Vail Resorts Drops My Epic Gear Membership Fee, Makes Premium Rentals Standard

Vail Resorts backtracks on rental membership program after two seasons

Vail Resorts has announced it's shutting down the My Epic Gear membership program and folding its features into standard Demo rentals. The $50 seasonal membership fee is gone, and the premium rental features - specific gear selection, BOA ski boots, Step On bindings - will now be included at no extra charge for anyone renting high-performance gear.

It's a backflip on a program Vail launched just two seasons ago as "first-of-its-kind" and is now being repackaged as the rental system they should have built in the first place. The changes start rolling out for the 2026-27 season across 12 North American resorts.

Starting next season, anyone renting Demo gear at participating Vail resorts can book specific ski or snowboard models online before arrival. The selection includes current and recent-season gear from 13 brands across more than 60 models. You'll also get access to BOA ski boots and Burton's Step On binding system without paying the membership fee that previously gatekept these features.

The 12 resorts included are Vail, Whistler Blackcomb, Park City, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, Crested Butte, Heavenly, Northstar, Stowe, Okemo and Mount Snow. According to Vail, Demo rental pricing will "generally align with typical rates" - corporate speak for "we're not lowering prices, we're just including things we were charging extra for."

Epic Pass holders still get 20% off rentals through Epic Mountain Rewards, which was already part of the package.

Vail is positioning this as a multi-year transformation of their rental operations. By the 2027-28 season, they're promising these features will extend beyond Demo rentals to all gear categories - Sport and Performance levels included.

Future additions apparently include delivery options, slopeside valet, and the ability to have your preferred gear set aside for repeat visits without going through fitting again. They're also talking about personalised profiles that track your rental history and make recommendations - standard e-commerce features dressed up as innovation.

The digital platform will consolidate bookings at myepicgear.com rather than the existing fragmented system across individual resort sites.

Vail's press release frames this as listening to customer feedback and improving the experience for everyone. What they don't say is that My Epic Gear clearly didn't gain enough traction to justify its existence as a standalone membership program. If it was successful, they'd be expanding it and raising the price, not eliminating the fee and rolling it into standard offerings.

CEO Rob Katz's quote about "learning a great deal from My Epic Gear members" translates to "not enough people paid $50 for this." The pivot to making these features standard suggests they need to compete more aggressively in the rental market - possibly feeling pressure from independent rental shops that have been offering gear selection and premium technologies without membership fees for years.

The claim that these innovations might appeal to gear owners who are "infrequent skiers or riders" is an interesting admission. Vail is essentially acknowledging that ski ownership might not make sense for their target Epic Pass demographic who spread their days across multiple resorts.

This announcement is a rare example of a major resort operator walking back a program rather than doubling down on it. The fact that Vail is absorbing the My Epic Gear features into standard rentals without raising Demo prices (at least not explicitly) suggests the program wasn't generating the revenue or membership numbers they projected.

For skiers and riders, it's a net positive - you're getting features that previously cost $50 at no extra charge. The ability to select specific gear models online and skip the rental shop roulette is genuinely useful, particularly for Demo-level equipment where the differences between models actually matter.

The bigger question is whether this signals a broader shift in how Vail approaches ancillary revenue. After years of pushing membership programs, paid parking, and à la carte services, backing away from a fee-based rental tier is notable. Either they've hit the ceiling on what guests will pay, or they've realised that making the base experience less frustrating might be better for business than charging extra to make it tolerable.

The multi-year rollout timeline extending to 2027-28 is typical Vail - announce the big vision, deliver it in phases, claim credit multiple times. But if they actually follow through and make gear selection standard across all rental categories without jacking up prices, it'll be a legitimate improvement to an aspect of skiing that's been unnecessarily painful for decades.