Fresh Pow: Stickers & Skiing
When I was 17 years old I worked in a ski shop, drove a ’96 Jeep Cherokee, and loved stickers. I know, random. And you are probably wondering to yourself how are those 3 things interconnected. Well let me tell you!
Whenever we got a new shipment of ski apparel the vendors we paid attention to would always include stickers with their merchandise and those stickers would go straight on the rear windshield of the Jeep, onto my skis, or plastered on my high school locker. I wasn’t cool but stickers were.
Now, a decade later, I have become more of a loser and stickers somehow got even more popular. You see them everywhere – helmets, cars, skis, racks, windows, chairlifts – anywhere that allows an adhesive to stick to its surface most likely has a sticker attached to it.
Stickers have become a counter culture of sorts. They have become another way for a generation to express themselves. Look at someones laptop. They’ll have their favorite band, their political affiliation in the form of some clever prose, and the skis they rock – all stuck to their metaphorical forehead.
Essentially, if you are in the industry and without stickers consider yourself outdated and irrelevant.
Stickers were one of the first things we purchased. In the heat of the moment (no relation to the Asia hit of the 80′s) we made a bad move. Our stickers had a paper base so they would peel off the second they got wet – not good when your business makes a living in the snow – and they didn’t have a .com attached to the name.
You live, you learn. I finally found a worthwhile sticker company I could afford -Sticker Giant. When I told them about Ski Till I Die they immediately got it – I guess I wasn’t the first Einstein with the ground breaking idea to get water proof bumper stickers – and they were able to print some gnar worthy custom bumper stickers for us. If your’e in the market for custom stuff I definitely recommend using these guys.
The sticker saga was just another step in the right direction for us. Now we get to plaster hot pink decals all over our gear in the hopes that it draws the attention of some new school shredder. And if not I end up with new wallpaper that can stand up to another blizzard of ’96 type of snowfall.
Cheers & keep shredding,
Ryan
