About Nabo Holdings / Village Ski and Autosock
For over 30 years Keith Thorn of Village Ski Cooma has been fitting chains to all sorts of vehicles each winter. In recent years there have been more and more cars coming through Cooma which could not fit conventional metal snow chains. Often because of limited clearance between tire and suspension. Also because manufacturers don't recommend the use of metal snow chains on their new models as they can affect electronic safety systems such as ABS and ESP.
Keith found that more and more customers were hiring chains in order to satisfy snow chain laws knowing that they could not fit the chains even if they needed to. This proposed a real safety issue and didn't sit well with Keith.
Keith then researched other options to find the best alternate product. This is how the Autosock came to Australia.
Autosock - History
History tells us that the wife of Henry Ford was the first to suggest this, and the experience was in fact that it worked. In order to develop an idea into reality a resource group was formed in 1998 with the lead of Bård Løtveit.
The group consisted of people with high level of competence within the professional fields of yarn production, textiles and garment manufacturing, friction, certification of automotive products, design and marketing.
Over the past 10 years, AutoSock has been developed from a simple prototype with little scientific foundation to a high-technology research-based product with excellent traction and durability properties. The research and development has been supported by extensive tests and scientific textile- and friction theories.
1996 : Bård Løtveit, the inventor of AutoSock starts his Research and Development work.
1997 : Invento AS becomes the main shareholder of AutoSock.
1998 : Beginning of the collaboration with Kosa Gmbh, worldwide leading fi bre manufacturer
in Germany.
2000 : Beginning of the cooperation with Reutlingen University, leading expertise and research
centre on industrial textiles.
2001 : Creation of a new product category and homologated by the TÜV Institute.
2001 : Registration of AutoSock European Patent.
2001 : AutoSock is launched into the Scandinavian market.
2002 : Approved by VW and BMW Group to be followed by 10 other car manufacturers.
2005 : AutoSock European Patent is being granted.
2006 : AutoSock achieves sales of 1 million pairs.
2007 : AutoSock is approved by 12 car manufacturers.
2008 : AutoSock is approved as Ö-NORM 5121.
2008 : AutoSock for Truck is approved as a traction device by CDOT (Colorado Department Of Transportation) in USA
2009 : AutoSock has been approved as a snowchain equivalent in Czech Republic and Slovenia
Full online shopping coming soon! To order your Autosocks now please email us.