Client Spotlight: Deorum Ski Co

Founder Ben Brough taking the iconic Apollo Freeride poles for a spin.

Deorum Ski Co is a Whistler-based company that designs winter essentials. The name itself comes from Latin’s word for ‘supreme being’, and is a nod to the brand’s drive to make products that are nothing but the best, and help to push skiers to perform at their best.  

We recently chatted with founder Ben Brough to learn more about how it all began, their biggest business challenges so far, and the advice he wishes he received when he was starting out.  

What is the origin story of Deorum Ski Co? 

Having spent 7 seasons in Whistler, and one in Revy, I used to find myself filming a lot on the hill, and was always sick of carrying extra kit to follow cam - especially when I had two perfectly good poles in my hands... This led me to invent the RAV (Rapid Video System) powder baskets, which I was testing and using for a few years.  

Co-founder JF has been in and out during the early stages of design for the RAV basket and formally got on board as we prepared our first production run and finalised tooling. He is a long time Sea to Sky local legend who rips on skis, works closely with me on product development, and is in charge of sales, business development, athlete management & plenty more. 

While working on the baskets, I rinsed a good few sets of adjustable poles. The same or similar issues kept on arising - the clamp glue would fail, or I couldn't get enough force through them and they would shrink on heavy 4-point landings, or they would catch on garments and pop open. A turning point for me was bombing Husume in whistler on a classic chalky day and ending up with half of my pole 100m up from me after slightly dragging a basket and the clamp glue failing. 

From here, I decided that it was time someone gave poles a bit of love, and I started working on the APOLLO FR. A bit of a perfect storm happened here with COVID kicking off - I was working for Prior at the time designing skis, ended up unemployed, so I had some time on my hands. From here, I went all in with design for manufacture and tooling investments.  

A couple years later, we got our shit together, got enough money to do a production run and got stock ready for winter. We have had two wicked winters, are now in 50+ stores in Canada, Japan & Korea, and heading into winter number three. 

What is the product you’re most proud of?  

The APOLLO FR! It solved so many issues that we had with current gear, and has been incredibly well received in the market. Key wins are being in multiple stores in Whistler, with incredible sell-through in shops like McCoo's, EVO Backcountry, Coastal Culture & TMC. 

Modular, repairable and replaceable is our mantra for our poles. We designed it to have maximum metal hardware with minimal amounts of glue. We did this to allow skiers to refurbish their gear when things get beat up, replace things like lowers that might get snapped in a crash, and recycle as many replaced parts as possible - this is one of the reasons that we make poles from 7075 alloy rather than carbon.  

The cherry on top for the Apollo FR is the compatibility with all of our aftermarket camera mounts - letting creatives take less gear with them on the hill or into the backcountry. We have mounts for GoPro, Insta360 and you can even slap a mirrorless camera on there and use it as a monopod. 

 Long story short: We set out to make something with bomber durability, easy customisation, and with a bunch of style, specifically designed for freeride skiers like ourselves who ski inbounds and out. 

What do we love about working & living in the Sea to Sky?  

Quality of life is top tier. Being able to ski, bike, hike, pretty much do anything in the outdoors every evening or weekend. This, combined with such an incredible community of like-minded people and businesses makes it a pretty special place. I think it is super unique to be in a community that is so influential in the outdoors market around the world - which is obviously amazing for people like us who are building a business in this space. 

What advice do you wish someone had given you when you got started?  

Good question as there is so much, but hard to pick just one. The biggest one for me would be something around doing one thing super well, the classic KISS [keep it simple, stupid] - don't try to spread yourself too thin with products or really large ideas. Every product or service adds so much complexity to your operations, so it is best to do one thing super well rather than many things half baked. 

What has been your biggest business challenge?  

The biggest challenge has been managing growth and cashflow. It is one thing to try and forecast how much something will cost, but things come up and it always costs more. For us, every year we have to front the money for our inventory, and then give payment terms to retailers - it means that we almost never have the money from B2B sales in our bank account as it's either tied up in inventory, or on payment terms with a store, and then the cycle repeats. 

This is where Community Futures stepped in and helped us get a loan to cover our shortfall for this year's growth. This is massive for us as getting a line of credit with a bank as a new business is super tricky, and Community futures terms are flexible so we could do something that wouldn't sink our business! 

How has Community Futures Howe Sound helped?  

The other thing that Community Futures helped with is contacts around the industry, such as programs to help with exporting etc. There are lots of compliance hoops to jump through with this, especially with what is going on in the states at the moment. We are looking to get into Europe for next winter, so having resources we can work with to get things moving is priceless and Kieran has been great with putting us in contact.  

Shout out if anyone knows good sales reps in Europe that want to take on wicked products, let us know. 

What are you most excited about for winter?  

POW! Can't wait for that big pow slash and first face shot of the season. Aside from this, it’s seeing product in stores again. We have revamped the APOLLO FR with new grip ergonomics for this winter, and updated a bunch of our accessories packaging, so we’re pretty pumped to see what this looks like in stores- seeing product in-store and on the hill is always a pretty wicked feeling. 

Are there any local businesses you particularly admire?  

There are a few that we really admire. OneUp Components have to take the cake as their whole story is kind of what inspired me to take the leap into business. They produce such awesome products and have the right attitude when it comes to life [work less, ride more]. Early on when I first moved to Whistler after uni Chris Heynen, one of the founders, gave me an afternoon of his time to go for a ride and give me career advice as I was a fresh-faced design graduate trying to break into the outdoors industrial design industry. Hearing about their story really planted the seed that business is possible, and making it here is something that is actually possible.  

The other business is the guys at RUX, mainly because the product is slick and I am a gear-head, so nerd out on this sort of stuff!!