The Bite Magazine - Autmn/Winter 2020 - Issue 28

bitefashion BOGNER JA W O nce solely a method of transportation, skiing emerged into a sporting activity during the late 19th century. The first non-military skiing competitions were held in the 1840s in northern and central Norway and the first na- tional skiing competition, won by Sondre Norheim, was held in the capital of Christiania (now Oslo) in Norway in 1868. A few decades later, the sport spread to the rest of Europe and the United States, where miners held skiing competitions to entertain themselves dur- ing the winter. From prehistoric times, varying sizes and shapes of wooden planks were found preserved in peat bogs in Russia, Finland, Sweden, and Norway. The oldest set of skis was discovered on two peat bogs sites, near Lake Sindor in the Vychegda basin of Russia. It is believed that a form of skiing has been an integral part of life in cold countries for thousands of years. The ancestors of the indigenous Sámi people in Scandinavia around 6300 BC are said to be the first community to ski. The different types of skis used in prehistoric eras included the Chi- nese Altay ski around 8000 BC, which were long by modern stand- ards. Skiers would use the long pole to aid their balance. In 3200 BC, the skis from Kalvträsk, Sweden were a long pole with a scoop carved into one end, which likely served several purposes such as steering downhill, shovelling, or as a club for hunting. Kinnula, Finland’s in- tricately carved skis in 750 AD were shorter and broader and worked well on soft snow in forest terrain. During the Kingdom of Norway Civil War between 1130 and 1240 AD, military skiers, the Birkebeiners (Torstein Skevla and Skjervald Skrukka) carried the king’s heir, two-year-old Haakon Haakonsson to safety over the Dovrefjell Mountains from Lillehammer to Osterd- alen. It created one of the most famous legends in backcountry skiing history; since 1932, the famed Birkebeiner race has continued along the same route from Rena to Lillehammer. In the same year of the first official Birkebeiner race, ski champion Wilhelm Bogner Sr founded his company, Willy Bogner Ski, as an im- port business for skis, equipment, and Norwegian knitwear. He won medals at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships with a silver in the 4 x 10 km event in 1934 and a bronze in the Nordic combined in 1935. At the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a ski town in Bavaria, Germany, he finished sixth place in the 4 x 10 km and 12th in the Nordic combined races. In 1948, his wife Maria, an athletic woman who joined his company to design sports apparel in the year the brand launched and whom he married in 1937 presented the revolutionary trousers made out of stretch material with stirrups. Later they would be called ‘Bogners’ in dictionaries. She then created the iconic B zipper seven years later, which became the unique symbol of the Bogner brand and the inven- tion of the company’s first branding. Following in his father’s footsteps, Wilhelm Bogner Jr became an al- pine ski racer. He competed for the United Team of Germany shortly after turning 18 at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, Cali- fornia. He won the Lauberhorn downhill at Wengen, Switzerland and two years later, became the double world student champion in alpine skiing slalom and combined events. At the 1966 World Champion- ships in Portillo, Chile he took fourth and fifth place in the slalom and combined races. The snugly quilted AW20 Bogner jackets has Jada Brookes pining for their warmth and comfort.