Too many pros

14558257:BLandz said:
That is true but it doesn’t explain how a brand like Vishnu can make better content than K2, Salomon, Volkl, or Armada with significantly less funding. Im sure Vishnu isn’t really paying the riders that much but for a bigger brand theres gotta be more incentive to create good content. At the end of the day, I think athletes need to speak up and if they can get a little bit of funding to make a team part or something thats great. Not every “Pro” skier needs to make a living on this shit they just need some cash for a flight, gas, little bit of food and a couple lift tickets to make content
Click to expand...

Vishnus target market and operating margin is catered to smaller numbers of skis sold, which means there's a lot of benefit in absolutely crushing it in a niche market. Volkl, Armada, Solomon etc sell 85%+ of their skis to people who have no fucking idea what a k fed is. Those people might say "cool" if they see a video put out but the people those videos will sell skis to is a drop in the bucket of their overall target markets. Those bigger companies need to do decently well with a really big number of people.

Be the change. The last non vishnu park skis I purchased was like 7 years ago. Not cause I wanna support a super dope core ski company, I just like the skis and customer service is impeccable.
 
Freeride has changed a lot since NS’s inception.

Newschool is a dated term today. It used to describe the new direction skiing was taking in the late 90’s. It used to be be skinny skis, ski racing or ski instructing. Freestyle was an intermediate term describing moguls and aerials. The branching occured when freestyle was no longer accessible to the average person. Like ski racing, you had to be on an official team, with a coach and pay the insurance company lots of money to even get a shot at competing at a qualifying comp. The newschool broke away from that by offering training grounds that anyone can use. There were competitions where talent could florish with the money aspect. 20$ entry fee could win ya 300$ cash prize without paying 600$ for insurance and 1200$ for coaching. It was a turning point in skiing when that format was acceptable.

Remember that social media, cameras and advertisements came into play in the late 2000’s. All of this was done by competition. Contests was a form of advertisement for the freeride scene. VHS tapes (and later DVDs) and magazines shaped how advertisement was used to sustain the freeride’s ecosystem. It was expensive for brands and people had to buy them to be in the loop. Think freeskiing Volumes 1 to 13.

Today, social media is free to produce and consume. Being free was an awesome was to spread the sport, but came at a downside: it sold out once people capitalized on the mouvement.

All that to bring the point that the term “Pro” also changed and adapted. There were always hundreds of payed sponsored athletes back in the 90’s but you just never heard from them because getting your name out was nearly impossible. Now, post a 30second clip on instagram, youtube or anything user generated and get 100,000 views and you get paid. Now you are a paid skier! You are a pro!

Being a pro meant you were constantly competiting for cash prizes, getting results that would attract production companies to showcase your style. It was a full time job! It was a childhood dream to do that but I was too broke to sustain it. Today, influencers hacked the community because its almost free and really easy for your name to go around the world and anyone around the world to see it.

So to resume my point, its not there are too many pros; you just hear more about user content that makes them look like a pro.
 
14558057:weastcoat said:
technically speaking I think youre considered pro if you can live strictly off of the money you make skiing. Which probably means there’s not a whole lot of pros out there lol
Click to expand...

SteepSteep is a pro skier confirmed
 
14559469:weastcoat said:
Steepsteep can suck suck my dick, dudes a fucking tool
Click to expand...

You are just mad because you had 10 years to do what he did but instead you smoked some weed and bailed on LB2 blaming ur city living parents. And he did it with a broken back.
 
14558257:BLandz said:
That is true but it doesn’t explain how a brand like Vishnu can make better content than K2, Salomon, Volkl, or Armada with significantly less funding. Im sure Vishnu isn’t really paying the riders that much but for a bigger brand theres gotta be more incentive to create good content. At the end of the day, I think athletes need to speak up and if they can get a little bit of funding to make a team part or something thats great. Not every “Pro” skier needs to make a living on this shit they just need some cash for a flight, gas, little bit of food and a couple lift tickets to make content
Click to expand...

The thing with Vishnu is Emmett is actually in the scene. Hell, he's hitting urban WITH his team riders most of the time. Also, pretty much all of the Vishnu riders are people Emmett is actively hanging out with already, (Kysen Hall, Cal Carson, etc.). Most of the parts they put out are just him and his friends.
 
This has probably already been said but if you want to go off tax returns of earned income via contest or endorsement, there aren't many, rest assured.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top