Innovation. Feedback. Progress. The mantra that turned a garage hobby into a ski and snowboard company.
Project Summary
It was 2009, and I was picking up design work in the ski and snowboard industry when an acquaintance asked if I'd be interested in designing ski graphics (I didn't have to think hard about this)... “uhhhhh yeah”! It didn't take long before my workload had expanded to apparel, print materials, websites, trade shows booths, stickers, and everything else an action sports company needs to market, manufacture, sell, and ship products. Before I knew what happened, I was an equal partner in a business that was growing like a clumsy puppy.
My Role:
Branding
Web design
Ski design
Snowboard design
Trade show booth design
Apparel design
Print design
A little bit of everything else
Innovation. Feedback. Progress.
Growth Summary
Things really took off when we brought on my buddy Joe. Joe had recently left his engineering job after having to cut a ski trip short to go back to work. To keep his wakeboard boat full of gas, he was manufacturing tower speakers for wakeboard boats between ski trips. Joe is a maker in every sense of the word, and he had a trail of successful side hustles in his wake as proof. Still, to this day, Joe's the smartest person I've ever met, and to nobody's surprise, he was phenomenal at making skis. The first ski Joe created from the ground up won Powder Magazine's editors' pick award. After that, it was just one hit after another.
Between photoshop and illustrator saves, I was pouring urethane sidewalls, attaching edges, and laying up fiberglass. We slowly built a team of sponsored riders and established strategic partnerships all over the country as we expanded our market. We were shipping products worldwide, working nonstop, traveling everywhere, skiing a ton, and making as little money as possible. Eventually, we realized our private label manufacturing wing of the business was mainly responsible for keeping the lights on; We weren't a ski and snowboard brand; we were a manufacturing company.
Turns out - scaling a manufacturing business is extremely difficult, and fiberglass never stops itching!
Outcome Spotlight
In our fourth year, things grew more complicated. Our little startup was snowballing, but its thirst for cash was beginning to seem unquenchable. Additionally, the 4-headed partnership/monster was having trouble looking in the same direction. The challenges compounded until we eventually decided to sell the company to one of our private-label customers.
Said and done, this company made us hilarious amounts of money (and not in a good way); however, the memories it produced are priceless. I made fantastic friends, skied a lot of deep snow, and learned countless lessons that I still leverage today, like never drink old beer out of a used ski boot.
#worthit