Ski Industry Rant

From time to time I will espouse hard-earned knowledge (opinions) about the state of the freeskiing scene, industry, and its related professional shred heads, filmers, 'photogs,'companies, videos, etc... etc. The spark to start posting about the ski industry came when I read about David Lesh's recently launched clothing line, First Drop Outerwear.
First of all, the outerwear is straight up garbage. With skiing slowly catching up to snowboarding in terms of product diversity and diversity on all fronts (except, stubbornly, in race and ethnic make-up, Justin Vassar and his switch pond skim excluded), basically getting cooler, I was excited to see that the first new outerwear company since Saga & Under Armourwas out of the gates.

First Drops' suit: but my yang is cutting off the corner of my chest pocket!

Lesh claimed that he saw "a huge void in the market that no one was filling." I also see this void... but I was hoping it wouldn't get filled by a company pushing droopy-ass suits with ying-yang motifs and a big ass pocket in the middle of the chest overlapping the zipper. The jacket even has a big pocket in the small of the back in case you forgot your backpack and still want somewhere to put your... wallet. The pants, complete with yang-motif themselves, even come with suspenders, as it is all but assured that the smallest size will have a 38 inch waist that no belt will be able to secure to the 140-pound frame of the average teenage jibber.

Contrast sleeves and pockets! Assymetry is always big with the kids.

Much of the rest of the freshmen First Drop line push the split-color design headlined by the jacket's ying-yang design. "Oh sweet, dude, we could make the sleeve on the tall-T a different color! It'd be sick dude, there's such a void for this ill fresh shit!" Someday in the future, the proportion of freeskiers rocking hideous combos of neons and knee-length tops will diminish as products with actual style start becoming more prominent (although that black/purple fade jacket from Orage is HOT), and cooler people will start skiing. I'll have to visit Aspen again when that happens, and see whether the proportion of white boys from Aspen High wearing studded earrings and yelling the n-word all the time has changed at all.

Holden Outerwear, my favorite outerwear gig, has dabbled in freeskiing in the past couple years, throwing the occasional ad with (snowboarder) Matty Ryan in Freeskier, sponsoring Anthony Boronowski for a month or so, and repping some up n' comers like Maine transplant, Tahoe-loc Jackie Paaso.


Holden's got a lock on super-clean designs, subtle details and overall more like streetwear in fit, style, material use (hemp, denim, herringbone), and feel. For example, the Patch jacket shown below is my jam for this season (albeit mine is blue). Good fit, a little long in the sleezes and waist, both covering up your ass and hands from snow and adding some serious steeze, half-exposed main zipper with over-sized, exposed pocket zippers, DWR-free waterproofing, slub fabric, super lightweight, and a nice lil patch. Holden chose a tomato red and ocean blue colorways for this revival piece, both of which announce your presence but don't scream like more neonish colorways from other joints. All for $170 new.

Holden Patch Jacket: straightforward and clean. hell yeah.

Not sure why they haven't tried to penetrate the freeski market further, as there actually is a void in freeski outerwear for more fitted, mature and detailed styles (not to mention eco-friendly options). Could be due to a lack of budget, or just as likely, that skiing isn't cool enough yet to throw their arty hipster vibe into the mix with the likes of companies with Monster-fueled, high school vibes like First Drop.