Industry Profile: Holden Owner Mikey LeBlanc

Job Title: The Boss, The Rider, The Producer, The comedian
Employer: Holden, Snowboarding and Videograss
Years on snow: 25
Days on snow: 40 this year, approx 1600 days total lifetime
Currently Riding: An office chair
Currently I am: Generally happy, AWAKE and making moves.

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Shay: Tell us a little bit about yourself
Mikey: I am a man of short stature, born and raised in Maine by my family and friends. I love snowboarding, skateboardimg, photography, laughing and crying and I have a true talent for seeing peoples talents…

Shay: How has snowboarding changed your life?
Mikey: In every way. It helped me be confident, decided where I lived, who I was acquainted with in most cases, taught me business, made me money, made my creative talents expand. Introduced me to almost everyone I love dearly.

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Shay: How did you get your start in the industry, who or what opened up more opportunities for you?
Mikey: In the snow industry started when I started working at Island Water Sports in Breck in 1994. I was a board tuner…I got hired because I was fortunate enough to meet some amazing people on chairlifts that saw me for what I am, a hustler and a sweetheart, and a killer.

Shay: How has your previous education or work experience helped you in your current job?
Mikey: School education in my best assessment is about a training in time management and also equally about making long lasting friendships and connections to many people. My education came from snowboarding, I worked in shops, in factories and as a pro snowboarder. This was my education about snowboarding and how this industry works… In the trenches from the bottom up…

Shay: Tell us about your role at Holden and a description of the work you do?
Mikey: As the company grows my job titles shrink. I have been involved in all aspects, from financial to design, marketing and sales, and production. Now as we make more hires, I am mostly involved in marketing and sales.

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Shay: What’s an average day like at work for you?
Mikey: 10 hours of too many things and directions to mention.

Shay: What are some memorable experiences from working in the industry?
Mikey: My snowboard career has so many, trips to Chile, being around Whitey and J2 and the MDP, seeing A LOT of first ever dones as far as tricks…

With Holden, seeing our eco-friendlier fabrics come to life that we invented,, watching the look of outerwear we made change the direction of the entire snowboarrd and Ski industry, and now all areas of technical outerwear in general, and regaining 100% ownership of the Holden brand….

For videos, collaborating to make 4 snowboardimg videos that all rule (loveHATE, Burning Bridges, Videograss and Vgrass 2 «Bon Voyage») So many other things…..

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Shay: What do you think are the biggest challenges that the snowboard industry faces and what changes would you like to see for the future?
Mikey: The biggest challenge is businesses that share with its clientele the core elements of snowboarding, staying in business.

Changes I’d like to see is to have the media not be so boring and share some history once in a while.

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Shay: Education vs Experience…which do you think is more important?
Mikey: Experience is a real life education. Education is usually a simulated experience. You take it from there Cause I don’t know anything about that. I just do what I do….

Shay: What advice would you give to people wanting to work in the industry?
Mikey: Know what you want to do and commit to it when you are ready, Don’t burn bridges, buy people drinks and don’t be an asshole… although I once heard a wise man say, «the guy that’s an asshole his whole entire life can be a nice guy for a month and now… hes the nice guy….

Find out more at:

Facebook: holden outerwear

Twitter: holden outerwear

Website: www.holdenouterwear.com and www.videograss.com