Former Atomic Employee Accused of Stealing 1,900 Skis

An Atomic Skis employee is being charged with the theft of 1,900 pairs of skis from the Austrian manufacturer. The now-former employee was tasked with disposing of skis with minor defects at the factory in Pongau, Austria, and instead siphoned them away and sold them for €50 per pair. The 57-year-old man, as well as an accomplice, are now being charged in the district court in Salzburg with serious commercial theft. The maximum penalty for commercial theft is three years imprisonment.

The case was uncovered by Andreas Widmayer of the Austrian newspaper Salzburger Nachrichten, who came across the public court documents from the Salzburg Public Prosecutors Office. According to Widmayer, the employee has been working on these ski thefts since August 2021. A raid of the accused’s house revealed about 300 pairs of skis stashed away. The defendant was let go from his job at Atomic in November 2023.

Many companies will destroy products that don’t pass quality checks. Faulty products entering the mainstream market can ruin a brand’s reputation and cause warranty issues. Atomic sells around 600,000 pairs of skis a year, making it one of the largest ski manufacturers in the world. The company sponsors many elite athletes, including Mikaela Shiffrin, Sofia Goggia, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, Kai Jones, and Julia Kern.

Atomic was founded in 1955 in Austria and was purchased in 1994 by Amer Sports Group, which also owns Peak Performance, Armada, and Salomon, amongst others. We have reached out to Atomic for comment.