This project has always been about importing and exporting ideas to "remote" locations. Growing up in Utah in the early days of the internet, I didn't have access to the world of fashion and design. When I went away to school in Illinois to study art history and later worked professionally in New York and Germany, I felt like I had missed out on something. It seemed like there was a whole world going on that I wasn't aware of, and from a work perspective, it felt like I was years behind my international colleagues and basically any kid in a major city.
On the flip side, I quickly realized that the community and culture of skiing had something to offer that the people I worked with professionally had missed out on. They would never know what it's like to live at the base of a mountain with quick access to a canyon, to miss school every Friday to go to ski school, or to watch chug life, browse Newschoolers, buy Level 1 DVDs, build summer setups, and even use a tow rope to pull their friends around the neighborhood on skis they found at Goodwill. And beyond my own personal experiences, it seemed that the videographers, photographers, and designers in skiing felt isolated from the studios and designers that inspired me.
So for 77mm, a huge driving question is: what happens when we start pulling from the world of Skiing and Mountain Living while simultaneously referencing the fashion and design from major cities around the world? What happens when we interpret the cultural outputs of cities like Berlin, New York, or Tokyo with a small mountain town perspective. Can we make skiing more accessible to people in locations that don't have skiing in their immediate culture, and more interesting to people in other industries, by speaking to them in their language? A language of art history, critical graphic design, high fashion, etc. Similar to Howard Head with his initial standard aluminum ski, can we make skiing more appealing to a wider audience by reimagining it in new ways and speaking to different cultural references?
77mm's apparel projects have all been explorations in creating wider distribution for the world of skiing. The first Easiest Way Down hoodies and Ski Patrol products were attempts to create a graphic born out of ski signage that was appealing to kids globally while simultaneously reflecting on and providing an ‘Easiest Way Down’ or easiest way in. Surfing and skateboarding have successfully managed that level of global access. You can see a surf or skate brand or shop in every city the world over. People wear skate and surf brands that do neither activity. You’ll see people in life guard apparel but never Ski Patrol. Not because they don’t exist, they just haven’t been executed at a level that made it universally interesting. I did a small run of the Ski Patrol hoodies and it was really satisfying see to them shipped all over the world, being worn by people who have never skied. There are obviously barriers in gear, location, weather, lift tickets that make skiing inaccessible. But by embedding some of skiing in a hoodie, written article, or font, it’s my way of sharing access to the world of skiing that’s brought me so much joy and meaning.
This project has always been about importing and exporting ideas to "remote" locations. Growing up in Utah in the early days of the internet, I didn't have access to the world of fashion and design. When I went away to school in Illinois to study art history and later worked professionally in New York and Germany, I felt like I had missed out on something. It seemed like there was a whole world going on that I wasn't aware of, and from a work perspective, it felt like I was years behind my international colleagues and basically any kid in a major city.
On the flip side, I quickly realized that the community and culture of skiing had something to offer that the people I worked with professionally had missed out on. They would never know what it's like to live at the base of a mountain with quick access to a canyon, to miss school every Friday to go to ski school, or to watch chug life, browse Newschoolers, buy Level 1 DVDs, build summer setups, and even use a tow rope to pull their friends around the neighborhood on skis they found at Goodwill. And beyond my own personal experiences, it seemed that the videographers, photographers, and designers in skiing felt isolated from the studios and designers that inspired me.
So for 77mm, a huge driving question is: what happens when we start pulling from the world of Skiing and Mountain Living while simultaneously referencing the fashion and design from major cities around the world? What happens when we interpret the cultural outputs of cities like Berlin, New York, or Tokyo with a small mountain town perspective. Can we make skiing more accessible to people in locations that don't have skiing in their immediate culture, and more interesting to people in other industries, by speaking to them in their language? A language of art history, critical graphic design, high fashion, etc. Similar to Howard Head with his initial standard aluminum ski, can we make skiing more appealing to a wider audience by reimagining it in new ways and speaking to different cultural references?
77mm's apparel projects have all been explorations in creating wider distribution for the world of skiing. The first Easiest Way Down hoodies and Ski Patrol products were attempts to create a graphic born out of ski signage that was appealing to kids globally while simultaneously reflecting on and providing an ‘Easiest Way Down’ or easiest way in. Surfing and skateboarding have successfully managed that level of global access. You can see a surf or skate brand or shop in every city the world over. People wear skate and surf brands that do neither activity. You’ll see people in life guard apparel but never Ski Patrol. Not because they don’t exist, they just haven’t been executed at a level that made it universally interesting. I did a small run of the Ski Patrol hoodies and it was really satisfying see to them shipped all over the world, being worn by people who have never skied. There are obviously barriers in gear, location, weather, lift tickets that make skiing inaccessible. But by embedding some of skiing in a hoodie, written article, or font, it’s my way of sharing access to the world of skiing that’s brought me so much joy and meaning.
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