K2 Sports Commissions Joel Berman Glass Studios to Create World’s Largest Glass Skis

Sixteen-foot All-Glass Skis to Display During Vancouver Winter Festivities

VANCOUVER, B.C. February 22, 2010 – Snow skiing will be bigger than life as billions of TV viewers around the globe watch the world’s best athletes compete in Vancouver this month. To celebrate the occasion, K2

Sports, the world’s leading manufacturer of snow skis and snowboards, commissioned globally-renowned architectural glass artist Joel Berman to create the world’s largest pair of all-glass skis.

The 16-foot-tall skis, designed with K2’s signature blue, white and red color scheme, were recently installed on the exterior of Berman’s studio on Granville Island, a popular dining and shopping district on the fringe of downtown Vancouver that will be an entertainment epicenter during the city-wide celebration, February 12-28.

According to Anthony De Rocco, K2’s Executive Vice President, K2 Sports and Joel Berman Glass studios collaborated on this project in order to provide a vibrant sports-themed art installation on Granville Island, the heart of Vancouver's dynamic arts community. “K2 Sports has been in the skiing business for almost 50 years and as one of the dominant brands in the North American ski market we saw this as a great way to show our support to the city of Vancouver during this special event”.

“Since Joel Berman Glass Studios is located in such a highly visible and popular area of Vancouver, we realized that we had a unique opportunity to honor the athletes and celebrate the festivities with a sports-themed art installation that had never before been achieved,” said Saleem Khattak, Senior Designer for Joel Berman Glass Studios. “And K2 Sports was the perfect partner for this project.”

In addition to being a one-of-a-kind piece of art, the process of building the skis was a feat in itself involving new glass-on-glass color printing processes on fused colored glass.

Following the Vancouver events, the skis will be transferred to Seattle to adorn K2’s 300,000-square-foot headquarter facilities that the company moved into from its original home on Vashon Island, Washington, in 2007.

About K2 Sports

K2 Sports, based in Seattle, Wash., USA, has achieved unparalleled success through innovative product offerings, marketing programs and multiple brand acquisitions. The company is globally renowned for its non-traditional advertising, graphics and high performance products throughout its portfolio. With wholly-owned subsidiaries in Canada, Central Europe, Japan, Korea and Scandinavia and distribution in more than 60 countries, K2 Sports continues to assert its position as a global leader across multiple categories of sporting goods. Currently K2 Skis, K2 Snowboarding, K2 Skates, Ride Snowboards, Cappel, Atlas Snow-Shoe Company, Tubbs Snowshoes, Madshus, Line Skis, Full Tilt, Morrow, 5150, Powder Ridge, Little Bear and Planet Earth reside in the K2 Sports portfolio of brands. For more information, visit K2sports.com.

About Joel Berman Glass Studios

Joel Berman Glass Studios is a world-renowned designer and manufacturer of glass art for the architecture and design community, and offers leading edge solutions and collaboration possibilities to take any glass art project from concept to installation. From its design studio and manufacturing facilities located in Vancouver, BC, Canada Joel Berman Glass Studios offers kiln-cast and pressure-formed glass, and related complementary products, crafted to the highest standards and featuring designer textures, colors, hardware and design services.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 22nd, 2010 and is filed under Global News.