4FRNT Skis Founder Matt Sterbenz Returns To The Iconic Brand
When Matt Sterbenz was forced to sell the ski brand he founded in 2002, he had one overarching desire for 4FRNT skis: He wanted the brand he created to live on.
The sale happened in a somewhat convoluted series of events better suited for a business publication than a ski one, and Sterbenz had other hopes—such as that Eric Hjorliefson would continue to be a driving voice. But everything hinged on finding a buyer who would keep the brand from falling into extinction.
That wish came true in 2020, when a trio of businessmen met at a networking event at which skiing was an activity, and bonded over the fact that all three were on 4FRNTs. When they learned the brand they loved was for sale, they collectively bought it. Sterbenz, meanwhile, got a job with the bio-tech company Checkerspot and famously launched their proof-of-concept brand WNDR Alpine. In 2024, he was let go as part of a company reorganization.
Now, Sterbenz is back where he belongs, and in a role he relishes: not as an executive or as the do-everything company owner that earned him the title of Ski-EO in a Powder profile that ran in the late aughts, but rather, back in the role that convinced him to launch the brand in the first place: as a skier.
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When he lost his job at WNDR, Sterbenz says his first call was to 4FRNT’s owners. “It was just to say that I was available,” he says. “And that I was not going to pursue another job with a ski company.” It took a little bit of time, Sterbenz says, but eventually he got a call back, and the process of bringing the founder home was underway.
“I’m beyond excited to welcome back Matt Sterbenz, the founder of 4FRNT and a true pioneer of freeskiing, to serve as a conduit in connecting our past to the future of the brand,” says 4FRNT brand manager Sam Kimmerle. “Matt will be returning to 4FRNT to share in the deeper narrative around 4FRNT’s why and its impact in shaping skiing.”
For Sterbenz, that means reuniting with the ski he launched the brand with—and his former pro model, the MSP. It’s a ski that he believes has a lot of unrealized potential. It remains one of 4FRNT’s best sellers (a designation that Kimmerle says toggles between the MSP, the Renegade, and the Devastator, depending on the year), but that has lacked the singular voice in design and marketing that most pro models have.
Kimmerle says Sterbenz’s 20-plus years of experience in ski design will also help bolster the brand’s entire line-up. “He will be working alongside Bob Boice, 4FRNT’s longtime engineer who designed many of 4FRNT’s most popular models, to refine and improve our product moving forward,” Kimmerle says.
The return of Sterbenz also allows 4FRNT to once again celebrate its rich history as a brand that rose out of freeskiing’s high-energy salad days. WNDR, Sterbenz said, was never intended to be a competitor with 4FRNT—or any brand, for that matter. It was launched to demonstrate that Checkerspot’s algae-based polyurethane technology works in hopes that it would be adopted by other ski manufacturers. But motivations aside, it’s difficult for a brand to tell its origin story when its founder is selling skis under a new banner.
4FRNT plans to formally announce Sterbenz’s return on November 5, 2025, at Fisher Brewing in Salt Lake City. The event will feature the debut of Mallory Duncan’s new film, LINES, a ski sale, and what is being billed as a “surprise premiere.” Spoiler alert: the surprise film is a Marcus Brown documentary featuring Sterbenz called Founder Story. It will be available on YouTube on November 6, 2025.
The location of the announcement and the premieres highlights another of Sterbenz’s initiatives: reestablishing a connection to Salt Lake City, where the brand was based during its most formative years. It’s a region and a community that Sterbenz feels is very influential and reputable.
“Matt will be spearheading a series of in-person demo events, starting with three this winter in the Utah area,” says Kimmerle. “These meet ups are more than just testing gear; it’s reuniting a community that has stood behind the brand for nearly 25 years.”
In a lot of ways, Sterbenz is returning to a company that is not all that different from the one he left behind. That initial call a year ago, he says, was not about offering advice or saying what he would do differently. “It was just saying thank you for honoring this brand and keeping it going,” he says.
“At the end of the day we are a small crew,” Kimmerle adds. “Five full-time employees who live and breath skiing, dedicated to building products that elevate people’s experiences in the mountains, just as Matt set out to do in 2002.”
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