SKIN UP WITH COLLTEX, THE INVENTORS OF ADHESIVE SKINS
We’re proud to offer our customers a new skin collection with varied material compositions, but always meeting the highest possible quality standards. The Crystal Collection is inspired by alpine nature and the natural hexagon structure of a crystal.
With the new range of COLLTEX ski-skin models, we can meet the demands of a wide variety of mountain lovers: from maximum gliding properties for racers to maximum grip on the mountain for alpine adventurers. And always part of the design: the reliable hotmelt technology with Drybase™ coating. Don’t settle for second best as your ascent depends on COLLTEX performance.
YOUR TRUSTED ASCENSION PARTNER SINCE 1968
Colltex is an official partner of the Swiss Mountain Guide Association SBV. Colltex supports mountain guides in their work on the mountain with the latest climbing skin technology and incorporates the feedback from these mountain professionals into the improvement of current models, and the design of innovative new products.
TOP SELLERS
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Colltex Lucendro Crystal
$239.95 – $269.95 -
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Colltex Todi Crystal
$274.95 – $289.95 -
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Colltex Palu Crystal
$284.95 – $299.95 -
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Sale!
Colltex Todi Splitboard Skins
$192.00 -
TIP 01 | Attachment
Before attaching the ski skin, dry the ski base, glue the ski skins to the skis and best press it directly down with a block of wax by stroking downwards from the tip (in the
direction of the pile).
TIP 02 | Walking Technique
Pull the ski within the track and try not to lift it. Your big toe should always touch the ground. This way the ski skin glides in an optimum manner, hardly forms any snow build-up,
and you will save energy as well.
TIP 03 | Sliding
Avoid sliding back on steep terrain by shifting your weight backwards to the heel. This will put your weight on the entire length of the ski skin, and its grip on the snow will
improve.
TIP 04 | Stride Length
Take shorter steps on steep or difficult stretches. In this manner, your cen-tre of gravity will be better centred above the ski and stable.
TIP 05 | Snow Build-Up
A change from moist to dry, cold snow can cause snow build-up. Remove the build-up and dry the ski skins with a cloth. Wax the skins in the direction of the pile.
TIP 06 | Short Descents
When skiing downhill with ski skins attached, close the binding at the back to avoid falling forwards. However, long downhill runs on frozen snow put great strain on the pile.
TIP 07 | Detachment
In windy conditions, put the ski on the ground with the binding turned downwards, fold back the rear half of the ski skin, attach the protective net and stick the second half of
the skin onto it. As an alternative, use the Colltex pro-skin sock.
TIP 08 | Repeated Attachments and Detachments
During a downhill course, stick your skins in the front of your jacket. Your body heat will make the skins cool down less and the grip will remain better.
TIP 09 | Skin Adhesion Fails
Place adhesive layer on adhesive layer and thus reactivate the hotmelt adhesive. Or use practical Colltex quicktex. This will help with all ski skins.
TIP 10 | Care and Maintenance
After the tour equals before the tour. Dry your ski skins, check their adhesive strength, and waterproof the skin sides. Reap the rewards of this procedure on your next tour
The back of the ski skins is a fabric made of cotton and synthetics. New: the back of all Colltex skins is now additionally treated with a special coating. Only then, the proven
hot-melt resin adhesive is applied.
This additional coat called Colltex DRYBASE has the following advantages:
•Hardly any water absorption: the hollow spaces in the fabric are filled by Colltex DRYBASE. Thanks to this sealing, hardly any water can
penetrate into the fabric back. The ski skin will remain dry and light even in warm snow conditions.
•Chemical bond: the Colltex DRYBASE coating creates an optimum chemical bond to the hotmelt resin adhesive. The hotmelt thus adheres in an
optimum manner to the back of the ski skin. This renders tearing off the adhesive very unlikely.
•More durable: the Colltex DRYBASE coating makes the back of the ski skin more resistant to torsion, stronger and more durable – without losing
its suppleness. The few grams extra of coating are compensated several time over as the ski skin hardly absorbs any water
Three questions to Vitus Schweizer, Head of R&D at Colltex
What do you consider to be the greatest challenge of this project?
Colltex Drybase is the next step in developing our future ski skins. With this «positive change of the product», we had to pay great attention to avoid any negative impact on the already optimized and good properties of the ski skins.
Did the changeover to Colltex Drybase work out for volume production?
The step from the sample phase to our large production machines is an exciting stage of development and often comes with surprises. With Colltex Drybase, we were able to successfully transfer the positive and encouraging results of the sampling phase to our large-scale production.
The advantages of Colltex Drybase include greatly reduced water absorption, an optimum chemical bonding to the adhesive and increased strength. What do you
consider to be the most obvious advantage?
