Sep 30, 2026 · 56 min · 13 segments
We sat down with Sean and Jed, two of the minds and engineers behind the new 2027 K2 Mindbender collection, to talk about what changed, why they changed it, and the Dark Matter technology that has…
Right, because the easiest way for you guys to make a ski to be stable, if we just said, you know, pre Dark Matter, we need a ski to be stable, you guys do what?
Metal.
Metal, and also, like, one way to make a ski really stable is to make it turn slow, right? So increase the side cut radius, you're gonna get a more stable response sort of through that, but that's gonna come at a huge compromise for sort of the way you wanna use the ski.
Right.
This ski would feel a little less twitchy.
Mm-hmm.
Right, right.
Yeah
... a, a downhill ski is super stable with a, you know, 45-meter radius, um, bunch of titanal and rubber.
And then it like, just to like have the goalpost here, um, would it be fair to say that the other end of the spectrum would be a park ski or a touring ski? Is that the other end? Or what would be the opposite of that?
The park skis can tend to be a little bit heavier and, and have their own sort of elements of stability.
We weren't really trying to make a touring ski that, um, that you could ski like a free ride ski.
Um, but I think it was really sort of that end of the weight spectrum we were looking at as far as, um, what lightweight can do to really adversely affect stability and confidence.
Right.
Now, um, in you guys creating these unicorns, as I was looking at the Mind Benders today on our ski wall, like you can really see how the Dark Matter, it's not placed in the exact same position on every single ski.
Right, because the easiest way for you guys to make a ski to be stable, if we just said, you know, pre Dark Matter, we need a ski to be stable, you guys do what?
Metal.
Metal, and also, like, one way to make a ski really stable is to make it turn slow, right? So increase the side cut radius, you're gonna get a more stable response sort of through that, but that's gonna come at a huge compromise for sort of the way you wanna use the ski.
Right.
This ski would feel a little less twitchy.
Mm-hmm.
Right, right.
Yeah
... a, a downhill ski is super stable with a, you know, 45-meter radius, um, bunch of titanal and rubber.
And then it like, just to like have the goalpost here, um, would it be fair to say that the other end of the spectrum would be a park ski or a touring ski? Is that the other end? Or what would be the opposite of that?
The park skis can tend to be a little bit heavier and, and have their own sort of elements of stability.
We weren't really trying to make a touring ski that, um, that you could ski like a free ride ski.
Um, but I think it was really sort of that end of the weight spectrum we were looking at as far as, um, what lightweight can do to really adversely affect stability and confidence.
Right.
Now, um, in you guys creating these unicorns, as I was looking at the Mind Benders today on our ski wall, like you can really see how the Dark Matter, it's not placed in the exact same position on every single ski.
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