elite athlete to try building a gear company after retirement, but the combination of factors at play here — a 50-50 partnership with one of the most powerful sports marketing organizations on earth, a clear manufacturing philosophy, immediate World Cup success, and the founder's own return to the circuit as a proof-of-concept rider — makes VAN DEER-Red Bull Sports a genuinely different case study.
The ski industry has long been dominated by a handful of conglomerates, and the margins for disruption are narrow. Equipment that does not perform at the World Cup level gets exposed immediately and mercilessly. VAN DEER's results in its first three full seasons make the case that Hirscher's approach — maximum quality, small runs, race-tested construction — can compete with manufacturers that have been building skis for generations.
"You can never win unless you have the best materials," Hirscher has said. For a man who spent the better part of a decade winning everything there was to win in alpine skiing, that is not an abstract philosophy. It is the operating principle of every decision the brand makes, from the sourcing of raw materials to the hand-tuning of every ski before it leaves the factory. Whether VAN DEER-Red Bull Sports grows into a major player in the global ski market or remains a premium, small-volume manufacturer with a cult following among serious racers, the story of how it came to exist — and what it achieved in its first years — is one of the more compelling chapters in the modern history of the sport.