The low water absorption is certainly what most ski tourers hoped for. For me, it is equally exciting that the Colltex Drybase technology allows us to adjust the torsional strength and flexibility of the entire ski skin. Also highly interesting is the slight cushioning effect of the coating. The skin compensates even the smallest irregularities which, in turn, has a positive effect on gliding and climbing properties.
More and more tourers appreciate the advantages of a splitboard. To ensure that splitboard fans can always climb reliably, Colltex produces its own splitboard – the TÖDI and PALÜ models.
The splitboard skins can be cut to size yourself. These cut-to-size skins are available in widths of 150, 160 and 170 mm. The length is 170 cm. The market offers various systems of tail fastenings. Colltex has already delivered trend-setting solutions. The sum of our experience flows into the new tail-hook model. Simple, flexible, valuable, and suitable for almost every splitboard.
In the centre of Switzerland, in the Canton of Glarus, embedded in the fascinating and beautiful world of the Glarus Alps with its towering Tödi Mountain, is the home of colltex. Tradition is written in capital letters in the Glarus region; a region that also is the home of “tinkerers” and inventors who repeatedly made the news with their innovative ideas. This also applies to the colltex company for it was here where Hans Fischli invented, in 1968, the first reliable adhesive climbing skin of the world. Even now, over 50 years later, colltex still is the home of the very same tinkerers and inventors, who continue searching for new ideas and innovative solutions, true to the colltex motto of
“standing still is lagging behind”.
Like all great successes, that of colltex began on a small scale. Founded in 1948 by Hans Fischli as a small factory operating in rented premises, he began producing metal ski poles and climbing rucksacks. Hans Fischli, himself a passionate mountaineer and climber, knew how important functionality and quality were. This shaped his products and brought the deserved success. He quickly added ski skins to his range of products, which soon became topic no. 1 among tour riders. Skin production thereupon became gradually more important – until Tödi Sport fully concentrated on their manufacture.
The Roaring 60s
1968 will go down in history as the year of social upheavals and great events: the first manned moon landing! The Beatles finally conquered the music world and released their legendary White Album! At the Olympics in Mexico, Bob Beaman jumped a distance of 8.90m! And “crazy” Richard Fosbury was the first person to jump backwards over the bar! At the Olympic Winter Games in Grenoble, Alois Kälin and Josef Haas.
Let‘s go to the top! – That was the motto of the Roaring Sixties. Everyone wanted to go to the top: a space probe was headed for Mars. A space shuttle to the moon. Climbers aimed for 8,000 m peaks. And ski tourists were drawn to the Schilthorn – because the famous scene from the James Bond film shot around Piz Gloria had triggered a veritable boom. Any normal touring skier who wanted to ski on the Schilthorn needed to be fit, experienced, and well equipped. By then colltex had just invented the world‘s first climbing skins – adhesive ones. While fashion designers had for the first time focussed on the world of winter sports. won silver and bronze for Switzerland! And
in Glarus, colltex launched the world‘s first skins on the market! What a year… and not least for colltex!
At first, they tried to use fir twigs, strings, or bits and pieces of rugs. From 1905, there were attempts to strap strips of fur underneath the skis. The first useful specimens were sealskins, which had to be fastened with adhesive wax. As a passionate mountaineer, Hans Fischli knew from his own experience how difficult it was to reach the longed-for summit with one’s skis. The ski skins of that time were a constant nuisance, because handling them with “klister” (a soft ski or grip wax) left traces on hands, clothes, and skis. What does an innovative spirit like him do then? Try and find a solution to the problem, of course. After some setbacks, he came up with the idea of replacing the adhesive
wax with a pressure-sensitive adhesive that only stayed on the skin and could be used several times! The world‘s first real ski skin was invented …
Mohair had long been one of the natural materials used to make the pile of ski skins at colltex, but this did not solve the problem of the adhesives. In search of a solution, colltex took an important step towards environmental compatibility in 1990. The new “hotmelt” was the fi rst adhesive without harmful pollutants. In 2016, colltex went even further: With ECO, colltex launched the first 100% sustainable skin on the market! 100% of fi nest Mohair wool, without FC impregnation, without dye, made of pure natural rubber, with “hotmelt raw adhesion” and a back made of pure cotton. Even the packaging is ecological.
2006 The Milestone: Camlock
For a long time, colltex technicians had been looking for a solution: How can we create a skin attachment that fits absolutely all skis? It must be fast and uncomplicated to attach? In 2006, the time had come – CAMLOCK was born! Its features: a straightforward design, robust materials, completely rivet-free, and attached quick as lightning. A real quantum leap!
