Linguistic virtuosity: where is the butter zone?
12.2.2019
Translation: machine translated
The unsung heroes of the sports scene sit in manufacturers' offices. They come up with spectacular words for even the simplest innovations and spread this "slang" that nobody understands. Have you ever heard of the butter zone?
Whether you're looking for skis, snowshoes or a new outdoor jacket; manufacturers always have a bevy of complicated technical terms like Hyperflux-Retrac-Spaceshutter™ to describe their technologies. It could be a new swimming costume membrane with laser-integrated Michael Phelps DNA to help you shatter your records - but that's fiction. Unlike the butter zone. A wonderful term that doesn't sound like a world record, NASA technology or a high-tech material. But so sweet that it stimulates the imagination and has found its way out of sports slang into a product. But into what?
"I don't want to be disturbed in my butter zone"
I ask my office neighbour what he imagines under the term butter zone: "A code for something erotic? The counterpart to the bikini zone?", suggests Patrick Bardelli. As the DIY queen of the team Carolin Teufelberger thinks more along the lines of something practical: "A well-oiled part of the bike?" and Natalie Hemengül is thinking more of a synonym for "buoy". Which is to say: love handles. I like the way things evolve. Meanwhile, the whole editorial office has become a butter zone; the term has taken on wings: "I don't want to be disturbed in my butter zone," shouts Bardelli.
At the end of the day, which product has the butter zone?
The butter zone is located...
- ... in the T-shirt. Directly next to the Energy Accumulator.22%
- ... on skis. Perfect in combination with the P-Tex 2100 rubber.60%
- ... in the trampoline. The sweet spot of the V-Max Jumping Sheet.18%
The competition has ended.
So you don't have to look directly at the solution, I'll quickly butter a slice of bread in GIF form.
Things are going swimmingly with the freestylers
By the way, freestylers haven't reserved the term. In the Urban Dictionary, various definitions are discussed. In sporting terms, an athlete who is extremely focused, on the move, is "on fire", in their "butter zone". But all this is nothing concrete.
In contrast to freestylers. When they shift their body weight to do a "nose butter" or a "tail butter", they're only gliding over a small part of the sole of their skis or snowboard. It is exactly this area that is called the butter zone.
So Völkl has turned it into a technology and built models like the Bash 86 with "dedicated butter action flex zones". I even have to look up the adjective 'dedicated'; that's saying something.... Did you get all that? No? No problem. At Line Skis there are even 3D Butterzones™. Wow, wow, wow! Three dimensions of butter zone! By the way: you should always learn and do the tricks yourself. If I were to try something like that, my butter zone wouldn't look good.
Michael Restin
Senior Editor
Michael.Restin@digitecgalaxus.chSimple writer and dad of two who likes to be on the move, wading through everyday family life. Juggling several balls, I'll occasionally drop one. It could be a ball, or a remark. Or both.
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