Yes, you need to watch Circe Wallace for all the reasons. Maybe we’ll list some of them later, but you already know why.
[Link: The Bomb Hole]
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Snowboarding
Seems like this took a little longer than it should have but legendary snowboarder Shaun Palmer is now a member of the 2023 inductee class of the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame. Old snowboarders know exactly how skilled Shaun was at pretty much everything, but the mountain bike world circa 1995 never knew what hit them as Shaun jumped in out of nowhere and dominated the downhill scene, changing pretty much everything about the sport all at once.
Palmer, a world-renowned Hall of Fame snowboarder, scored a breakout performance just one year after getting into the sport. Aboard one of the most-prolific downhill bicycle frames of all time, the Intense M-1, he scored the silver medal at the 1996 UCI Downhill World Championships, missing gold by just 0.15 seconds. His immediate world-topping results captured the immediate attention, and intrigue, of the entire mountain bike community.
Not sure what he’s been up to lately, but it’s great to see him getting a little more credit for all the things he’s done in his multi-sport career.
[Link: Mountain Bike Hall of Fame]
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Looks like Vail Resorts is no longer interested in keeping their retail businesses running in ikon towns as they shutter retail operations in Aspen and Snowmass. They’re also closing their retail in Telluride (which is on their Epic Pass) bringing the total of closing shops to 19, according to a story in The Denver Post. Branded retail stores getting shut include Burton, Patagonia and The North Face.
“As our leases in the Aspen area came up for renewal at the end of the 2022/2023 winter season, we needed to make a long-term decision regarding the future strategy of our retail operations in the Aspen market. At that time, we decided to close down our retail operations in this market in order to focus company resources on (serving) our core retail markets,” said Glenn Stahlman, vice president and chief operating officer at Vail Resorts.
Looks a little like a tail-between-legs retreat and has nothing to do with Aspen Ski Co’s grabbing a new CEO from Vail’s Whistler Blackcomb. The only reason these mega-corps even get into retail in the first place is to put all the local/independent shops out of business–consolidate and conquer! So, hey, mission accomplished.
[Link: The Denver Post]
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In what should come as a surprise to no one, Vail Resorts is being accused of cutting the hours of many of its international workers because, why not? According to The Summit Daily News, one worker has seen his hours cut substantially since the end of the Christmas Holiday.
When he began working as a back-of-house employee at the Timber Ridge restaurant in December, Queiroz said he was scheduled for 40-hour weeks, but by the middle of the month his hours began to get cut to 32. Then, he hit 24 hours in January. . . Copies of Queiroz’s work schedules, which he provided to the Summit Daily, show that for every week since Jan. 28, Queiroz was scheduled for two days — or 16 hours — not including an unpaid break. He said it’s barely enough money to cover his living expenses.
As in all business, the easiest way to cut costs is to trim labor, and if you already have everyone’s money from the super-mega pass, why provide quality services? That’s right. No reason. Vail has responded with more corporate speak about being “fully staffed” etc. . . but everyone knows what’s going on–too many employees is always better than not enough.
Even thought Vail Resorts in an offer letter (which Queiroz was required to sign) suggested that workers would get 32 hours a week, the company says it doesn’t use employment contracts. After Queiroz factors in the cost of getting to Colorado and his flight home to Brazil, he’s basically paying to work for Vail. Ah, capitalism!
[Link: Summit Daily News]
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Burton Snowboards, the largest snowboard company in the world, has been under what local news station is calling a “cyber attack” since February 14, 2023, according to story on MyNBC5.com.
If you’re looking to buy some winter gear or a snowboard from Burton, it might take some time. . . The well-known winter gear Vermont company has been dealing with a major cyberattack since Feb. 14, impacting their abilities to process orders and refunds online.
Currently, there is no way to order products from the Burton website. Guess that’s one of the downsides of cutting out independent retailers and going direct. They still have 56 company stores serving the world, however, so that’s good. For all the details Burton has this posted on their website.
