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By Rich Wilhelm
Feb 27, 2026
As a worldwide audience was watching, enthralled, by the 2026 Winter Olympic Games as they were happening in Italy, Dave Walsh, ASTM International’s content director and editor in chief of Standardization News spoke with two experts on winter sports equipment for the latest episode of the "Standards Impact" podcast. His guests were Earl Saline, director of education at the National Ski Areas Association; and Evenagelos Spyrou, manager, research & certification, Reebok-CCM Hockey.
Saline and Spyrou discussed how winter sports such as skiing and hockey have been enhanced through technological improvements made possible by standards developed by the sports equipment, playing surfaces, and facilities committee (F08) and its snow and water sports committee (F27).
Here is an excerpt from the conversation:
Earl Saline: Test equipment is pretty critical. And you talk about the evolution of materials years ago, for those that have been skiing for a while, there was a period of time where when you wrapped up the season and you were putting your skis away in the garage for the summer, it was recommended that you release the tension on the springs and the bindings. And that has since changed as better materials have become available. And we don't know what materials will be available in the next 10 years, 15 years, 20 years. And that's one of the things that we are conscious of when we set standards that the standards don't necessarily limit the innovation that we don't know about yet. We want standards created that allow that flexibility and allow that creativity and innovative spirit that is throughout our industry. We want to see what the next generation of equipment will bring, especially for the consumer, if we can make it more comfortable and more fun for them and safer. At the same time, I think the standards are functioning, as intended…
… And the consensus process is critical in the success of and use of any of the standards, the, the real world application of them. And, you know, I brought up the, the lower limb injury reduction earlier, and that to me is one of the, the great success stories that we've been able to reduce the amount of injuries to keep skiing as safe as it is. And that required the participation of the manufacturers. It required the participation of the retailers that required the participation of the ski areas in all of that. And to trust that when somebody picks up a boot at a store in the northwest to the southeast, and they look, you know, the, the boot sole itself is built to the same specifications is critical. And that required ski manufacturers, the boot manufacturers to have a seat at the table. And while one may have had its quote unquote secret sauce for how it designed its boots for them to agree with their manufacturer across the table that this is the boot sole for an alpine boot, these are the dimensions, these are the acceptable dimensions, this is when it's out of spec.
If it's a rental boot, those demonstrate the consensus pro process really working. And that is incredibly important for the consumer, for our industry. Because like Angelo said, the consumer doesn't necessarily know the difference. They're trusting that a product when they buy it will work as intended. And that to me is one of the hallmarks of what the ASTM process as it is.
David Walsh: Evangelos, you touched on the materials for sticks, and I can relate to that as a dad of baseball players, when they started to go to these carbon fiber baseball bats, the balls were just flying out of parks. Little kids were crushing baseballs. I can imagine the same phenomenon in hockey. So what is one thing, one science fiction type aspect of technology that's coming down the way for your particular sport? I don't know if it's those sensors and helmets or, Earl, if you see a different one for skiing, if there's something that's just like the average person wouldn't think is on the way.
Evangelos Spyrou: I mentioned advanced materials, but I think another area is additive manufacturing. You know, like we have been doing custom helmets for a while now, and 3D printing is something that is out there, but custom fit requires a little bit of a different approach when it comes to standards. How do you certify a product or test it so that it covers all those possibilities that exist with customization. There's been some effort to in that direction, but I think there's more work to be done. And how can standards accommodate those developments in the industry? And of course, all these will require new and updated standards, especially around the validation of data driven equipment, you know, durability, sensor calibration, all these things, is something that manufacturers may be speaking in a different language. And we need to standardize the way we do that.
Earl Saline: The one area where I could see the, call it the Star Wars future, is heads up displays and helmets, or even in goggles where there is, you know, certain data that's displayed, whether it's location, it's speed, it's weather, certain components that sometimes people capture through their smartphone screen right now. Certainly, there are location sharing apps. There are a ton of apps out there for individual ski areas that talk about, okay, here's where you are. Here's where to go get your next burger. Or this lift is down, but this one is opening up. So some of that information coming through more of a heads up display type of product for a skier or a rider. Now, when we talk about using phones in an augmented reality type of application, we joke about somebody skiing down the hill, holding their phone up in front of 'em to get that same information. But what does it look like when all of a sudden that's displayed on the lens of their goggles or the visor of their helmet if they happen to have an integrated advisor? That to me, is, is where the future really starts to, to show itself. Now, some of that is already possible. I'd say the future's here, but it's not adopted in a, any large mass market type of format yet.
