WAXFAX Podcast — The Industry: How the Ski Establishment Controls What You Hear and Why It's Changing
WAXFAX PODCAST
The Industry — How the Ski Establishment Controls What You Hear and Why It's Changing
Welcome to WAXFAX…
where skiing, science, speed, and controversy collide.
Today we are talking about something most ski brands will never discuss publicly: how the ski industry actually works, who controls what skiers hear, and why the best products in the market are often the ones you have never heard of.
This is the episode the establishment does not want you to listen to.
How the Ski Industry Controls Information
The ski industry — like most mature industries — is controlled by a small number of large companies with significant financial interests in maintaining the status quo.
In ski wax, those companies control:
- Advertising budgets — the brands with the largest budgets get the most visibility in ski media, on resort signage, and in retail environments
- Dealer networks — large brands have established relationships with ski shops that make it difficult for independent products to get shelf space
- Magazine coverage — ski publications depend on advertising revenue from the same brands they cover, creating an obvious conflict of interest in product reviews and recommendations
- Race room access — national ski teams and World Cup race organizations have established relationships with official wax suppliers that make it difficult for independent products to be used officially, regardless of performance
- Retail pricing pressure — large brands can offer volume discounts and co-op advertising that independent manufacturers cannot match, making it economically difficult for retailers to prioritize independent products
The result: the products that get the most visibility are not necessarily the best products. They are the products with the largest marketing budgets and the most established distribution relationships.
What Happened to Hertel
Terry Hertel has experienced this system firsthand — not as an observer, but as an independent manufacturer who built products that outperformed the establishment's offerings at the Olympic level.
When Racing 739™ was banned from Olympic competition for winning by margins of up to 4 full seconds, the response from the establishment was not acknowledgment. It was suppression. The product that had just proved itself to be the most dominant race wax in the world became invisible in mainstream ski media and retail channels.
When WhiteGold™ contributed to gold medal performances at the 1988 Calgary and 1994 Lillehammer Olympics, the response was direct: Terry Hertel was told by leadership tied to the ski establishment to “get the fuck out of the industry.”
Not a legal threat. Not a formal complaint. A personal message from people with the power to make life very difficult for an independent manufacturer — telling him that his success was not welcome.
For years after those Olympic successes, Hertel products were largely invisible in mainstream ski media, retail channels, and race room conversations. Not because they stopped performing. Because the established industry had the power to control what skiers heard about — and an independent American company that had just embarrassed the European wax establishment at two Olympics was not going to get favorable coverage.
The Skier Who Paid the Price
The person who paid the price for this system was not Terry Hertel. It was you.
Every skier who spent 30 years buying color-coded wax kits because that was what the industry told them they needed — when one all-temperature formula would have done the job better, simpler, and cheaper.
Every skier who paid $25 for a lodge wax service using generic wax — when a $15 stick of Rub N Go™ in their jacket pocket would have done the same job in 2 minutes and lasted all day.
Every skier who never heard of Racing 739™ — the wax that was too fast for the Olympics — because the industry that banned it also controlled the channels through which skiers learned about wax.
The system was not designed for the skier's benefit. It was designed for the industry's revenue.
Why Social Media Changed Everything
For decades, the gatekeepers of the ski industry controlled what skiers heard. Magazines, retail shops, race organizations, and resort partnerships all filtered information through the lens of established commercial relationships.
Social media eliminated those gatekeepers.
For the first time, Terry Hertel could speak directly to skiers and snowboarders — on YouTube, on Instagram, on TikTok, on Amazon reviews — without going through the channels that the established industry controlled.
And when skiers heard the story — the chemistry, the Olympic history, the industry suppression, the 50 years of independent American manufacturing — they responded.
20,000 units of Super HotSauce™ sold on Amazon in 2025. Five stars in every independent study. #1 in the category.
The market found Hertel. And it is not going back.
What This Means for You
The next time you are in a ski shop and a salesperson recommends a wax brand, ask yourself: is this recommendation based on performance, or is it based on which brand has the best dealer relationship with this shop?
The next time you read a ski magazine review of wax products, ask yourself: which of these brands advertises in this publication?
The next time you see a wax brand at a World Cup race, ask yourself: is this brand there because it performs best, or because it has an official supplier contract?
These are not cynical questions. They are the questions that 50 years in the ski industry have taught Terry Hertel to ask — and the questions that led him to build Hertel Ski Wax the way he did: independent, American-made, and accountable only to the skiers who use the products on snow.
The Alternative
Hertel Ski Wax has no official supplier contracts with national ski teams. No co-op advertising relationships with ski shops. No editorial relationships with ski publications.
What it has is 50 years of documented performance, Olympic gold medals, an Olympic race wax ban, the #1 Amazon bestseller in its category, and five-star ratings in every independent study conducted.
That is the alternative to the establishment. And it has been available since 1972.
This has been WAXFAX. The stories behind the speed.
The independent alternative. 50 years of proof. Shop Super HotSauce™ — #1 Amazon Bestseller, No Establishment Required →
The banned race wax: Shop Racing 739™ — Too Fast for the Olympics →
📚 The full story: Download the FREE WAXFAX Book — 50 Years of Ski Wax Science, History, and Industry Truth →
🎧 More WAXFAX Podcast episodes:
WAXFAX Podcast — Introduction →
WAXFAX Podcast — Super HotSauce™ →
WAXFAX Podcast — SpringSolution™ →