Everyone loves an end of the year round up and I love spraying my opinions about gear on the internet (and the chairlift, beware if you end up next to me). I really appreciate when a brand goes out of its way to make a ski a piece of art and puts effort into designing good top sheets.
So I'd like to take this opportunity to finally use my art degree (Sidebar— I would absolutely KILL to design a ski top sheet, so if anyone's looking...) in the ski industry and bring you the five coolest top sheets of 2024.
Before we get into it, I want to say that while I love a good top sheet, I don't buy skis based on it. Maybe this is obvious, but I'll say it anyways— cool top sheets do not always mean good skis. Or that you'll like the ski. Or whatever the measure is.
These are just my subjective opinions that do not necessarily reflect that of the rest of the POWDER staff's, and potentially don't reflect my opinion of the ski itself from a performance standpoint.
Call me biased because the Hoji's might be my favorite ski of all time, but the 2024/25 Hoji's also have a really sweet top sheet. The skis are part of Eric Hjorleifson's collection with 4FRNT, and are a 112mm underfoot, reverse cambered, backcountry machine.
I ski the 2023/24 Hoji's pretty darn regularly and I love the top sheets, but the 2024/25 version is extra special because the graphics were designed by 4FRNT's art director, Harrison Johnson.
Part of Johnson's job is to find artists to work like Subterranean Prints who designed the top sheet for the Raven's or Skyline Printworks who designed the top sheets for the MSP CC's. I like a lot of 4FRNT's top sheets so I know Johnson has good taste, but it's really cool to see his work featured as well. Johnson also designed the top sheet for the 2023/24 InThayne.
Icelantic is another brand known for having really beautiful skis. This year, the Maiden 102 in particular blew me away. Icelantic totally redesigned the ski itself this year by doubling the camber height and adding carbon stringers for a more fun and functional ski. Designed by Travis Parr, the artwork pays homage to the American west and tries old poster-style illustrations. Icelantic also sells prints of the artwork on their skis, so even if you're not in the market for new sticks, you can still admire the graphics.
The K2 Reckoners are the skis of choice for a lot of their freeride athletes like Colby Stevenson and Addie Rafford. They come in a handful of widths, and for 2024/25, all the top sheets have a similar vibe to them with wiggly, rainbow graphics on top of a muted dyed-looking background.
Out of all of them, I liked the graphic on the 124 the best. I wasn't able to find much information about the artist, but for some bonus artistic expression, a bunch of the K2 athletes made Spotify playlists last year. I'm a big fan of Addie Rafford's and Maggie Voisin's, but like I said, it's all subjective anyway.
I feel like the Revolt top sheets have been a bit hit or miss over the last couple years, but I really like what they did with the 121 for the 2024/25 season.
Another wide freeride ski (I guess powder skis have more graphics real estate), the Revolts were designed by notable Volkl athletes Markus Eder, Paddy Graham, Fabio Studer, Colter Hinchliffe, Tanner Rainville, Sam Smoothy, Tom Ritsch and Volkl's product engineers.
Again, there wasn't much info available on the art, but the graffiti inspired graphic with complementary shades of orange and purple to pop look great in photos, and would be easy to find if under deep snow.
All three skis in the Faction Prodigy lineup this year were designed by Colorado artist and skier, Elsa Grace. Grace is perhaps best known for starting the apparel brand (and movement) Slut Strand Society (SSS).
SSS sought to reclaim the term 'slut strand' as a way to celebrate the women in skiing and snowboarding, sometimes only identifiable in their ski gear by two strands of hair peeking out from our helmets. Grace's signature style can be found on on 3 models of the Faction Prodigy and they're super pretty.
I'm gonna be honest, I don't have a lot to say about this except that Line made freaking cheetah print skis and I love them. That's some serious hot girl sh*t.
Be the first to read breaking ski news with POWDER. Subscribe to our newsletter and stay connected with the latest happenings in the world of skiing. From ski resort news to profiles of the world’s best skiers, we are committed to keeping you informed.
More must-reads:
Get the latest news and rumors, customized to your favorite sports and teams. Emailed daily. Always free!