What Shaun White Teaches Business

businessweek.com

5 pointsjeffvincent2 comments

The Shaun White part of this article is the kind of thing I imagine is said at a third rate business conference. That being said, I have my own observation about Shaun White and business.

Shaun White is the most popular snowboarder right now. I recently started snowboarding and purchased my own gear. What surprised me was that I was not overwhelmed by links to the Shaun White model board + boots + jacket + etc. This is a kid who is sponsored by the biggest (?) snowboard company (Burton), has 2 gold medals, and his own video game. I would expect to see entry level, mid-level, and expert level boards all in the Shaun White line. I really don't understand how they can not market his gear that way. (I am still pretty new to snowboarding, but so far I have not even seen a Shaun White model.) Maybe another HN person has some insight on this (like my ad filter was completely blacklisting Shaun White or something ).

I think snowboarding is the kind of culture that wouldn't respond to something that direct. It's an outsider's culture, so the branding you want in snowboarders' heads is "the best riders ride Burton" not "be like Shaun by purchasing the new Shaun White Limited deck".

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