MANITOU SPRINGS — Old skis never die. They turn and turn and turn and turn, and then turn into furniture.
At least that’s the case at Colorado Ski Chairs in Manitou Springs. The small business, founded by Adam Vernon and operated with his son Keagan Vernon, repurposes up to 200 pairs of old skis per week.
“We help people bring old memories back to life,” Adam said. “People bring in their old, stored skis, and we make something out of them.”
“The whole recycling aspect, the up-cycling is important,” said Keagan, who noted that he grew up skiing at Keystone with his family. “We’re working with a product on the way to the landfill. These skis can be 10, 15, 20 years old or older. Some are super ancient and busted, so you know they’re going to get tossed.”
Instead, Colorado Ski Chairs — also known as Colorado Ski Furniture — crafts discarded skis and snowboards into Adirondack chairs and rocking chairs, benches and barstools, tables, dog houses and bean-bag toss games. They make “shot skis” that allow multiple people to down libations simultaneously from tiny glass ski boots. Using Nordic skis, the company creates birdhouses with a ski pole tip; a piece of binding might serve as the perch.
“It’s a really cool way to up-cycle products that would never decompose,” Keagan said. “Skis are made of fiberglass and steel and other building materials not meant to be put back into the Earth. Instead, we turn it into something beautiful.”
In 2013, the company opened headquarters in a small shop in the shadow of Pike’s Peak. Adam, who’d been a downhill ski racer, collected skis for 10 years before building the first chair.
“People think it’s easy to do, but I have carpenters in my family, and I have carpenters working for me,” Adam said. “People intend to do it, but they realize it’s difficult. There are about 45 steps to make a chair: removing bindings, cleaning skis, scraping off old stickers, refinishing the ski surface, wood preparation, grouting, sanding, cutting, staining, oiling.”
Adam made his first chair in 2007. A few years ago, he found retail space and hired employees. “This started out as a hobby for my dad, and then a side project that grew into a strong garage business,” Keagan said.
Today, Colorado Ski Chairs has 10 to 20 workers who build or paint furniture. The company sources used skis and snowboards from thrift shops, according to art department manager Peri Duncan. Duncan noted another source of skis for the shop: “Goodwill and ARC shops around Colorado will save the skis because if they throw them out, they have to pay a trash compactor to come and pick them up.”
Adam said it’s still a challenge to get enough. “We’re constantly collecting skis however we can, driving around with trailers, doing everything we can to get skis, and it’s getting harder.”
“Some collectors bring us skis and trade with us,” Duncan said. “And we have a lot of people bring in their old skis and have them made into furniture. It’s a novelty.”
For avid skiers, after making countless turns in the rarefied air through the powder, over the bumps, around the trees, one’s sticks become like a couple of close, reliable friends. When ready to retire a pair of skis, many keep their trusty planks out of the landfill and in their life by repurposing skis as wall mounts, fences, racks for coats or bottles of wine, even sleds.
Or they bring them to Colorado Ski Chairs to find a second life.
“We do a lot of sentimental skis,” Duncan said. “We get a lot of married people who buy a chair as a really great gift. Or we get people who have something painted. Some people have their partner’s skis made into something. They want to remember all the times they had on those skis or that snowboard. It’s a lot of custom work.”
Keagan said the company can build any type of furniture. “Skis and snowboards are incredible building materials. They’re super sturdy — stronger than wood.”
“Since the advent of skis people have been building something with them,” Keagan said. “Our benches need two guys to carry them. The chairs are not as heavy, but all our furniture is sturdy and will stand up to weather.”
The company’s operational challenges lie in wear and tear on shop equipment. They’re cutting through metal edges, or cores that might be made of wood or other materials — all tricky business. Building the furniture this way demands a precision akin to the finesse of skiing.
“No two skis are the same,” Keagan said. “They’re different shapes and designs. We take a lot of time to hand-pick what’s on the chair so it will be aesthetically right and have a flow.”
