Vermont Slopes, Mt. Everest Footpaths and the Gloves to Conquer it All: There is Better—and then there is BAÏST

Ya gotta love an entrepreneur who creates his own line of durable winter gloves for outdoor sports—by taking the matter into his own hands.

This story begins when Ace Jonas was a kid on Long Island, on Friday afternoons, waiting for his parents to pick him up after school had ended for the week.

With the car packed for a weekend of skiing, Ace, his parents and his two older siblings were off to Vermont and a family friend’s weekend house. Once in Vermont, this 8-year-old aspiring skier was dazzled by the slope side escapades of family friends in their early 20s.

Starting with the arrival of the family car at his school, it all generated a great sense of adventure for Ace.

“I just wanted to get up to Vermont and have the time of my life,” he recalled.

This family ritual defined the world Ace knew while growing up, dates back as far as he can remember and set the stage for him as a business owner redefining the winter sports apparel market.

Ace started skiing at age 4 and as a child was greatly influenced by summer ski camps with Olympians he attended at Mt. Hood in Oregon.

As an adult, he continued to indulge his passion for the powder—pushing the envelope as a skier, snowboarder and telemarker, but respecting his boundaries always.

“I love a challenge—conquering something,” said Ace, who above all else enjoys skiing moguls. “It’s something to accomplish. I just set my mind to it and I go.”

At the same time, he realized the mountains could not contain his love of all-things altitude, moguls, adrenaline and exhilaration. He was also looking to create the best gear for skiers like himself. So he launched a company that allows him to focus on skiing all the time, and continue to take on challenges, if not always from the side of a mountain.

The result was BAÏST, Ace’s Vermont-based apparel company that makes custom-fit gloves and accessories for outdoor winter sports, with an emphasis on gloves for skiing and snowboarding.

“BAÏST was born from the need for gloves that are beast,” said Ace, who has previously worked in finance and was a member of the team that launched Avion Tequila. 

“As a lifelong skier, boarder and telemarker in Vermont’s harsh and varying climate, I struggled to find gloves that would truly keep my hands warm and dry. After spending thousands of dollars on gear that came up short, I decided to take matters into my own hands. Long nights of research, dozens of samples and countless slopes later, the BAÏST glove system was born.”

Ace’s initial goal was to make the perfect glove for himself. But this guy loves a good challenge, conquering it and making the most of it. So he launched a company.

“The same way I love climbing a mountain, business is sort of the same thing,” he said. “Every day is reaching a new ledge on the way up to that peak.”

BAÏST gloves offer a solution to the age-old dilemma of keeping the extremities warm in cold temperatures, whether you are at Killington in Vermont or atop Mt. Everest in the Himalayas. You can be at either bucolic destination, but if your hands are cold, the fun factor will rapidly diminish. Yes, BAÏST’s customers visit both destinations. And it’s well worth mentioning that Ace designed and tested his gloves on the same Vermont mountain where Jake Burton first tested his world-famous snowboards.

Raising the stakes for Ace and his need for proper gloves was the fact that he has Raynaud’s Syndrome—which constricts blood circulation to the fingertips.

Offered to customers with the type of guarantee that can only come from a winter sports enthusiast who created a product to improve their own outdoor experience, BAÏST gloves offer three layers of support and warmth.

And realizing that skiing, outdoor sports and the body’s response to winter temperatures are all highly individualized, Ace allows his fellow adventurers to customize their gloves and “build” them on the company website. You can select your glove and wrist type, along with color and add-ons that include a liner, waterproofing wax and wrist leash. Let’s throw some goggle cleaner and defogger in there as well.  

And just in case you were wondering:

BAÏST is pronounced “BAY-st.”

And what, exactly, does BAÏST mean?

“This is a complicated one,” reads the company’s website, baistgloves.com. “What does anything really mean? What is life? We feel BAÏST is best understood by using it in a sentence.”

And so:

• “Have you tried these chips? They are the BAÏST.”
• “Bro, that kangaroo flip was BAÏST!”
• “Did you see Tanner rocking BAÏST gloves yesterday? So steezy.”
• “What is your go-to sandwich? Definitely roast BAÏST”
• “Hucked it off that cliff, so BAÏST.”
• “Dude, have you seen Braveheart? Is that real? Nah, it’s BAÏST on a true story.”

Visit baistgloves.com to learn more.