Now Snopro, a company that pioneered ski rental delivery in the southern hemisphere, is launching ski hire in Niseko, Japan, for the 2025-26 season.
It has not been all smooth slopes for founders Justin and Kylie Worth who sold their house and poured all their money into its establishment. There was desperation to not let the business fail.
A snow-boarding instructor, Mr Worth had seen similar franchised operations starting in the United States and when he arrived on the New Zealand skifields, he started interviewing people on the chairlift, asking if they would use a delivery-to-the-door service.
The idea was simple – eliminate every ski rental pain point. Equipment was delivered directly to customers’ doors and a personal boot fitting happened in their accommodation, rather than a shop.
When they had finished skiing, the gear was picked up from the accommodation, eliminating the need for queues, parking or hauling gear through ski resort streets.
In 2011, Mr and Mrs Worth sold their house in Australia and she got a job at NZSki to support the start-up. There was no franchise to support them and Mr Worth did not have a degree or vocation to fall back on.
They worked hard but the first three years were tough. Unlike the US, New Zealanders and Australians were not buying smartphones, so it was not being adopted quickly.
They painted one side of their van differently to the other side so people would think it was a larger operation than it actually was, he said, laughing.
Unable to afford a fan in the early days to dry the ski boots, surplus heat from their log fire at night was sucked via a kitchen fan and redirected through a pipe to do the job. If they had a curry for dinner, then there was a ‘‘waft of curry’’ the next day from the boots.
‘‘We’ve come a long way from there, the things you do to make it work,’’ he said.
In 2014, Mr Worth moved back to Australia for two months to focus on software and finally Kiwis started buying smartphones.
The Snopro business had been driven by convenience. Time was valuable when people were on holiday and the first thing they often had to do when they arrived was head into town and get ski boots fitted.
With their model, the pain-point was removed. The gear was all in a warehouse and the ‘‘shop front’’ was the website, he said.
In 2018, Mr Worth headed to Australia for a feasibility trip. As an Australian – although home was New Zealand – he thought it would be nice to have a presence there. But he realised it would not work; it was very weekend peak heavy and very domestic.
A family skiing trip to Japan showed a world-class destination but the services a bit slow to follow and the couple saw a real need for a more bespoke, or customer-first approach.
Mr Worth, who has since made some strong connections and partnerships in Japan, was excited about the company’s international expansion.
Last year, the Worths opened a studio in Queenstown’s Hilton Hotel complex offering a appointment-based service and imported 3-D foot-scanning technology.
sally.rae@odt.co.nz
