We stock Atomic skis at Willis for one reason: they're performance-tested by the world's best racers. More importantly, Atomic embodies something we understand at our core: Austrian heritage, craftsmanship, and an obsession with doing one thing better than anyone else.
Atomic's story starts the same way ours does—with an immigrant's vision. Willi came from Austria with nothing but expertise and passion. Alois Rohrmoser did something similar in 1955, except his passion came out through ski wood, rocker geometry, and the radical idea—a wheelwright could build the world's best skis. Seventy years later, they did.
A Wheelwright with a Vision
It was 1955 in Wagrain—a small village in Austria's Pongau valley, about an hour south of Salzburg. Alois Rohrmoser was 23 years old, trained as a wheelwright, and he'd decided that skiing deserved better equipment.
He didn't start with a factory. He started with 40 hand-carved pairs.
Think about it. Forty pairs of skis, all carved by hand from locally sourced wood. No CNC machines, no computer modeling. Just a young Austrian craftsman convinced attention to detail mattered more than mass production. The year 1955 became the foundation of what would become the world's largest ski manufacturer. This obsession with craftsmanship connects directly to how we approach ski gear at Willis—the same way a wheelwright approaches a ski as an extension of the skier.
By 1957, Rohrmoser was producing 2,000 pairs annually. By 1960, he hit 5,000. The name "Atomic" said it all—he wasn't building old-school wooden planks. He was building the future.
Scaling Production in Austria
Atomic's growth wasn't accidental. It followed a pattern Austrian manufacturing still follows: start small, perfect the craft, then scale.
In 1971, sixteen years after founding, Atomic opened a second factory in Altenmarkt im Pongau—still the company's primary manufacturing site today. The factory is remarkable not for its size, but for its commitment to what Rohrmoser believed: skis should be built by people who care about skiing, in the place where skiing matters most. When you're looking for racing equipment with similar commitment, Blizzard and Salomon share this philosophy.
The expansion continued. Bulgaria got a factory in 1981—Atomic's first Eastern Bloc facility, a remarkable move for any Western company during the Cold War. But the real explosion came in the early 1990s. By 1991-92, Atomic was producing 831,000 pairs annually. They'd become not just successful, but dominant.
Then 1994 happened.
The Year Atomic Almost Disappeared
The cap ski revolution hit Atomic harder than anyone expected. Cap ski technology—where a hard plastic shell wraps the top of the ski—was supposed to be the future. Atomic invested heavily. The transition failed. At the same time, their snowboard division collapsed, bleeding money and credibility. By November 1994, Atomic was insolvent.
But here's the reality about companies built on Austrian engineering: they're worth saving. Resilience separates enduring brands from flash-in-the-pan successes—the same reason we trust Rossignol and Nordica equipment.
Amer Sports Group acquired Atomic for approximately 66.8 million euros in November 1994. On paper, it looked like a rescue. In reality, it was a lifeline—the best move for the brand. Amer Sports stabilized Atomic's financials and then got out of the way. They let Atomic be Atomic. Innovation returned. Racing returned. The company came roaring back.
The Innovations That Changed Skiing
Here's where Atomic stopped being just a ski company and became something else entirely.
In 1988, engineer Rubert Hubert invented the first powder skis. He called them Atomic Powder Magic. They were wider, rocker-designed, and they copied something radical: snowboard geometry. Most ski companies dismissed powder skis as a niche joke. Atomic saw the future.
They were right. Those skis launched the "fat ski" era defining modern skiing today. Every freestyle skier, every backcountry skier, everyone who's ever gone off-piste owes something to one innovation..
Then in 1989, Atomic became the first manufacturer to offer a complete integrated ski system—skis, bindings, boots, and poles all built to work as one unit. Not as afterthoughts. As a system. One-stop solutions for skiers were supposed to be efficient, not revolutionary. Atomic made it revolutionary. This is why understanding the relationship between your skis, bindings, and boots matters so much.
The innovations accelerated. In 2008, Doubledeck launched—the first technology automatically adapting a ski's radius and flex based on style and conditions. Not by manually switching skis. By building the ski itself to adapt. That's not just innovation. That's Atomic asking a question no one else dared ask: what if the ski learned?
LiveFit boots followed in 2009. Boots adapting to foot shape automatically. Then came the Bent Collection—Chris Benchetler's 120-millimeter powder ski, redesigning how athletes partner with manufacturers. The Bent 100 reshaped the entire industry around one idea: a 100-millimeter all-mountain ski should be playful, accessible, and fun. Nearly every major ski brand now offers a 100mm ski. The Bent 100 created this category.