Safety First
From the very beginning, the focus in developing and manufacturing our skins has been on the aspects of “safety” and “reliability”. The development of the world‘s first ski skins in 1968 at the colltex laboratory was atypical for this approach. Never before had safety on tour been so high, never before ha success – be it in a competition or when ascending to the summit – been less of a coincidence. Today, the interaction of safety and success has made colltex the world’s No. 1 for ski skins.
In 1980, the millionth pair of ski skins left our factory in Glarus. Since then, millions more have been added! This is the greatest compliment to our employees who have
poured their experience, spirit of innovation, and fascination with touring and passion into the product to achieve this success. If you have successfully done this for 50 years,
you may well be a little proud of this anniversary …
2009 CT40 – The Next Revolution in Adhesive Technology
With ct40, colltex heralded the next revolution in adhesive technology in 2009! ct40 is no longer a classic pressure-sensitive adhesive but based on nano molecules, which realign themselves under pressure and, thus, develop an unusually strong adhesion – even at a bone-chilling -50°C. This inorganic adhesive is a typical colltex innovation: not only new, but also better than all previous adhesives. That’s true innovation for you!
Switzerland enjoyed years of incredible success! In 2009, Roger Federer won Wimbledon for the 6th time and became the world‘s numero uno. In winter sports, events came thick and fast: In 2008 and 2009, Dario Cologna was the fi rst Swiss to win the overall World Cup in cross-country skiing. 2010 saw a double record: the women‘s and the men‘s teams surpassed the old PDG records. The men’s records even by an incredible 24 minutes. With colltex with its racing skins right at the front. In 2014, Cologna won 2 gold medals at the Olympic Games in Sochi! In the same year Dominique Gisin won Gold in the downhill, Lara Gut Bronze. Switzerland, a great winter-sports
nation!
Can we still improve the properties of a ski skin? We can! colltex has proven it in 2014 with CLARIDEN, its latest innovation. CLARIDEN has all the advantages of a skin “without adhesive”: attachment and detachment without loss of adhesion, no sticking together when folded, no protective netting or pro skin necessary, and extremely temperature resistant. And with “colltex acrylate tape”, skins can be re-coated easily, quickly, and without heat. Can you expect more from a skin?
2015 brought about a great change. The generation of the Fischli founding family comes to an end with the acquisition of the company by Richard Bolt. It is also the start into a promising future. New ideas and innovations emerge and are pursued with heart and soul, followed by the launch of COMBIN and ACE in 2016. ACE, the ingenious clip for super-fast attachment and detachment. And COMBIN, the ultra-light skin with 30% less packing mass, which allows placing adhesive on adhesive without any problems. These innovations were brought to market and presented to the specialist trade in the winter of 2017.
In 2016, colltex launched its latest product – COMBIN – the quintessence of years of research and lightest skin ever with 30% less packing mass! COMBIN can simply be folded – without layers sticking together! A skin made for fast attachment and detachment, with best gliding properties and a perfect grip – no matter whether on arctic ice snow or wet corn snow. And something else distinguishes COMBIN from other skins: its underside is phosphorescent and glows in the dark! The jury of ISPO, the world‘s largest sports fair, found COMBIN so sensational that it gave it the 2017/2018 winner’s award.
New owners.
Colltex ag was owned by the Fischli family of Glarus for more than 70 years and has now passed into new hands. Effective April 1st, 2015, the company was taken over by Irene Hauser, for many years Sales Manager and now CEO of Colltex, and Richard Bolt, mountain guide, and entrepreneur. Both are at home in the world of sports brands and well-connected, and both have long years of business experience and are active touring skiers. Their goal is to lead the Colltex brand into a successful future with new ideas and innovative products.
Richi Bolt had already caught mountain fever at the age of 12, when he stood on his first four-thousander, the Finsteraarhorn. Ever since, his enthusiasm for the mountains never ceased. As a renowned mountain guide, he takes his guests to the highest mountains on the seven continents. His last expeditions led him to Everest and Manaslu. Anyone who has explored the highest peaks of the world knows the importance of safety, reliability and perfection of touring equipment. A turning point at Colltex…
Ever since it was established, Colltex has relied on the use of ecologically compatible materials with the use of mohair for its skins. In 1990, Colltex was the first manufacturer of ski skins to use a pollutant-free adhesive in the form of hotmelt; thus, setting an example of environmental protection. IN 2020 Colltex continued to pioneer sustainability and refrains from using fluorocarbons (PFCs). Fluorocarbons are harmful to the environment but are used by the textile
industry as waterproofing agents, among other things for ski skins. Colltex is now heralding a turning point and, since 2019, has exclusively been processing environmentally-friendly wax to proof ski skins.
