Van Deer-Red Bull logo disagreement

Van Deer-Red Bull athlete Henrik Kristoffersen celebrating, Photo: GEPA

After his first World Cup race on the new Van Deer-Red Bull skis, Henrik Kristoffersen finished in third place taking a spot on the podium– with his skis’ logo covered up. Here’s why.

Henrik Kristoffersen smiled happily after the World Cup opener when he finally made his first Sölden podium with Sunday’s third-place result. Oddly, however, the logo on Kristoffersen’s Van Deer-Red Bull skis was neatly covered by what looked like black tape – not only at the podium but during the whole competition.

Why? According to Austrian media, FIS has not yet approved the Van Deer-Red Bull logo. The presence of Red Bull’s red bull in the ski logo does not comply with the current FIS guidelines.

Toni Giger of Van Deer-Red Bull comments

“There are good, constructive discussions. I am quite confident that this will be clarified in the next few weeks,” said Toni Giger, General Manager, Van Deer-Red Bull Sports, in an interview with the Austrian broadcaster ORF.

“The logo is pasted over because the brand is now called Van Deer-Red Bull. There are discussions; it’s politics,” Kristoffersen said to ORF and added: “I am no politician.”

The Van Deer-Red Bull Sports logo consists of the Van Deer logo (the Van Deer name and the outline of a deer) as well as the red bull known from the Red Bull logo. The red bull was added to the Van Deer logo when the two sports companies further formalized their cooperation this July when ski legend Marcel Hirscher’s company Van Deer became the Van Deer-Red Bull Sports Equipment GmbH.

Austrian Hirscher, the winner of eight consecutive overall FIS Alpine World Cup titles, 67 World Cup victories and numerous championship medals, announced his own ski brand, Van Deer, in September 2021. Hirscher was known for a detailed and perfectionist focus on his ski equipment during his ski racing years. Now he wishes to bring the high-quality focus into his ski brand and hired several top ski technicians last spring, as previously covered by Ski Racing.

FIS responds

In an October 24, 2022, email response to Ski Racing about the current logo issue, FIS refers to §1.2 in the Specification for alpine competition equipment and the following wording regarding “Manufacturer’s Identification”:

“‘Manufacturer’s Identification’ means the trade name, brand, logo, or other designation of the Effective Manufacturer under which the particular Competition Equipment is manufactured and commercially offered to the market. The Manufacturer’s Identification must be a sports equipment brand, which means that the Manufacturer’s Identification is principally used for Competition Equipment and is (i) not principally used for non-sports equipment, and/or (ii) cannot be confused with a similar or identical article used in another line of business, unrelated to Competition Equipment.”

Furthermore, Charlotte Chable, FIS Media Coordinator Alpine Men,  writes to Ski Racing

“In the rules, it is also outlined that breaches should be handled by the council, so any potential breaches of this will not be handled by the jury, and it is not affecting anything at the field of play; it is a pure marketing issue.”

Two other Van Deer-Red Bull athletes covered logos

The Norwegians Kristoffersen and Timon Haugan, as well as Great Britain’s Charlie Raposo, are the three Alpine World Cup racers who have signed ski contracts with Van Deer-Red Bull Sports before the 2022/23 season and who all have to keep their ski logos taped up for the time being – which does not affect the performance of the skis, just the marketing. (The covered-up logos have also generated media attention to the brand name.)

While Kristoffersen experienced his best Sölden result to date on the new ski brand, Raposo and Haugan were not as fortunate this time around. Raposo started in the Sölden GS first run with bib number 52 but did not qualify for the second run. Timon Haugan was also on-site in Sölden but did not make the cut for the strong eight-man Norwegian starting team (of which six Norwegians placed in the top 20, including three in the top five in this season’s edition of the Sölden race).

Red Bull Sölden success honors Dietrich Matesschitz

Kristoffersen and Sunday’s Sölden winner, Marco Odermatt of Switzerland, who won the 2022 overall and GS Alpine World Cups, are among the world-class athletes sponsored by Red Bull. While Odermatt and Kristoffersen celebrated their podium results in the season opener, they sent grateful thoughts to Dietrich Mateschitz, co-founder and owner of the Austrian energy drink brand. He had passed away the day before at age 78.

Slovenian Zan Kranjec finished second in the GS race, which took place on an uncommonly soft snow surface for Sölden, in mainly sunny and warm weather on Sunday, Oct. 23, after rain and wet snowfall the day and night prior. The women’s season opener, scheduled for Saturday, had to be canceled due to the weather conditions. 

Zermatt Cervinia ‘Gran Becca’ canceled for both genders

During the two weeks following the Sölden opener, men’s and women’s World Cup downhill competitions were scheduled to take place on the brand new Gran Becca course near the Matterhorn/Cervino mountain, starting in Switzerland and ending in Italy. However, FIS announced after its snow controls on Oct. 22 and 25 that both events have been canceled due to unseasonably warm temperatures, heavy rainfall, and temperatures a few degrees too high to produce snow needed on the lower part of the course, according to news updates from FIS.

Next, on Nov. 12-13, the World Cup skiers will duel in Lech/Zürs, Austria, during women’s and men’s parallel races. Then, the World Cup tour continues in Finland, Canada and the USA before returning to Central Europe in December.