Lutke’s Scale
At the end of a quiet hallway at Summit High School in Breckenridge, CO, away from the bustle and chatter of students, there is a classroom like few others. Open the door to the smell of ski wax and sawdust and inside you’ll find the high-pitched whine of a router, the buzz and chatter of a planer, the whir of a jigsaw and the laughter and conversations of 15 teenagers, all busy at work. Amid it all stands 40-year-old Thomas Lutke, dressed in a plaid flannel, worn Carhartt jeans and a Summit Skis hat. His dark hair and eyes and trademark handlebar mustache frame a giant smile.
Welcome to Lutke’s Ski Business and Manufacturing class, one of the few of its kind in the nation. The shop class combines ski tech, woodworking, art and graphic design, and teaches students marketing and entrepreneurial skills as they take their ideas from concept to design to finished product.
“They’re building more than a ski,” Lutke says. “They’re building a business.”
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