This probably should have happened sooner (you may have noticed we were not dancing the streets in celebration of Kingpins this past season), but at least it happened. What’s disconcerting about this (and many other recalls) is it places the onus on the retailer to verify bindings for model year, remove the toe unit from the ski — and do the shipping and receiving. Presumably without compensation for the extra man hours. No happy campers on this one. For exact identification, the Marker website is helpful. We won’t waste bandwidth detailing here. What I can not for the life of me figure out is why or how this sort of thing escaped quality control testing. I’ve been to the Marker development facility in Germany. The diligent engineers I met were no strangers to testing machinery. If anything comes to light I’ll edit this post.
Following is the communique from Marker that’s been making the rounds.
Dear Valued Marker Customer:
Quality, safety and performance are of utmost importance to us and to our customers, and we are writing to inform you that we have identified a situation involving certain 2017/2018 model Kingpin bindings that has prompted us to initiate a voluntary recall.Marker USA is voluntarily recalling all 2017/2018 Kingpin bindings because of possible breakage of pins in the toe, which may lead to lower release forces and a potential fall hazard. Please stop using these bindings immediately and return them to your nearest Marker Authorized Retailer, who will inspect them to determine if they are among those being recalled. If your bindings are affected by the recall, your retailer will obtain a return authorization to send them back to Marker, at which point new toe pieces will be shipped to the shop at no cost to you. Your Marker Authorized Retailer should be your main point of contact for this free service, but if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at (800) 453-3862 from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern time.
You can also email us at kingpin.exchange@mdv-usa.com.
Additional information is available on the Marker web site at the link below:
https://www.marker.net/en-us/support/recall/
This voluntary recall is in cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and we thank you for being a Marker customer.
Sincerely,
Your Marker Team
8 comments
It’s about time. I have a pair from year 2. Even though they don’t fall within the recall, I’m not sure I trust them.
Don’t get why people constantly have such a hard on for the Kingpin when it’s had tons of recalls (and wasn’t there a small lawsuit) + there is the Vipec and Tecton out there. Both of those are lighter and the Tecton has both toe and heel elasticity + adjustable release values for both.
” What I can not for the life of me figure out is why or how this sort of thing escaped quality control testing. ”
What I have seen from the locals who use/abuse Kingpin :
some pins fell out of the arms in the 1st Kingpins, Marker changed how the pins were anchored in the arms, after that Kingpin seemed pretty bomber thru the 16/17 season, I had ski buds big and small using
them hard on and off the hill, Kingpin seemed like the holy grail
The broken pins started showing up early in the 17/18 season and didn’t let up, a local big guy broke 4 last season, a group of ski buds broke 5 in a weekend,
so from my perspective the failures were somehow DELAYED which continues to puzzle me?
The local dealer seemed to be replacing broken parts thru the 17/18 season no questions asked
I give Marker credit for at least formally issuing a recall
We were in the Father Dyer Postal Race last April and had to drop out. One of the toe pins on my partners Kingpins sheered off just before starting up East Ball. We macgyvered his shovel blade to his boot and were able to make it to the top and he skied down on 1 ski for a while. What a pain and it was really nice snow on East Ball. It snowed about a foot the night before. Plus the wasted entry fees. Thanks a lot Marker. We still had fun, it’s a great race.
Now, my Kingpin breakage story continues. After breaking (what was I believe) the 14/15 version last year and getting it replaced for 16/17 one (not within the scope of the above-mentioned recall), the latter broke just after approx. 25 ski days. That’s a total loss of confidence for me as there will be no 3rd try.
Shall the new model be called the dead alpinist?
I will acknowledge your pissedoffedness
but inquiring minds want to know exactly what failed ?
What has the world of tech bindings come to, when our strongest praise for a company is their willingness to do recalls? A plea to the ski touring binding industry: enough. Lou
@XXX_er: that tiny, insignificant pin is what fails, i.e. breaks clean of the jaws with no prior warning. And believe me that I was monitoring those suckers on a regular basis.
No intent to spam wildsnow, so slightly more background can be found starting from my Dec 25th post: https://www.wildsnow.com/14684/marker-kingpin-ski-touring-backcountry-binding/