An Italian designer’s custom skis pair high performance with panache.

For the former competitive downhiller Alessandro Marchi, designing skis is like making a gourmet meal. “It all starts in the kitchen; you need to have good products and you need to cook properly,” he says. “The same goes with skis. You must combine the materials in just the right way in order to get the best result.”  

Marchi’s “kitchen” is a workshop in the Italian Alps, where he crafts his designs for Foil Skis (foilskis?.com), …