Slingshot

History

Slingshot was founded 1999 by the Logosz brothers, Jeff and Tony. In 1998 One of Jeff’s friends was calling him to talk about a guy he had seen riding upwind with a kite and wakeboard, something no one ever had done before! The name of this guy was Lou Wainman and he is probably the main reason to why kiteboarding began to evolution to what it is today. Growing up around the ski slopes of Utah, Jeff and Tony were on a constant search for their next rush of adrenaline. No matter where you were around their property, there was always some crazy shit going down. “We were mad scientists of weird boards and weird shapes, human CNC machines. Every once in a while we found something that really worked. It has come such a long way, but at the same time... nothing has changed.”- Tony Logosz.

By this time Tony Logosz already had a company that was designing kiteboards so taking the step into designing kiteboarding equipment became natural. The two brothers didn’t want to interfere with Tony´s own company, so they decided to form a new company solely aimed for kiteboarding gear, and thus Slingshot was born!

Many of the windsurfing companies saw the potential in kiteboarding and also started to manufacture kitesurfing kites. These windsurfing companies already had an image and a legacy reputation that they had to honor. Slingshot was formed solely as a kiteboarding brand that could do whatever they wanted since they had nothing to lose and they had the freedom to create their own image.

Slingshot became an innovative and creative company that wasn’t afraid of doing any mistakes that could hurt their brand. For example they were the first company that actually put some graphics on their kites in the form of flames. This changed the game for kites to not only be functional but also aesthetically pleasing.

The first kite that Slingshot designed was the “Stealth” kite, a full size kite that was actually not that good and the guys at Slingshot realized this immediately. Slingshot learned a ton on this lesson and from that time sort of become obsessed with the quality of their products. They started doing massive changes to their kites and the R&D team were constantly testing prototypes. If something wasn’t top notch then they had to fix it!

The company grew from zero to one of the global kite companies and Slingshot has definitely helped the sport to develop to what it is today! After the Fuel came the RPM, a kite that once more made Slingshot the king of the market. This kite continues to be one of the best all-round kites there is which is also yearly revamped.

Slingshot has always had a drive for making the kitesurfing sport better, safer and still more extreme! Jeff and Tony instill that same spirit in the entire crew at Slingshot. We continue to experiment with new shapes, new toys and new technologies - all in an effort to find the next great adventure.

Vision

Can we be done trying to go the fastest or get the highest? Can life stop being one big contest of outdoing and one-upping? We never signed up for that. We aren’t in it to win it. We’re just in it. So let’s take a ride in a bear suit, wakeboard behind a horse, or kill a windless afternoon with a piece of cardboard and a grassy hill. Let’s build a boat out of milk jugs and water bottles, SUP our way down a Class III rapid or see what happens when we bolt a wing to the bottom of our kiteboard. While it’s sure to have its twists and turns, detours and dead ends, never be afraid of the road less perfect. It’s the only road that ever led to anything worth doing.

Ask almost any athlete why they ride, and it won’t be for the awards. They aren’t looking to be measured or scored, ranked or timed. They aren’t in it to conquer anything. They’re in it for the ride, the challenge and the rush of finding their own way and doing something no one else has done before. While we’ve had more than our fair share of kiteboarding world championships and trips to the podium, it’s never been about that - they are just cool bi-products of an idea to do something new and different.

Teamriders

https://www.slingshotsports.com/kite-global-team

Blog

Keep up with the adventure by following the blog at https://blog.slingshotsports.com

Events

Coming soon!