Daymaker Touring: How Clever Engineering Is Making Ski Touring Safer & More Accessible

Colton Barry
Jun 10
3 min read

Thinking about getting into backcountry skiing but not ready to invest in a whole new setup? Daymaker Touring might be your perfect gateway. With their Daymaker Classic adapters, you can tour on your existing alpine boots and bindings with no tech gear required.

Daymaker Touring's two binding-adapter products: The Daymaker Classic (Left) and the Tekdapter (Right)

What Are Daymaker Classics?

Daymaker Classics are ski touring adapters that snap onto your alpine boots and bindings, unlocking the uphill freedom of touring while preserving downhill performance. They're ideal for skiers like me, curious about touring but not ready to commit to an expensive, specialized setup.

Key Advantage: You retain the safety and performance of your alpine bindings, which are generally more reliable in a crash or avalanche due to their robust release mechanisms compared to conventional pin and even hybrid bindings. The best part? That functionality plugs into any ski that your boot does.

Engineering Deep Dive: Pivot Points, Prototypes, and Photometric Scanning

Co-founder Chris Trunek revealed some fascinating design challenges on the upcoming Powder Innovation Podcast Episode:

1. Pivot Point Innovation

Unlike tech bindings that pivot at the toe, Daymakers had to move the pivot under the sole of the foot. Why? Because toe-mounted pivots interfere with alpine bindings. The solution: a linkage mechanism (a 4 Bar-Tech linkage specifically) that simulates a natural walking stride while staying clear of the binding hardware.

2. From Garage to Mass Production

Early prototypes were created using 3D printing, CNC machining, waterjet cutting, and brake-bending, with near-zero tooling investment. But when scaling to mass manufacturing in China, the team transitioned to injection molding and sequential metal stamping, keeping quality high while reducing unit costs.

3. Binding & Foot Size Diversity

Ski bindings vary wildly across brands. To ensure wide compatibility, Chris and Giray developed (more likely deployed and refined) a low-cost “photometric scanning” process, using only a smartphone to generate accurate 3D models of popular, and problematic to fit, bindings. This brilliant hack allowed Daymakers to precisely fit most setups on the market. That said, the team acknowledges challenges remain in serving skiers with very small and very large boot sizes. This is a known limitation across the industry.

A 3D CAD model of the Daymaker Tekdapter (black and bronze) locked into a composite alpine binding. It was constructed using photometric scans from a smartphone. Each color represents geometry from a different popular binding model, highlighting how the Tekdapter was designed to ensure wide compatibility.

Daymaker Tekdapters: A High-Performance Alternative

For those with pin-compatible boots, Daymaker also offers Tekdapters, a lighter, more advanced solution with tech-style efficiency uphill and alpine safety downhill. Chris put it best:

“Anyone buying the Tekdapters already has a touring setup. We're offering them a safer alternative. The Daymaker Classics are great all-in-one products, and the Tekdapters are for those interested in high-performance, pro-quality touring.” - Chris Trunek (Daymaker Touring Co-Founder)