When you watch a couple edits everyday, you sometimes don’t notice subtle changes to the products being used. But one little thing caught my eye in a couple different edits. In recent Nimbus Point and Shoot edits and some photos from TC adventures in Europe, you’ll notice a yellow piece at the top of their poles. Well we called up Line and asked them “What the hell are those yellow things?” Line responded with this pretty sweet promo video for their new “pointy sticks” line. Check it out, you can’t see it anywhere else.

Once I watched the video, I got kinda pumped on the “Grab Tab.” For years I was using old school ski poles that had handles that wrapped around my hand, similar to the new “Grab Tab,” for the same reason, to make grabs easier.

The video really created more questions than it answered, so we went straight to Jason Levinthal for some info.

BroBomb: Where did this idea come from? Was it based on old school poles like mine?

J Lev: Your poles did have some influence. Ultimately, it came from a need to ski while holding pointy sticks, a strange thing to begin with, so we always have been thinking there must be an easier way. One day while riding BMX throwing back flips on some dirt jumps and flairs on the vert ramp at the X Games, I realized bike grips have always been skinny, round and grippy, and my bike never flies out of my hand, why aren’t ski pole grips the same? From then on I perceived ski pole grips as archaic and obsolete with their bulky, oversized shape & forced finger placement. The skinnier grippier grips obviously have worked well the past two years. The next development, the Grab Tabs we came up with when thinking about how to be able to do 5 finger grabs without dropping your poles, inspired by the old school grips some of us had as a kid like you mentioned. I’m sure at first glance most people that don’t know Line would assume the Grab Tab is an unnecessary gimmick, they thought the same about skis with tails back in ’95, Line doesn’t make gimmicks. The Grab Tab not only keeps the grip in your hands for easy, steezy, 5 finger grabs but it also makes it just plain easier to keep in your hand while skiing anywhere else on the hill.

How long have you been working on it?

We always planned on having them on the top of the original Dart & Pin but we didn’t find the time to actually develop them until now. It took about a year of design and testing.

What’s different about Pollards Paint Brush?

Pollard’s Paintbrush has a different name, comes with both 60mm & 80mm baskets, the stick is made of 7,000 super durable aluminum, it has a new Velcro strap. . . set it and forget it! And comes with a point on the end and of course is painted by Eric, and applied with sublimated graphics.

When will they be available?

All 2012 product will be available next fall in stores and this summer for demo at Windell’s summer camp.