

What Shaun White Teaches Business - jeffvincent
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/mar2010/id20100319_530576.htm

======
RK
The Shaun White part of this article is the kind of thing I imagine is said at
a third rate business conference. That being said, I have my own observation
about Shaun White and business.

Shaun White is the most popular snowboarder right now. I recently started
snowboarding and purchased my own gear. What surprised me was that I was not
overwhelmed by links to the Shaun White model board + boots + jacket + etc.
This is a kid who is sponsored by the biggest (?) snowboard company (Burton),
has 2 gold medals, and his own video game. I would expect to see entry level,
mid-level, and expert level boards all in the Shaun White line. I really don't
understand how they can not market his gear that way. (I am still pretty new
to snowboarding, but so far I have not even seen a Shaun White model.) Maybe
another HN person has some insight on this (like my ad filter was completely
blacklisting Shaun White or something ).

~~~
jraines
I think snowboarding is the kind of culture that wouldn't respond to something
that direct. It's an outsider's culture, so the branding you want in
snowboarders' heads is "the best riders ride Burton" not "be like Shaun by
purchasing the new Shaun White Limited deck".

