Replying to Airblaster: does it belong in skiing?
We've all seen skiers out there wearing airblaster gear and getting stoked on it, the question is whether or not they should. It's easy to say "wear what you want", but in this case it's not so simple. For years skiing has taken a lot of tips from snowboarding, for example, what makes a press on a rail a press on a rail- the fact that the board is flexed to where the rider is pressing...how can you do that when you're on skis? Skis don't press! Airblaster is a company which says openly that they are by and for snowboarders. Their mission statement is to promote fun on snowboards through awesome outerwear. No where on the website or in any of the movies is skiing stated as a purpose for airblaster's products. When you wear airblaster, you're saying "I'm ok with taking 90% of my influence on the mountain from snowboarding, even though I'm a skier." We ride the features that they invented (halfpipes, rails, wallrides, etc) we dress like them, we talk like them, our magazines and movies look like theirs, do we really need to take it so far as to wear the one clothing company that they created to be just for them? You don't see many snowboarders wearing line sweatshirts or orage coats. To kids who wear airblaster stuff when they snowboard it's a statement: "I'm a snowboarder and I love being awesome." Do you really wanna say that when you're actually on skis? It's their thing, and its one thing that we don't actually need to steal for the progression of our sport. Lets create our own awesome clothing companies and give our money to them instead of snowboarders. We're all one in the same on the mountain, but it's a statement to wear airblaster when you've got skis on your feet, a statement that isn't worth making.
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