Last week Fast Company named Vail Resorts one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies of 2024.
“(Vail Resorts) turned the ski industry on its head 15 years ago when it launched its Epic Pass … that gave users unlimited ski days at all of its resorts,” wrote Stirling Kelso on Fast Company’s website. “The pass, which now has several tiers, has become an industry standard, forcing other resorts to band together to offer similarly sweeping access to their slopes.”
“At the time, no one could imagine connecting resort access on one pass,” said Emily McDonald, Park City Mountain communications manager.
Two years later, Vail Resorts introduced EpicMix (now My Epic), a first-of-its-kind app, which uses RFID technology embedded in ski passes to digitally track guests’ stats, including vertical feet, lifts taken, highest elevation reached, distance covered and more. One new feature includes loading your pass or lift ticket on your phone, so you don’t have to worry about forgetting your pass at home.
However, Vail Resort’s CEO Kirsten Lynch has pointed out that innovation is not easy.
“It involves change and disrupting the status quo,” she said. “Our company has many examples of this, from launching the Epic Pass in 2008 and EpicMix in 2010, to Mobile Pass and Mobile Lift tickets in 2023, as well as the new My Epic App and new My Epic Gear membership reimagines gear ownership and gear rental, whether guests want the certainty of their gear for the season or for the day, transforming the quality, service, convenience and cost of one of the most critical parts of the mountain experience.”
Vail Resorts used its Epic Pass model to create My Epic Gear, a rental program for guests offering free in-resort delivery or slope-side access. Announced last March, it began as a pilot program this season at four resorts: Vail Mountain, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone.
Park City Mountain will offer the program in the 2024/25 season.
So far, the pilot program has attracted “overwhelmingly positive feedback,” McDonald said. Guests have described the experience as phenomenal. Surveys showed that almost all guests rated their My Epic Gear membership “much or somewhat better” than their previous experience renting gear. Most members also rated the membership “much or somewhat better” than owning their own gear.
One guest wrote: “The convenience of renting the gear I want and being able to pick up slope-side is unmatched. … The experience and customer service made it worth it.”
My Epic Gear costs $50 for a season-long membership. Then rentals are $55 a day for skis/boards, boots and poles. Rentals for children, ages 3-12, cost $45 a day. Helmet rentals are $10 a day. If members 13 and older bring their own boots, they save $10 a day, while kids save $5 a day.
This coming season, the program will offer more than 60 of the most popular and latest current season ski and snowboard models from 13 leading brands. Gear will cater to beginners to experts. Guests can also try different models each day, so if it’s a powder day, intermediates and experts can try fatter skis. They receive personalized gear recommendations based on ability level, conditions and the latest choices.
Guests can even measure their foot with 3-D boot-scanning-fit technology in the My Epic app. It provides the optimal length, width and arch height of boots, with personalized insoles.
“My Epic Gear is a membership program that provides the benefits of gear ownership but with more choices and lower cost — a breakthrough in both the access economy and ski and ride industry. In a growing digital economy, choice, value and convenience are key, and My Epic Gear is the answer to that demand,” McDonald said.
While more than 12 million people ski and snowboard in North American annually, they only average four to six days a year on the mountain. Yet more than half of them own their own gear, McDonald said.
“Most gear sits in storage, idle and untuned. Up until now, only two gear solutions existed: rent or own. Vail Resorts imagined a third solution — My Epic Gear — a membership model that eliminates the need for skiers or riders to ever step foot in a store,” McDonald said.
As members choose their gear online, the company will track the type of gear they select and how they use it, in order to manage the rental inventory.
Of course, My Epic Gear isn’t the end of the company’s innovation. Vail Resorts continues to invest in technology. It recently announced My Epic Assistant, which provides mountain information, powered by artificial intelligence and resort experts, to guests.
However, it won’t be available at Park City Mountain this coming season. Much like My Epic Gear, it will start at Vail Mountain, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone in 2024/25.
From there, the company plans to “significantly expand the My Epic Assistant technology to provide proactive, personalized recommendations and reminders based on an individual’s unique itinerary and preferences, as well as offer always-on booking and itinerary support,” McDonald said.
“While this recognition (by Fast Company) honors our reimagination of the gear business with My Epic Gear, and reimagining how technology can improve the guest experience with Mobile Pass and Mobile Lift Tickets, to me, it is about our culture. Innovation cannot flourish unless it has the cultural environment to foster new ideas, risk taking and collaboration across every resort and every function to bring it to life,” Lynch wrote to employees in a company email. “This recognition is about the culture we have collectively created and your leadership to foster an environment every day that allows innovation to flourish.”