Here’s the lastest from Rome Snowboards…with a voicing of opinion over a popular brand making it’s way into the boot industry this year and acquiring a lot of big name riders.
10.13.2008
Should we support the idea that a brand’s roots, involvement in, and connection to snowboarding don’t matter?
Should we say, “hey, athletics-r-us brand, you haven’t given a shit about snowboarding for 30 years and your spandex-clad board of directors still don’t give a shit about snowboarding now, but that’s cool, come on in and make some money off us”?
Should we really accept them as a snowboard or skate company just because they can spend a ton of cash on some of the best, most iconic riders? Does the ability to cut a big check magically turn a pair of figure skates into a pair of snowboard boots?
Should snowboarders lie down and accept it when the mainstream tries to reduce snowboarding to just some other generic form of “athleticism”?
If you think the same logo that’s on that nut-hugger swim suit, golf ball, tennis skirt, jump rope, baseball bat and rollerblade might as well be on your next pair of snowboard boots, what will snowboarding look like in five or ten years? Will it be influenced in a way that’s true to our history?
Does any of this matter?
Does snowboarding even matter?
That’s up to you.
The Libertine Drunk, a collab between the Rome SDS and Consolidated Skateboards, is a limited edition get-together of two brands who think sporting goods companies aren’t snowboard or skate companies.