Jupa Sports traces its beginnings in the ski business to 1949 when Colin K. Lax opened Colin’s Ski Shop at Mont Gabriel ski area in the Laurentian mountains north of Montreal. At about the same time, Colin started a cottage industry of hand knitters working in their homes east of Quebec City. These women produced hand knit woolen hats and sweaters for winter sports. Each week Madame Guimont, the forelady, would deliver wool to the homes and pick up the finished items. This business evolved into the manufacture of hand machine knit hats and other ski accessories. As the years passed his sons, Chris and Greg, joined Colin in the business and eventually took over from their father. At one point, Colins Inc. was a major full line ski clothing and accessory supplier to retailers across North America. Eventually the focus shifted away from ski to other areas of the sports clothing business. In 1983 Judy Warren Lax started a division of Colins named Jupa Sports. Jupa specialized in skiwear and was the Canadian distributor for various famous American brands. After a few years, Jupa was spun off as a separate corporation and began designing and manufacturing its own skiwear under the brands Jupa, XMTN and Coltech. Jupa was the “Official Supplier to the Canadian Winter Olympic Team” for uniforms at the Albertville and Lillehammer Olympic games. As business boomed at Jupa, Chris and Greg joined Judy and now Jupa Sports is a major supplier of ski and snowboard clothing to specialty ski and children’s stores across North America.