1981 - Snowboard pioneers

The history takes off already in 1981, when the founders Patrik Söderlund and Stefan Cederberg started to make snowboards in their parents’ garage on Frösön outside of Östersund. Patrik and Stefan had picked up the signals of what was going on in the US. Soon they started to experiment with their own creations and tried different methods of manufacturing snowboards.

The families garage's were shortly turned into a inventor’s workshops flowing with ideas and creativity. Epoxy was smudged on plywood and steel egdes were not yet to think of. The only thinkable way to ride the boards was in powder snow.

Åre Skidfabrik

Ever since the start, the passion for snowboarding and skiing permeated the entire chain of production. All boards and skis produced has been developed and built by hand by people with a passion for riding. The proximity to the mountains in Åre has also made it possible to try new things and always be at the forefront of trends and technology.

Having beeing in Norwegian ownership a couple of years, the founders Stefan and Patrik, along with Carl Geijer, Anders Selvehed and Johan Hjelte bought back the factory and the brand Extrem from Norwegian Skigutane in 2011. The business is now run under the name of Åre Skidfabrik where Extrem is a wholly owned brand.

Extrem today

With 100 % focus on Extrem the success came quick. In 2012 the Swedish ski magazine Åka Skidor awarded the iconic ski model Project 100 with a Gold medal; “The best all-mountain ski that Åka Skidor has ever tested, and that says a lot”. Since then our skis have received several test awards every year.

A few years later we pioneered the ski industry when creating the world’s first community-developed ski, Opinion, together with hundreds of dedicated skiers. Communicating directly with our customers turned out to be a success factor and is today one of our unique strengths. In 2016 we created the world’s first community-developed freeride ski for women, Mothertree, together with the female ski network InspireUs. Both these projects have been awarded the international and prestigious ISPO Gold Award. In the winter of 2018/2019 we started developing an all-mountain ski for the youth, since we believe that the next generation deserve as well-develped skis as offered to their parents. The ski, Roots 90, and the unique development process behind it, was awarded the international and prestigious ISPO Award Winner of 20/21.

With a modern factory, a competent team of ski builders, a passion to listen to our customers and turn that into award-winning skis, we are ready for the future.