Dave Jacobs - Downhiller, coach, product design pioneer, entrepreneur

David L. Jacobs, Canadian downhiller and coach, and a pioneer of product design, died at his home in Boulder, Colorado, on June 28, 2026, at age 92.

Born October 1, 1933, in Montreal, Canada,  Jacobs began skiing at age thirteen and racing at eighteen. Victories in downhill at the Quebec Kandahar and the Canadian Championships earned him a place on Canadian team for the 1958 FIS World Ski Championships in Bad Gastein, but a broken leg in training ended his season.  Jacobs then went to St. Lawrence University and raced to championships on the university circuit,  while continuing on the Canadian Ski Team roster until 1961.  He graduated from St Lawrence with a degree in mathematics in 1963 and spent a year studying engineering at MIT, but dropped out to seek a career in skiing, first directing a ski school in the Laurentians and then helping to design and manage the new Talisman ski area in Ontario.

Jacobs became convinced that the Canadian Ski Team should be based at a university where athletes could train, race and get an education.  Others felt the same. A base was found at Notre Dame University of Nelson, BC and Dave was hired as its first full-time head coach. In addition to coaching, Jacobs taught freshman math. (See The Nelson Camps, Jan-Feb 2022 issue.) 

In the winter of 1965, the Canadian Ski Team raced in Western Canada and the US, with great success.  Sports Illustrated featured the new program with a headline "Canadians Raid Aspen" as Rod Hebron, Peter Duncan, and Nancy Greene won events at the Roch Cup against a strong international field. It was a harbinger of future success.   

The following winter, Bob Lange asked Jacobs if the Canadians would test his new plastic boots, and sent several pairs. “They were pretty bad,” Jacobs recalled. He sent Lange a memorandum of necessary changes, including raising the heel to create a ramp angle and locking the ankle hinge to stiffen flex. Limited sizes of the redesigned Lange Comp arrived at a training camp at Mt. Hood in June and were adopted by the athletes who fit. Jacobs invited Lange to travel with the team to the 1966  World Championships in Portillo in August, and then traveled to Lange’s factory in Dubuque, Iowa, to help engineer improvements.

At Portillo, the French team dominated race results, but the Lange Comp attracted a lot of interest. While reluctant to give up coaching, Jacobs accepted an offer to work for Lange. The first task was to set up a manufacturing plant in Montreal, the Lange-Jacobs Corp., to bypass European tariffs on American sporting goods. That winter, Nancy Greene won the inaugural World Cup season, in Lange Comps. With the worldwide success of the boot, in 1969 Jacobs merged his Canadian factory into the Lange Corporation, and moved to the new factory in Broomfield, Colorado, as vice president and Board member.

By 1972, Lange’s misadventure with Lange-flo led to huge warranty costs and financial disaster. Jacobs departed Lange, and launched a new business from his kitchen table. The new Jacobs Corp. sold a line of skiwear for kids under the Hot Gear label. It was an overnight success and led, in 1978, to the launch of Spyder skiwear, marketed initially via mail order to ski racers of all ages. Within two years, sales zoomed past six figures; by 1989 Spyder was the prime skiwear supplier to the U.S. Ski Team. In 2004 Jacobs sold the company to the British equity firm Apax Partners, for a reported $100 million. He stayed on as chair and president, relinquished day-to-day management in 2010, and retired for good in 2013. Jacobs then raced vintage sports cars, campaigning a 1971 Chevron B19 – one of only 35 built – to victories in races around the world. 

Jacobs is survived by his wife of 34 years, Jean Conway Jacobs; six children: Jake, Billy, Tracey, Kelly, Lara, and Marissa; eleven grandchildren, with one more expected; and two great-grandchildren.

A Celebration of Life will be held on October 11, 2026, at the Jewish Community Center in Boulder, Colorado. For more information, please email kelly.parcell@gmail.com

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Canadian Ski Hall of Fame (https://ski museum.ca/become-a-patron-or-donate/ donate-personal/).