Skis are getting shorter…

…is something you hear all the time and more often than not people talk about it as a very recent development. It is true that skis are getting shorter. What is not true is that it’s a recent development. As I was browsing in my collection of Swedish annual ski yearbooks I stumbled into what may well be the first public ski manufacturing statistics. The yearbook is: “På Skidor Årsskrift 1927” which translates to: On Skis Yearbook 1927. In looking at below pictures another piece of Swedish you will benefit from is to know that “Tillverkningsår” means year of fabrication. These are numbers emanating from the largest ski manufacturer in Sweden at the time: Bröderna Sandström Skidfabrik (The Sandström Brothers Ski Plant). That company was up in 110,000 pairs of skis per year in the late 20s making it an unthinkable force for the day.

Below are scans of the relevant parts but first I have got to show you the cover page of the yearbook as it feature my favorite ski inventors, the reindeer herding Sámis (formerly known as Lapps). On the cover this Sámi is skijoring a reindeer, simply too perfect to pass up!

Here is a Sámi skijoring a reindeer. He is in
traditional dress with Sámi skis.

f. stands for feet and if you read the "key" in the text above
you're good to go!

The Sandström Brothers' advert on the
back cover of the 1927 yearbook.