Explore the Features of 5ive Sports Bindings
Somewhere in East Tyrol’s Hohe Tauern range, Markus Steinke clicks into a binding that looks wrong. The toe piece is minimal – three pins jutting from a compact metal housing. The heel resembles an alpine binding, substantial and mechanical. It’s December, and he’s testing prototypes on slopes where Austria’s highest peaks cast long shadows across the snow.
The binding works. But working is only step one. Making it, certifying it, shipping it to the 299 people who backed the Kickstarter campaign – that’s where things get complicated.
Steinke has tried this before.
The First Attempt
In 2014, Steinke had an idea. He was already known in small ski-building circles – Mountain Wave and Skylotech frames carried his handiwork – but bindings were different. Bindings kept people attached to skis while somehow knowing when to let go.
His concept was elegant: combine a pin system for efficient touring with an alpine jaw for confident descents. He called it the Pindung (a strange mashup of “pin” and “binding”) and founded Bavarian Alpine Manifest, or B.A.M., to build it.
The October 2015 crowdfunding campaign validated the idea. He raised 50,000 euros through Startnext, then another 70,000 from silent partners. By September 2015, he had 3D-printed prototypes on snow in New Zealand.
Then came the reality. At ISPO 2016, the Munich trade show where ski manufacturers preview their wares, B.A.M. showed up without a functioning heel piece. They’d discovered their chosen plastic wasn’t strong enough. Market entry postponed.
Meanwhile, Salomon was working on something similar. Their Shift binding, in development since 2012, reached market in 2018. Backed by Amer Sports and seven years of refinement, it became the reference point for hybrid touring bindings.
The Pindung eventually launched in November 2019. By then, the market had moved on. At roughly 1,300 grams in touring mode, it was heavier than competitors like the Marker Kingpin (775g) and Fritschi Tecton (682g). The Shift weighed 886 grams and had Salomon’s distribution behind it.
Steinke had built a working binding. He just couldn’t get it to market fast enough or light enough to matter.
The New Team
Five years later, Steinke is trying again. This time, he’s in Lienz, the capital of East Tyrol, partnered with people who know manufacturing.
The team is three: Steinke brings binding expertise and hard-won lessons. Lukas Jungmann, an industrial designer who co-founded the Aberjung design agency in nearby Dölsach, brings manufacturing connections and design credentials – including Austria’s State Prize for Design in 2011. Hans Dröge handles supply chain, addressing what killed B.A.M.: the gap between prototype and production.
They’re calling the company 5ive Sports. The binding is the First.Era, listed at 450 grams for the standard version, 230 grams for the ultra-light model. Both are made entirely from metal – stainless steel and aluminum.
The Kickstarter campaign ran from December 6, 2024, to January 18, 2025, seeking 50,000 euros. It closed with 74,986 euros from 299 backers. Delivery is promised for October 2025, initially to Europe only.
What Makes It Different
The First.Era doesn’t look like other touring bindings. The toe piece uses three pins arranged in a triangle, different from Dynafit’s standard two-pin tech system. Marketing materials claim this is patented, though the functional advantage remains unclear.
The heel is where things get interesting. It’s built like an alpine binding – a turntable design with a 14 DIN rating and what 5ive Sports describes as “adjustable alpine-style vertical and lateral release.” That matters because most pin bindings release primarily in one direction. Catch an edge wrong, and they’re slow to let go laterally.
The weight tells the story: 450 grams puts it between full hybrid bindings like the Shift (886g) and lightweight options like the Marker Kingpin (775g) or Fritschi Tecton (682g). The ultra-light version at 230 grams approaches race-weight territory.
Forum discussions reveal confusion about the lateral release mechanism. The toe piece appears to lock the boot vertically with those three pins. If there’s no lateral release at the toe – and photos suggest there isn’t – then all lateral release happens at the heel. That’s how alpine bindings work, but it’s unusual for a pin touring binding.
There’s no indication whether First.Era will pursue DIN certification, the TÜV stamp that verifies international safety standards. Only the Fritschi Tecton has achieved this among bindings with pin-style toe pieces. Salomon’s Shift, Marker’s Duke PT, and CAST avoid the issue by using alpine-style toe pieces for descent mode.
What we don’t have is independent testing. The only people who’ve skied these bindings are the designers themselves. Weight claims can be verified with a scale. Performance claims require snow, skiers, and enough units to establish patterns.
The all-metal construction – no plastic anywhere, even in the brake arms – is a genuine differentiator in an industry that defaults to plastic for weight savings. Whether it translates to better durability or downhill performance remains to be seen.
The Skeptics and the Stakes
The response to First.Era has been mixed. Online forums like TGR and Newschoolers show intrigue tempered by wariness. The main concerns are technical: How does lateral release actually work? Will those toe pins bend during aggressive skiing? Can a small company deliver a safety-critical product at scale?
Some recognize Steinke from B.A.M. and give him credit for persistence. Others see that history as a red flag. The Kickstarter’s success was real but modest – validation without hype.
The broader question is whether small binding companies can survive. The market is dominated by brands with massive R&D budgets and established distribution. Recent history isn’t encouraging. B.A.M. struggled. G3’s ION binding got acquired and discontinued. Plum remains niche.
5ive Sports has advantages B.A.M. didn’t: better team structure, manufacturing partnerships established, and a more refined design before going public. But they’re attempting something harder – a hybrid design that bridges categories while hitting aggressive weight targets.
The October 2025 timeline gives them ten months from Kickstarter close to shipping. That’s aggressive but possible if manufacturing is ready. B.A.M.’s delays came from material failures and production struggles. If 5ive has solved those problems upfront, the timeline might hold.
October’s Reckoning
By October, we’ll know if Markus Steinke figured it out. Manufacturing at scale. Safety verification. Quality control for a product where failure means broken bones.
This is his second attempt, maybe his last. The ski binding market doesn’t offer many redemption arcs. Companies that survive are either big enough to absorb failures or lucky enough to avoid them.
If 5ive Sports delivers, it suggests there’s still room for small manufacturers willing to take genuine technical risks. If they don’t, it reinforces what many already suspect – that binding innovation belongs exclusively to corporations with deep pockets and long timelines.
Back on the mountain in East Tyrol, Steinke clicks out of the First.Era prototype. The test run went well. Tomorrow there will be more testing, more refinement, more questions about whether the design can survive not just one skier but hundreds.
The mountains don’t care about backstory or whether this is attempt one or attempt two. They care whether the binding works when it needs to and lets go when it should.
Steinke shoulders his skis and starts the walk back. Ten months until delivery. The counting has already started.
