Dynastar's mustache

If you are a serious skier, you must know Dynastar skis and you may have noticed the famous “mustache” that serves as its logo. If you have and are reasonably curious you might have asked yourself why a
mustache?

The answer is complicated and is in fact related to the place where that ski company was founded and still is headquartered.

The town is Sallanches, in the northern French Alps, a small city of 16,000 people, facing Mt. Blanc and with a coat of arms that depicts the meeting point between two of its brooks, one called Frasse and the other Sallanche, both forming a “V” at their confluence.

This has been seen by some as a “V” for victory or as the symbol of the massive mountain that frames the valley. At the turn of the century, the term "mustache" has been abandoned in favor of "peak" that stands for the mountains surrounding Sallanches and the towering Mt. Blanc in particular.

Well, I suspect that Mr. Claude Joseph, one of the founder of the ski brand who was also extremely creative in the branding department (i.e. Dynastar = Dynamic + Starflex), turned that “V” on its head and voilà!, the famous Dynastar mustache was born!