Industry News
The 2024–25 FIS Alpine World Cup season has wrapped up, and it’s time to dig into the numbers. Each year, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) tracks the equipment choices of the world’s top ski racers and compiles brand rankings based on the total World Cup points earned by sponsored athletes. These rankings give insight into which ski brands led the pack this season—and how the gear shaped the competition. Here’s how things stacked up in 2024–25:
The best ski brand for Alpine across all four disciplines was once again Head, with 15,800 points. Well-known ski racers that are on the Head Rebels Team are Lara Gut-Behrami from Switzerland, who finished the season in second place, as well as her teammates Franjo von Allmen and Camille Rast, who both had break-out seasons this year with their respective first podiums and victories on Head skis. Likewise, Sweden’s Sara Hector and Austria’s Conny Hütter, who finished the season fifth and ninth, respectively, are long-standing Head skiers. On the men’s side, aside from von Allmen, top 15 season finishers on Head skis are Atle Lie McGrath from Norway (7th), Vincent Kriechmayr from Austria (12th), and James Crawford from Canada (13th). U.S. skiers on Head skis include Ryan Cochran-Siegle, AJ Hurt, and Lindsey Vonn. For an extensive list of Head Rebels athletes, visit the corporate website.
Rossignol was the second-ranked ski brand for all four Alpine disciplines in 2024-25 with 12,770 points. Famous Rossignol athletes include Switzerland’s Loic Meillard and Norway’s Alexander Steen Olsen on the men’s side and overall season victor Federica Brignone from Italy on the women’s side. U.S. ski racers on Rossignol skis include Paula Moltzan, Lauren Macuga, River Radamus, Jared Goldberg, Jacqui Wiles, and Nina O’Brien.
Head is also the best ski brand for Downhill, with 4,110 points, more than double that of Stoeckli or Atomic. Head also dominates the speed discipline Super-G with a total of 5,180 points, also roughly double that of second-ranked Rossignol.
Rossignol shines in Giant Slalom, where it also collected the most points last season. With a total of 4,830 points, no other ski brand comes close to Rossignol in the Giant Slalom discipline. Star athlete Federica Brignone won five of the season’s Giant Slalom races, contributing a total of 580 points to the brand’s tally, while on the men’s side Switzerland’s Loic Meillard collected an addition 434 for Rossignol.
The best ski brand for Slalom was Head, taking the crown from last year’s winner Atomic with 4,640 points. In the absence of Atomic’s most famous athletes, Mikaela Shiffrin, for much of the season due to the puncture wound sustained in Killington, Vermont, in November 2024, Atomic was without their top point scorer. However, Atomic Slalom stars like Zrinka Ljutic, Lucas Braathen were still able to carry the iconic brand to a close third place less than 1,000 points behind Head. Second place went to Rossignol, just 110 points ahead of Atomic.
Of course, the bigger the brand, the more money it can pour into providing athletes with equipment at which stage it becomes a numbers game. So don’t dismiss the smaller brands like Van Deer Racing or Stöckli, who only supply a limited number of athletes with free skis.
How big a role does material play for ski racers? Naturally, ski racers need the best of the best to perform at this level, however, the difference between the individual brands does not come down to quality but rather individual preference. Athletes spend many months testing skis and finding the right pair for them. Sometimes switching brands can help athletes as the material simply does not match their individual skiing style or preference.
Ultimately, all of these brands are incredible brands that have spent decades perfecting race skis and tailoring them to skiers’s requirements. The skis used by professional athletes are typically not suitable for recreational skiers, as their specs are meant for ski racing and not recreational skiing. If you have the opportunity to demo various skis, I would definitely recommend demoing a pair of race skis to get a feel for the handling of these highly engineered and diligently crafted racing tools.
