Toni Arnstein - Ski Innovator

Legendary snow sports pioneer and founder of Blizzard skis, Anton “Toni” Arnsteiner here witnessing Franz Klammer sign a contract with Blizzard, passed away at the age of 88. Arnsteiner died in the very town where he built up his ski company, in Mittersill, Austria. After the War, Arnsteiner took over  his parents’ carpentry workshop and began developing wooden skis which he marketed as Glockner skis and later, from 1953, as Blizzard. Arnsteiner ran the ski factory right up until 1992 when he retired. In its heyday, the Mittersill plant produced up to 500,000 pairs of skis a year. After Arnsteiner’s retirement, Blizzard was sold to the Raiffeisen cooperative bank in Salzburg and then in 2006, to the Tecnica Group of Italy which still owns Blizzard today.