He uses the word himself repeatedly: Unbelievable. Yes, it is hard to believe that a Czech downhill skier will win a World Cup race, especially in a speed discipline, but Jan Zabystřan managed to do it at the end of last year. But what preceded the triumph is equally hard to believe.
“This is really a Hollywood story,” says manager David Novák. “Four years ago, Honza maneuvered: Will I finish? Won’t I finish? Then he happened to meet Tomáš Němec in the Ore Mountains, and he said to him: Hey, give it another try. You’ll get the maximum, one hundred percent support from us, which top racers have. But you have to be serious. So Honza went for it.”
None of this would have happened if one of the richest Czechs did not love skiing and if he did not decide to devote himself to it as a business.
That’s why we’re sitting outside Prague, it’s bitterly cold outside, and in David Novák’s office there are several shiny pairs of Kästle skis leaning against the wall. This very traditional and at the same time almost doomed brand was acquired by billionaire Tomáš Němec in 2017.
“He already had a factory in Nové Město na Moravě and a distribution company, so it was decided whether we would create our brand from the Czech Sporten, or would it be better to invest in an existing big brand,” explains David Novák, who has been working as a manager in Němc’s company since 2009.
That’s why he knows the boss well, after all, he was at the negotiations when Tomáš Němec bought Kästle from the Austrian industrialist Rudolf Knünz. Moreover, the German is one of the most silent among Czech billionaires, he avoids the media.
Tomáš Němec and Kästle | Sport CZ
- Tomáš is German Czech businessman and investorwhose biggest deal was the sale of a stake in the Czech Rubber Company. Last year, Forbes magazine estimated his assets at 16.5 billion crowns.
- In his youth, he skied competitively and is also involved in this sport in business. He bought in 2017 the famous Kästle brandbut it also owns the Czech Sporten, a large factory for the production of skis and other equipment in Nové Město na Moravě, and the distribution company LevelSportKoncept.
- “Historically, all major companies from Salomon to Rossignol and Fischer had their skis manufactured in Nové Město na Moravě,” explains David Novák, who runs LevelSportKoncept and the store in Kästle.
- Since 2022, he has been riding Kästle skis Czech star Ester Ledecká.
“When we bought Kästle, it produced some 12,000 to 13,000 pairs of skis a year. Today, we are at 55,000 pairs per year, and the goal is to produce 100,000 to 120,000. We need to double our growth,” smiles Novák, head of sales at Kästle GmbH and also head of the German distribution company LevelSportKoncept.
Kästle was literally grinding its edge under the ownership of the Italian Benetton, from where Knünz bought them out and then left further development to the German. Toni Sailer, Kjetil André Aamodt and Pirmin Zurbriggen once rode on Kästle, and the skiing community had them firmly connected to Austria.
“However, over time, they perceive that we are a Czech brand,” says Novák, which is helped by the owner himself. The German can be seen at the races, and he certainly doesn’t just sit in the VIP areas: “He likes it, he wants to be there, he supports the competitors right from the bottom of the hill. If needed, he will bring them skis. He is impeccable in this.”
How to achieve the incredible
The idea that champions would ride Kästl seemed like a dream at the time of the German’s acquisition, but it has become a reality. Ester Ledecká wins them, the elite riders also include the Slovenian Ilka Štuhecová or the Swiss Jasmine Flury and Janine Schmittová. The men’s component is now star-represented by Jan Zabystřan, who won the super-G race in Val Gardena on December 19.
The skis went like a slingshot. I feel like it’s shedding nicely under my feet.
“Really incredible,” Novak repeats. “After Tomáš Němec convinced him, it was possible to arrange through the German association that they took him in and he can train with them. This undoubtedly benefited him enormously. I hope he stays healthy. If so, then I and all of Kästle are convinced that he will be able to do it again. He is talented and good enough that it will come again. He has what it takes!”
And the Czech ski brand obviously has what it takes to play in the highest possible league. Even Novák admits that the response to Zabystřan’s victory was out of line.
“We heard: You’re back,” he interprets. “It resonates tremendously in world skiing.”
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Ester Ledecká wins on inherited skis! When manager David Novák remembers that, he just shakes his head. After Ledecka’s triumph at the PyeongChang Olympics, there was a rumor that its then partner Atomic handed over the skis to the Czech Republic after the American star Shiffrin.
“But it’s not like that at all. Only Shiffrin was the first to come to the bigger pile,” Novák explains. This is also how it works at Kästl: after careful testing, top competitors get to choose from several hundred pairs of skis that seem to be the most suitable. “The number one chooses maybe twenty pairs, followed by the two, then the three,” explains Novák. “Each company has a ranking of its top competitors. Race skis are always made the same way, it’s mainly a matter of tuning. If the wood is hard or soft, how many titanium plates you put, what the slide will be, how the ski is prepared for the race. And everyone chooses what suits them best.”
