Pepper in Our Boots and Bread Bags on Our Feet

What Winter Taught Us

I grew up skiing in Quebec, Canada.

Not the postcard version of skiing either.

The real version.

The kind of cold where your eyelashes freeze, your face hurts on the chairlift and your parents tell you to stop complaining because everyone else is cold too.

We didn't have the best gear.

In fact, some of our best tricks had nothing to do with skiing.

I still remember people putting black pepper in their ski boots because someone swore it helped keep your feet warm. Whether it actually worked or not is still up for debate.

What definitely happened was bread bags.

Before fancy insulated socks and high-tech fabrics became common, we'd put plastic bread bags over our socks before putting our boots on. Looking back, it sounds ridiculous. At the time, it was just what people did to survive a long night of skiing.

Most weekdays we'd finish school and head straight to the local ski hill.

The sun would already be setting.

The floodlights would come on.

The temperature would keep dropping.

And we'd ski until we couldn't feel our toes anymore.

Those nights taught me something that has stayed with me ever since.

The people having the most fun weren't always the ones with the newest gear.

They were the people whose gear simply worked.

Years later, after skiing in Canada, Australia and plenty of places in between, I realised the same lesson still applies.

Most ski brands spend their time talking about what's new.

At Anderson, we've spent our time focusing on what matters.

Comfort.

Visibility.

Durability.

A goggle that survives getting thrown into the back of the car.

A lens that works when the weather changes.

A fit that feels good from first chair to last run.

We didn't invent ski goggles.

We didn't create some secret technology hidden in a laboratory.

What we did was spend years skiing, testing, learning and figuring out what ingredients make a great goggle.

Then we worked with experienced manufacturers to bring those ingredients together.

A bit like a good recipe.

Nobody invented the ingredients.

The magic comes from putting the right ones together.

Maybe that mindset comes from growing up in Quebec.

When you've spent your childhood skiing with bread bags in your boots and pepper sprinkled where pepper definitely wasn't designed to go, you learn pretty quickly that fancy marketing doesn't keep you warm.

Good gear does.

And that's exactly what Anderson is all about.