Sidecut Tuning Launches in the Club Store

Published by Kyle Watson on March 25, 2021March 25, 2021

Long time ADL premier partner SIDECUT has just launched in the club online store with preferred club pricing available to all members. Products can now be purchased and shipped direct from the USA instead of Canada with faster service, no duties or taxes and even the option for local pickup from our headquarters in Bellevue.

Available Online With Fast, Free Shipping & Local Pickup!

“Sidecut designs the highest quality tools & provides professional free tuning videos and workshops enabling skiers & snowboarders to reach their maximum potential”.

ADL & SIDECUT A Shared Passion For The Sport

Chris Hillier, Founder of Sidecut and ADL Commish Kyle Watson first met almost six years ago at the Summer Fun Nationals in Mt Hood, Oregon. Chris was introducing his innovative tools to the US Masters racers and we were immediately impressed with their design, function and Chris’s vast knowledge of the art  of ski tuning From that first meeting, I knew Chris’s passion for all aspects of the sport from his history as a WC coach, traveler and die hard lust for skiing would lead us to collaborate. We started with some club tuning clinics, discounts on Sidecut and even explored Austria together, with Chris sharing some of his favorite secret spots with us for our Austria DreamTrip. Club members have attended his tuning demos and even some of his coaching clinics over the years…

Chris and Sidecut have cooperated with the club over the years with fantastic tuning clinics held for members at the club headquarters and at our beer partner Lagunitas Brewing headquarters in Seattle. Chris believes strongly in educating skiers to get the most out of their equipment and through well tuned skis comes a higher level of skiing and in turn, more fun. Almost every Sidecut tool listed on the site comes with an accompanying how to video which clearly demonstrates how to use each tool. Sidecut also has a whole education video series on tuning skis A to B.

Chris Hillier’s Story

Sidecut was born from humble beginnings in a high-end precision machine shop in Waterloo, Ontario. Founder Chris Hillier, the son of an engineer went to his father with an idea to design some tools to tune skis. Hillier spent the summer nights of 1992 turning out parts on his families CNC machinery. Sidecut was conceived.

Soon after Chris moved to Invermere, BC to commence the formative years of an illustrious 25 year coaching career, during which time he simultaneously started selling his new designs to Western Canadian ski clubs and coaches. Sidecut was born.

In 1995 Sidecut relocated to ski mecca – Whistler, BC. Year by year Sidecut expanded its product range and became a household name amongst a niche community of competitive skiers in the West. It wasn’t long before the name Sidecut became synonymous with the highest quality ski tools.

For the next 20 years, Chris was passionately dedicated to the athletes and coaches he was training and educating. At the same time, he embarked on a quest to refine and grow his range of tuning products. Chris spent two decades coaching elite athletes in Europe, Scandinavia and the Southern Hemisphere. During this time, Chris learned from some of the best and cataloged his ideas.

Fast forward to 2013 – Hillier took a break from the whirlwind, world-wide 100,000+ mile-a-year global travel lifestyle to return to his roots in Whistler and focus solely on his company. Being a coaching educator, it made sense to him to not only produce the best tuning tools in the industry but also to teach people how to use them. During this period of incubation, Sidecut ‘learn to tune’ workshops were born. Hillier began visiting local ski clubs. Through word of mouth referrals, news of his sessions spread quickly and he was soon offering workshops as far East as Newfoundland. “Old school” marketing he called it.

Sidecut workshops have catapulted across Canada’s skier community and are expanding globally. Hillier has recently put together a clever team of experts that have unveiled Sidecut as a new brand on a global scale. However, the founder’s original vision to design the highest quality tuning tools and provide the knowledge that snow-sport enthusiasts need to reach their maximum potential, remains intact.