Vive la Ogden!?!

According to Ogden City Mayor Matthew Godfrey, Nidecker Snowboards will move all of its North American distribution to Ogden. Nidecker becomes the seventh snow sports company to move to Ogden, Utah, in the last two years. "This substantiates why Ogden has been dubbed 'The Hub' for the snow sports industry," stated Mayor Godfrey. In 1983, Nidecker became Europe's first snowboard manufacturer. And here I thought that only thing Ogden was dubbed 'The Hub' for was the Utah meth industry. What do I know?

For the past five years, Nidecker's North American distribution has been run out of San Diego. But owner Courtney Boyer changed all that with this move to Ogden. "The icing on the cake," said Boyer, "is Ogden's proposed gondola project which will run from downtown right to the top of Milan's Basin. It's incredible to think of taking a few runs over my lunch hour, but more important to the company is the closeness of the mountains and local resorts for accomplishing product testing."

With recreational opportunities from skiing and snowboarding to rock climbing and kayaking, all within minutes of downtown Ogden, city officials have been targeting the snow and outdoor recreation industry with incentives to attract investment. With a proposed new resort that backs to Snowbasin, Ogden is proposing a gondola that would link downtown and Weber State University to the slopes.

The Nidecker move is the latest in a series of similar moves. November 2004, Descente moves North American operations to Ogden.

December 2004, Goode Ski Technologies moves corporate headquarters from Waterford, Mich., to Ogden.

January 2005, Kahuna Creations announces new headquarters in Ogden.

September 2005, Scott USA consolidates assembly, warehousing and distribution of their product line in Ogden.

October 2005, SnowSports Interactive moves its North American operations base to Ogden.

August 2006 Amer Sports announces Suunto and Atomic will move to Ogden.

Curt Geiger, vice president, Descente North America, stated, "It is very possible that Ogden will become the Milan of the ski industry. A retailer from anywhere in the country can land at 9 a.m. and be in our office by 10 a.m. From there, you work for two hours and get on a gondola from downtown to a nearby ski resort and go skiing. You come back down, catch a late flight home and that's all in the same day. You just can't do that anywhere else in the world." the Milan of the ski industry, in Odgen? Perhaps that's a bit of a stretch but there are more than one ski biz companies who are willing to pull their weight to make it happen.

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