HRZN 3D technology came later—full wrap around tip and tail, increasing float and maneuverability. Light woodcore designs using poplar instead of fiberglass-heavy construction, cutting carbon emissions by 13 percent. Every year, Atomic asked: how do we make skis better? Every year, they answered. Other manufacturers like Blizzard, Elan, and Armada share this relentless innovation drive.
Dominating the World Cup
If innovation is measured in patents and design, dominance is measured in World Cup crystal globes.
Marcel Hirscher was the most dominant alpine skier of an entire decade. From 2012 to 2019, he won eight consecutive overall World Cup titles. Seven consecutive overall titles in slalom and giant slalom. Sixty-seven World Cup race victories. Two Olympic gold medals in 2018. Hirscher didn't just win on Atomic skis—he co-designed them. The Icon Series II was partnership at the highest level of sport.
In the 2016/2017 season alone, Atomic athletes won 25 percent more World Cup victories and collected 75 percent more crystal globes than the previous season. Not luck. Not sponsorship dollars. Equipment works.
But Hirscher retired in 2019. So what did Atomic do?
They got Mikaela Shiffrin.
Shiffrin holds the World Cup victory record—110 wins as of March 2026. She's the first and only skier to reach 100 World Cup victories. She races exclusively on Team Redster equipment, with Atomic technicians Robert Bürgler and Lukas Rottinger preparing her skis before every race. She signed a long-term contract extension in May 2024. Atomic didn't just survive losing Hirscher. They picked up the greatest alpine skier in World Cup history.
How does a company keep attracting the best athletes in the world? By giving them the best equipment. And by refusing to compromise.
The Bent Collection and Modern Atomic
Shopping for skis right now? There's a decent chance you'll end up holding a Bent ski. If you do, you're holding the product might have saved Atomic's identity.
In the early 2000s, the skiing world was stratified. You bought race skis or freeride skis. Carving or powder. Hard or soft. Never both. Then Atomic released the Bent 100.
The Bent 100 did something impossible: it let a ski be everything. Playful. Responsive. Fast in carving. Fun in powder. No compromise. A 100-millimeter ski refusing to apologize for being slightly wider and slightly softer, and refusing to apologize for enough flex to carve a tight line. Browse our collection of Bent skis to see the full range we carry in stock.
It became the best-selling freestyle ski in the world.
Now almost every major manufacturer makes a 100-millimeter all-mountain ski. The Bent 100 created a category. It proved the market wanted a different ski—one treating skiing as something to enjoy, not endure in pursuit of technique.
The Bent Collection expanded from there. Bent Chetler 120 for bigger mountains and deeper powder. Bent 110 in the 2026 lineup. All carrying forward one philosophy: skis should feel alive under your feet. They should respond to what you're doing, not fight against it.
These aren't marginal products. Atomic produces over 400,000 pairs annually. Current production runs roughly 1,000 employees in Altenmarkt—the same factory Rohrmoser opened in 1971. One facility in a small Austrian valley outputs more skis than most manufacturers produce globally.
Austrian Roots, Pittsburgh Connection
This is the part mattering to us at Willis.
Austria won more alpine skiing medals than any other country—121 total, 37 Olympic golds. Austria produced Toni Sailer. Franz Klammer. Hermann Maier. Marcel Hirscher. The Austrian Alps taught the world how to ski fast, and Austrians never stopped believing they could ski faster. Read our complete history of the ski lift to understand how Austrian innovation transformed the sport itself.
Atomic was born in this culture. Still headquartered in the Pongau valley. Still manufactures in Austria. Still builds skis the way Rohrmoser believed: with attention to detail only mattering if you genuinely care about the people skiing them.
Willi Klein came from Austria too. He came to Pittsburgh in the 1960s with Egon Zimmermann and Penny Pitou, three racers trained in the Austrian system and convinced America needed them. Willi won the Kufstein City Championship multiple times in Austria. He brought exactly this mindset to Pittsburgh—detail matters, heritage matters, understanding your customers matters more than optimizing margins.
In 1970, he founded Willis Ski and Board. Fifty-five years later, we're still here, still selling
skis with the same Austrian craftsmanship and customer focus Alois Rohrmoser believed in.
Willi understood something about Atomic beyond "good equipment." He understood Atomic embodied Austrian skiing culture the same way Willis embodied it. Both built by people believing in what they're doing. Both rooted in a tradition where skiing matters not as a market segment, but as identity.
Why Willis
We grew up with the same values Atomic did. We sell Atomic skis not as a sales pitch, but as genuine belief—they're faster, more thoughtfully built, and backed by 70 years of Austrian craftsmanship. Stop by the shop and we'll talk you through the lineup the way Willi would have. 55 years of doing this is what commitment looks like