The roots of NILS Inc. can be traced to Sweden in 1953: the year Nils Andersson, founder and owner was born.
At age four, Nils began participating in the Swedish National pastime of cross-country skiing. At age ten, he was introduced to
alpine skiing while on vacation with his family in Norway. He fell in love with the sport and while in high school and college,
started traveling to his favorite ski destinations in Austria, Switzerland and France.
After high school, Nils enrolled at the German Textile Academy in Munich where he discovered his passion for designing and pattern
making. It was during a vacation to the United States that his passion for skiing and designing would merge. While visiting Newport
Beach, California, Nils met his soon to be wife and future merchandiser, Nancy, who was working at a local ski shop. Nils soon left
Sweden and took up residence in Newport Beach where he began designing men’s shells for a ski shop in the area. Three years later,
in the growing need for a high quality, fashion-driven women’s skiwear line, NILS Skiwear was born.
Due to immediate positive response to the product, the collection was expanded and introduced at the Ski Industries of America Trade
Show. At the same time, the management team was also expanded, adding skiwear veterans Dick Leffler as Director of Marketing (Now
President of NILS) and Toni Leffler as Merchandise Director (currently on the design team as a consultant).
NILS Skiwear became one of the first fashion companies to incorporate Gore-Tex into their collections. With the innovative design of
the high waist, stretch bottom suit they soon began to dominate the stretch suit market. Over the course of the next several years NILS
established a reputation as the best fitting women’s skiwear collection in the business and the product offering was extended to include
sweaters, fleece, resort wear and petites. The universal active sportswear layering system and waterproof, breathable outerwear system is
consistently regarded as the most complete offering for women in the industry.
Today, NILS is pleased to offer the finest, best fitting skiwear and resort sportswear along with setting the standard for customer service
and education within the snow sports industry. Our mission at NILS has always been to design winter sportswear with uncompromising style and
performance, and was founded by the focus on fit, fashion and functionality. These ideals have driven NILS for the last 33 years and we can’t
wait to show you what’s next.
All of us here at NILS would like to thank you for your continued support!
