Terry Hertel Speaks — The Industry: What 50 Years Taught Me
The following is Terry Hertel speaking directly — in his own words, in his own voice. This is WAXFAX the way it was meant to be heard.
I have been in this industry for 50 years. I have seen things that most skiers will never see — the inside of Olympic race rooms, the handshake deals between wax companies and national teams, the editorial decisions at ski publications that had nothing to do with which products actually performed best.
I want to tell you what I have learned. Not to be bitter about it. I am not bitter. I am still here, still making wax, still winning. But I think skiers deserve to understand the system they are operating inside of.
Here is the truth about the ski wax industry.
The products that get the most visibility are not the best products. They are the products with the largest marketing budgets and the most established distribution relationships. That is not a conspiracy. That is just how mature industries work. The companies that have been around the longest, that have the deepest relationships with retailers and race organizations and publications, have a structural advantage that has nothing to do with the quality of what is in the can.
I built Hertel Ski Wax outside that system. Not by choice, initially — I did not have the budget to play the game the way the established brands played it. But over time I came to understand that being outside the system was actually an advantage. It meant I was accountable only to the skiers who used my products on snow. Not to a dealer network. Not to an advertising relationship. Not to an official supplier contract with a national team.
If my wax did not work, I did not eat. That is a very clarifying business model.
The color-coded wax system — the one that has dominated the industry for decades — is the clearest example of what I am talking about. It was not designed for the skier's convenience. It was designed to sell more products. If one wax handled all conditions, you would buy one wax. If you need six waxes for six temperature ranges, you buy six waxes. The math is not complicated.
I solved that problem in 1972 with the All Temperature® system. One formula, all conditions, all day. The industry's response was not to adopt the innovation. It was to ignore it, suppress it, and continue selling six-wax kits to skiers who did not need them.
The lodge wax service is the same story. A $25 rub-on application using generic wax, applied by someone who may or may not know what they are doing. I built Rub N Go™ in the 1970s so that any skier could do the same thing in 2 minutes for a fraction of the cost, using a formula with 50 years of Olympic-heritage chemistry behind it. The lodge wax service industry has never forgiven me for it.
Racing 739™ was banned from Olympic competition. Not because it violated any rule. Because it was too fast. And then it disappeared from mainstream ski media for decades — not because it stopped performing, but because the industry that banned it also controlled the channels through which skiers learned about wax.
WhiteGold™ contributed to gold medals at two Olympics. And then I was told to leave the industry. And then WhiteGold disappeared from mainstream visibility for years.
I am telling you this not to complain. I am telling you this because you deserve to know that the information you receive about ski wax — from ski shops, from ski publications, from resort wax services — is filtered through commercial relationships that have nothing to do with which products actually perform best on snow.
The good news is that this is changing. Social media has eliminated the gatekeepers. YouTube has given me a direct line to skiers who would never have found Hertel through traditional channels. Amazon has given skiers a way to find the best product in a category based on actual customer reviews rather than which brand has the best dealer relationship with their local ski shop.
20,000 units of Super HotSauce™ sold on Amazon in 2025. Five stars in every independent study. #1 in the category.
The market found us. And it found us not because we outspent the competition on marketing. But because when skiers actually tried the product, it worked. And they told other skiers. And those skiers told other skiers.
That is the only marketing that has ever mattered to me. The kind that happens when a product actually does what it says it does.
50 years in this industry has taught me one thing above all others: the truth about a wax is on the snow. Not in the advertisement. Not in the magazine review. Not in the official supplier contract.
On the snow.
That is where Hertel has always won. And that is where we always will.
— Terry Hertel, Founder, Hertel Ski Wax — Made in USA since 1972
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