Levinthal has been at the forefront of ski innovation since 1995, when he founded Line Skis and was later credited with bringing the first twin tip ski to market. Back then there was only a handful of small startup companies developing products for the burgeoning freeskiing movement. “Of those original brands [from the late-’90s and early 2000s], 4FRNT is the only one still privately owned. I truly believe it’s in the best interest of the entire industry to keep it that way, to make sure it doesn’t get into the wrong hands,“ said Levinthal.

Matt Sterbenz founded 4FRNT 15 years ago, and will remain with the company at its R&D facility in Salt Lake City. “I’ll never forget how influential Jason’s passion was for me early on with 4FRNT,” said Sterbenz. “Jason has been and remains to be a positive influence to me and I’m thrilled to now officially have the opportunity to work with him on growing 4FRNT.”

Levinthal currently owns and operates J skis, which manufactures limited edition skis and sells them directly to the consumer through jskis.com. He plans to incorporate best practices from J to benefit 4FRNT. “We’ll immediately ramp up brand awareness to match the demand it’s award-winning product deserves,” said Levinthal. “In the coming months we’ll exponentially increase all promotions, fast-tracking 4FRNT up to speed with today’s most advanced digital marketing techniques. It will also be very important to quickly improve behind-the-scenes operational efficiencies. We’ll gain immediate cost and time savings due to the now larger economies of scale by sharing proven operational systems between my two ski companies. I’ll of course be sure to respectfully keep the two brand’s identities, products and directions separate and unique as they currently are.”