Global luxury brokerage Engel & Völkers has taken their branding and marketing to a new level with the launch of a limited edition ski collection, CEO Sven Odia announced this week to attendees at Engel & Völkers Americas’ annual conference, EVX Unlocked, via a promotional video shot at Parsen Mountain in Davos, Switzerland, that featured Odia himself.
The exclusive skis were crafted in Switzerland using only “first-class materials,” representatives for the brokerage told Inman, like Swiss ash wood. They come in two designs, a “white edition” and a “black edition,” and matching accessories, including ski poles, helmets and a ski bag for transporting the equipment, are available for purchase as well.
The skis run the equivalent of $950, the ski poles $132, a helmet $405, and a ski bag $54. Both the white and black editions of the skis are available in two different sizes.
“I personally love to play polo in the summertime and to go skiing during winter time,” Odia told Inman in an email, when asked why the brokerage decided to launch the collection now. “Both are great activities and they also stand for exclusivity and passion, two of the core values of Engel & Völkers. We launched our first ski collection right now, because a lot of our franchisees and advisors are passionate about skiing. So, we have global skiing lovers in our company as well as shops in some of the most premier ski locations in the world.”
Ski-enthusiast agents who are interested in a pair of the sleek new skis will want to move quickly — a maximum of 350 pairs will be available for purchase. License partners and agents can order them through Engel & Völkers’ internal Brand Central website. Skis will be produced starting in April of this year and delivered to buyers towards the end of 2022, in time for the 2022/23 ski season.
One pair of new skis were also donated to a fundraising event for the Special Olympics, a charitable organization the brokerage has long supported, Odia announced at EVX, helping to raise more than $17,000 for the organization over the course of the conference.
Agents are most likely to see Odia on the slopes in Davos or Kitzühel, Austria, he said in his email to Inman, because of the varied ski terrain and picturesque villages.
“For me, it is important that skiing regions offer a wide range of different slopes, nice lunch areas on the mountains and a typical charming village,” Odia said. “Therefore, I always return to places like Kitzbühel in Austria or Davos in Switzerland. A couple of years ago, I went to Aspen for a shop opening. Unfortunately, I was not able to go skiing whilst being there, but it is on my bucket list and I would also love to discover Park City and Whistler.”
Update: This story was updated after publishing to clarify how a pair of Engel & Völkers skis benefitted the Special Olympics.
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