At Kästle, in addition to Ledecka, the elite group that chooses first also includes the Slovenian Ilka Štuhecová and the Swiss Jasmine Flury, among the men Jan Zabystřan is the clear number one.
Ledecká was already won by Kästle as an Olympic champion, while Štuhecová was a world champion. Zabystřan’s feat in life showed that Kästle knows how to pick a winner. Someone who can think of an Olympic medal, after all, the Milano Cortina Games are approaching.
“The Olympics is the most, certainly in the world of skiing,” adds Novák. “Even when Tomáš Němec bought Kästle, his vision and wish was that he wanted to have a medal from the Olympics. It would be a great satisfaction for the entire investment, for the brand and for him personally.”
In this, they experience an emotional roller coaster at Kästle. At its peak was a geyser of joy from Zabystřan’s career breakthrough – and on the other side, the necessity to accept Ledecka’s decision, which, due to the Olympic deadline conflict, preferred the snowboard race to the downhill.
“On a human level, we all understand that she wants to snowboard. She feels that she has a chance to become a third Olympic champion, if she can do it, she will make history. Who among you has that?” Novák smiles. “At the same time, we won’t hide that it would be better for Kästle if she did both races. Downhill skiing is, after all, incomparable in its size.”
At the same time, Ledecká finished third in the super-G World Cup race on January 18.
“So the chance of success is here as well. And quite high,” says Novák.
In theory, a medal for Ledecká or Štuhecová is close – and yet it is still so far away. “You need a top athlete equipped with top material, who must deliver top performance and be lucky. One race, one moment, you have no more chances,” says Novák. “You’ve got to come up with this. But yes, we’ve done our best to support the athletes. So we’re as close as anyone.”
Dear merchant, we are back
Everyone else, this means brands such as Atomic, Rossignol, Salomon, Head, Fischer. These are the TOP 5 world ski manufacturers. An elite that Kästle does not even want to relate to.
“Atomic sells roughly 750,000 pairs of skis a year. We don’t need that, that’s not our strategic goal,” says the manager of one of the richest Czechs. “But then you have a lot of well-known brands that have many times lower sales, but are still very interesting. We would like to be stable among them. They include Blizzard, Völkl, Nordica, and above all Stöckli, which is a challenge for us.”
And that brings us right back from business to athletes. Stöckli is matched by Swiss champion Marco Odermatt.
“She does them a huge service. An icon. When someone goes to get their skis, they immediately jump in: Odermatt rides it,” says Novák, and when compared to Ledecka, he admits: “Ester has a great sound, she’s a big personality, everyone knows her in the Czech Republic. But does it mean that if you say Ester, Kästle jumps out at you? There’s no such connection at first.”
The German brand still has a lot of work ahead of it. But Kästle’s ambitions are not only about having an absolute racing top in the stable.
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Less than three million pairs of skis are sold worldwide. The number doesn’t change that much, the trends do. “Especially in some countries, people no longer want to own skis, but prefer to rent them. This does not mean that fewer will be sold, but the percentage distribution is completely different. In France, for example, 80 percent of skis go to rental shops and only 20 percent to classic retail,” says David Novák.
“Our big goal is to break through in the USA, where the impact of athletes is minimal,” Novák compares. “Unless it’s Mikaela Shiffrin or Lindsey Vonn, but even with those, the average NBA basketball player will generally be more familiar to Americans. There you need different skis, ones that you like at first sight. It’s a little more consumerist than in Europe.”
In it, German-speaking countries represent the holy grail for ski manufacturers.
“Austria, Switzerland, Germany, we absolutely have to be successful there,” adds Novák.
Kästle is not a billionaire’s toy. In a rare interview for Premium Ski magazine, Tomáš Němec described that he has been skiing since 1969, but would he subsidize the skiing branch of his business like Daniel Křetínský subsidized football Sparta?
“Not at all, he definitely doesn’t have Kästle just for fun,” replies Novák without hesitation. “We are a functional company, we have plenty and plenty of work ahead of us to be even more successful. At the same time, it is 100 percent true that without his passion we would not be able to listen like this. He wants to work in this industry and he wants to be successful in it.”
Like Ledecká, like Zabystřan, like Štuhecová.
Ideally soon, on the Olympic medal podiums.
“And we have to be able to grasp the success of Zabystřanov in terms of marketing,” concludes Novák. “To have persuasive arguments: Dear businessman, we are really back, we have gold in the World Cup, and you start selling our skis when you see what’s going on.”
