The sports goods maker Elan is marking its 75th anniversary. The company, employing some 700 people, has seen ups and downs since its inception in 1945, with its brand leaving an indelible mark on the landscape of modern alpine skiing.
Apart from manufacturing skis, which are Elan’s flagship product, the company also produces sports equipment, vessels, such as sailboats, and technologically advanced composites.
Elan is one of Slovenia’s most renowned brands worldwide and has cooperated with a number of world-class athletes, including Slovenian former alpine skier Bojan Križaj, who competed for the former Yugoslavia and is considered Slovenia’s and Yugoslavia’s most successful male alpine skier.
The company presented its 2020-2021 winter season on Wednesday, with Križaj, now an ambassador of the Elan brand, reminiscing about his contributions to the development of Elan skis.
When it comes to Elan ski production, the company has left ski jumping and alpine skiing business and is now focused on the ski cross discipline where it cooperates with Slovenian freestyle skier Filip Flisar, former World Cup champion, who has its eyes set on the 2022 Winter Olympics.
“I’ve been with Elan from the start [of my career] and will be to the end. It is an open-minded company. […] It is ready to listen to some crazy ideas sometimes which have turned out to be good,” said Flisar, noting that Elan skis yielded excellent results in ski cross.
Leon Korošec, the head of Elan’s winter division, meanwhile said that the company had so far bagged more than 300 international awards for its innovative products. He highlighted that Elan was the only company in the world to have made completely foldable skis and underscored its achievement of inventing carving skis 26 years ago.
In June, the company received a title of an ambassador of the Slovenian economy along with 18 other export-oriented companies by the investment promotion agency SPIRIT in a bid to promote Slovenia internationally as a technologically advanced and green country.
The Covid-19 pandemic has left an impact, however the company said in June that clients were returning. After suspending production in mid-March, Elan gradually resumed operations a month later.