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Why Victor Wiacek started VIX
In 2019, a ski edge cut Victor’s femoral artery during a race. He couldn’t find protection he trusted, so he built it, then worked with FIS to create the test that now rates it.
February 3, 2019
The reason VIX exists.
In February 2019, Victor was racing GS for Babson College at West Mountain in upstate New York, going no more than 25 mph by his own estimate, when he fell across his own ski.
The edge cut his thigh to the bone and nicked his femoral artery. He lost about half the blood in his body within minutes, and survived because two coaches and a ski patroller got tourniquets on his leg on the hill.
“I practically rode the whole ski from tail to tip. My vision went red because there was blood on my goggles.”
After a transfusion and emergency surgery, he spent two months in a wheelchair.
2019 to 2020
The testing machine
When he was ready to return to snow, Victor bought every cut-resistant legging he could find. But there was no ski-specific certification proving any of them could withstand the forces of a real crash, so he built the world’s first ski-specific cut-resistance testing machine to find out.
None of the existing options proved strong enough. He couldn’t get back on skis knowing the same injury could happen again, so he decided to make his own.
In December 2019, on his first day back in slalom gates, his edge went through his pants, race suit and boot liner. It stopped at the leggings he had made.
After 220-plus fabrics and 22 versions of his testing machine, he had the first version of VIX: a cut-resistant undergarment that gave him peace of mind without changing how he skied.
2020 onward
Built with racers.
VIX left the workshop early. A small, waitlist-led launch in February 2020 drew hundreds of messages and orders. By that fall, athletes in the first versions were already showing up at the World Cup.
Paula Moltzan and Nina O’Brien helped inform the women’s design, and the racers who followed kept feeding the next round of testing: fit, coverage, mobility and feel.
Protection only works on the days it’s worn, so VIX spent years making protective fabric feel like a regular base layer. The testing never stopped: 387 fabric combinations and 29 testing machines to date.
“VIX leggings are by far the most cut-resistant and comfortable product out there. Athletes only stay safe if they wear it every time and with VIX, once the fit is right, they never take it off.”
2021 to 2027
The FIS standard
Victor filed a patent application on his machine, then sent the designs to FIS before the patent was finished. FIS built its own machine, inspired by his, and Victor worked with FIS to create the FIS-DITF 2021 test.
Then he spent years pressing FIS to make cut protection mandatory.
In 2025, VIX became the first brand to earn the maximum five-star FIS certification.
The first brand to earn the maximum five-star FIS certification
That same season, FIS introduced its first cut-resistant mandate. Beginning with the 2025/26 season, pants rated at least three stars became mandatory at the top levels of the sport, from the World Cup and Olympic Winter Games through the Continental Cups.
In 2026/27, the mandate expands to every FIS Alpine event, including Level 2+ races and FIS Masters.
By then, 75% of World Cup racers had already chosen VIX in 2025-26. VIX is an official supplier to the U.S. Ski Team, Ski Austria and Alpine Canada.
“This is the only injury we can virtually eliminate from the sport.”
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