[Link: MyNBC5.com]
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The word from Sporting Goods Business is that the hilariously miss-named zombie brand reanimator Authentic Brands Group (controlled by Jamie Salter) is closing in on a purchase of Quiksilver, Billabong, DC Shoes, Roxy, and Element parent company Boardriders, Inc. For those keeping track, this would make Salter the undisputed king of action sports. No one else is even close.
Authentic Brands Group has proposed a new term loan that it plans to use to support a potential acquisition of Boardriders, Inc., according to a report from Moody’s. . . Boardriders, owed by Oaktree Capital Management, has long been rumored to be on the selling block.
ABG already owns Vision Street Wear, Airwalk, and a very large piece of Volcom. And to think, he started out with the lowly Kemper Snowboards. Talk about tenacity in the business world. Someone hand Mr. Salter a medal!
[Link: SGB Online]
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Snowboarder Nic Sauve and his ER doc wife, Geneviève Gaumond, have built a stylish little mountain get away in the hills on Mont Tourbillon near Lac-Beauport, Quebec, according to a story in Maclean’s.
Inspired by their mutual love of Québécois architect Pierre Thibault, Sauve and Gaumond envisioned a tiny two-floor retreat that used only three materials—bleached wood, grey aluminum and white tile—to minimize visual noise. The build cost roughly $400,000. “We wanted the design, textures and colours of the chalet to be linear, sober and clean, so the house kind of fades away and lets you connect with the surrounding nature,” says Sauve.
The cabin is currently being rented out on AirBnB so if you’re in the area maybe you can stay there. . . or in one of the Sauve’s two other modern masterpieces. All the info is right here: chaletsmicroelement.com.
[Link: Maclean’s]
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A group of female Alpine snowboarders has sued former coach Peter Foley, along with the US Ski Snowboard organization, its former CEO and others for “sex trafficking, harassment, and enabling and covering up repeated acts of sexual assault and misconduct,” according to a story on ESPN.com.
Three-time Olympian Rosey Fletcher, 2010 Olympian Callan Chythlook-Sifsof and former national team member Erin O’Malley alleged in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles that Foley, the national federation, its longtime CEO Gale “Tiger” Shaw and the USOPC “conspired and acted in concert with one another to commit unlawful acts.”
No one from the defense has weighed in on this most recent lawsuit. Previously, Foley’s lawyer Howard Jacobs stated that all the allegations were false. For all the details, please click the link.
[Link: ESPN.com]
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Thank you, Travis Rice. Thank you for leaving out the helicopters filming helicopters. Thank you for cutting it all down to snowboarding. Thank you for taking the sickest drops, for slicing all those spines. Thank you for the perfect snow and brilliant light. Thank you for the epic POV. But, thank you most of all for riding all those lines so we don’t have to (even though watching this kinda makes us feel like we did)!
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Ever since Doug Palladini disappeared mysteriously and suddenly as Vans global brand president on March 17, 2022, we’ve had a nagging sense of “wonder what happened to Doug?” And not being close to Doug it was not a story we pursued with anything nearing tenacity. We’d ask here and there, some would make hints, but no one seemed to have the details, or was willing to share them with us.
Well, last month, on December 28, 2022 Doug shared his story with his Instagram followers. It goes something like this:
On December 28, 2021, I went to see the cardiologist with a strange “twinge” in my left shoulder. Two hours later, I was in the cardiac ICU and two days later I was recovering from quadruple bypass open heart surgery. Today, exactly one year later, as I watch the sun come up over the Sierra’s, I am overcome with gratitude: gratitude to still be here, gratitude for the doctors and nurses who literally saved my life, and gratitude for all of the friends and family who got me through a very difficult recovery. Because of your love and support I am today the healthiest I have been in 20 years, because without health, nothing else matters.
Great news. According to his most recent Insta post, Doug is now an adjunct professor at San Diego State University (his alma mater) teaching, no surprise, brand marketing and communications. As so many have pointed out, those seniors are lucky to tap into a wealth of in-the-trenches wisdom from someone who has done it all and done it well. Seriously.
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