Not unlike other sporting material companies, ULLA was born from a desire to find a better way for athletes, coaches, and recreational skiers to wax.
ONCE A COACH, NOW A PRODUCT DEVELOPER
ULLA Co-Founder Claude Prica's journey started in the world of professional cross country ski coaching. For 20 years, Claude coached athletes at the highest level where coaches and technicians applied wax for hours on end, locked in wax rooms wearing gas masks and protective equipment.
As an advocate for clean sport, he knew there had to be a better, cleaner way. Upon retirement in Whistler, British Columbia, he set out on his own product research journey, testing waxes readily available on the market, and working to develop independent samples of a cleaner, easy application, durable wax that would last.
AN AVID SKIER LOOKING FOR A BETTER SOLUTION
Meanwhile, Co-Founder Jeff McMillan had taken the search for a cleaner wax option into the importing space, partnering with a European wax developer to be the sole Canadian distributor of their new 'easy application' wax out of Winnipeg, Manitoba.
This status put Jeff on Claude's radar and after a quick conversation, they found a kinship that would be the start of what is ULLA today. With Claude's natural curiosity and knack for wax composition and material understanding, and Jeff's determination to grow the market for a cleaner wax option amongst the cross country ski community, the partnership formed seamlessly.
A COLLECTIVE JOURNEY
With a clear direction and heart-set vision in mind, Claude and Jeff navigated their way through internal formula and product development, endless rounds of testing (and fun on the snow), brand positioning conversations, and everything else that comes with a startup. The 2018 winter season brought with it the launch of their first line of clean, easy application waxes, and specially designed and engineered application tools.
One season of testing on the market and the word was out - everyone wanted in on this new way of waxing. After some product adjustments and more testing, ULLA Sport was launched in 2019 with the backing of the local ski community and interest of national clubs.
BY SKIERS FOR SKIERS
Since then, they've chosen to keep R&D top priority - fine tuning the offering, the system, and filling the gaps with products like the NEW ULLA Race Line, and ULLA Liquid Race Speed to capture the needs of both nordic and alpine athletes.
Through it all, the ULLA team has been bounds ahead of the rest of the wax market thanks to the perspective that only skiers have - on the snow. ULLA products are developed by skiers for skiers, not chemists in a lab taking out-of-context direction.
FIGHTING AGAINST FLUOROCARBON
Thanks to our clean, safe approach to waxing, we're proud to be the non-fluorocarbon leader in the space as the ban on fluorocarbons comes into play at a national and international level.
"The reason I ski is to enjoy nature", says Claude, "I never want to feel like I'm harming that. I get cranky when I see litter on the trails and with fluorocarbon you're having the same effect... it's just not visible."
Today, ULLA is a complete waxing system, with product offerings for both cross country and downhill athletes. All clean, all safe, all fast. With waxes specially designed for every weather condition and snow type, our products have been catered to all athletes, of all levels, across the nation... and the world.
"We're excited to see the fruits of our labour after all the care we've put in. We hope you enjoy it."
- Claude & Jeff, Your ULLA Race Service Team
