Trio of Colorado companies partner to upcycle skis, snowboards

DENVER, Colo. — Labor Day weekend unofficially marks the end of summer in Colorado. But it's also time to start thinking about the upcoming ski season.

Now, there's a place to retire your old skis when their run on the slopes end — and to be reused for other goods.

It's Colorado upcycling at its finest, thanks in part to Ridwell.

"Ridwell makes it easy to waste less," said Rebecca Hayes, the general manager of Ridwell's Denver metro operation. "We collect hard-to-recycle items from residents in the Denver and Boulder areas. We take plastic bags, food packaging, light bulbs, batteries, styrofoam, paint."

They also feature a monthly collection of specialty items, and for August it was skis, which they prefer to repurpose if possible.

"I reached out to Colorado Ski Chairs and said I know a bunch of people who have skis," Hayes said. "I said, 'Can you guys use them? Can we make this work?'"

Colorado Ski Chairs in Manitou Springs answered the call. They reuse old skis to make custom pieces of furniture.

"We make anything from tables, chairs, benches, birdhouses, ottomans," said Angel Romero, one of their employees. "We can make any colors."

"Some people come to us with a mountain range they want to see painted onto a ski back, and we'll paint that for them," said Julian Rivera, who also works at Colorado Ski Chairs.

The partnership opened the door for a third company to be involved in the process. Apres Ski Jewelry out of Golden takes ski scraps and turns them into fashion statements.

"I make jewelry out of small pieces of skis," said owner and founder Heather Mullins. "My most popular style is an earring called the Powder Hound."

She crafts each one by hand, looking for every ounce of life left in the worn-out works of art.

"This is the bottom sheet of a ski, that would be the core, and that would be the top sheet," Mullins said, pointing to her jewelry. "Every ski I cut into, I find some new image, color, or new quality, and I love to do that."

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