not a scam, a marketing deal. I'm a aggressive male skier, live in MT and I've had G3 alpinists for 2 yrs in a 120 for my BD Verdicts. I've used them 30 or so times and love them, although (unrelatedly) the connection between the tip connector and the ski appears to (like 2 of my friends) suffer reliability issues. However! The glue is so totally badash that they're tough to pull apart, and I'm a strong 210# dude. Even on yoyoing tours I never have trouble w/the glue keeping the skin on the ski and have wished for the new "ripstrip" many times. Certainly for G3 to say "Our goal was to create a climbing skin that the unique needs of female skiers" is an distracting and perhaps insulting way to say "built for weaker people," but that doesn't mean a ripstrip won't be appreciated by anybody with that much super-effective glue holding skin to ski. Too bad they're targeting females with this; it's going to be equally useful to men. Haven't looked to see if the elle comes in a 190cm for a board as wide as the Verdict, but if they do, they'll for sure be my next skin.

They don't. It's kind of a scam.