In recent years the brands popularity has expanded outside of the snowsports community and within the street fashion world.
Many Newschoolers.com members, as well as the snowsports community at large, have witnessed this growth.
So, starting from the very beginning, how did you guys get into snowsports?
We all were living in Denver Colorado and we were friends through work and social circles.
Dave snowboarded while Gabe and I skied.
We all loved being in the mountains and had a borderline unhealthy addiction to skiing/snowboarding.
However, all of us worked full time jobs that required a suit and tie Monday-Friday.
Henrik Harlut, Mike Hornbeck, and NS favorites Chug Life and Brogan.
- Who comprised of the OG Jiberish crew (2005-2008 years) and how were they chosen?
Great trivia question here….
The very first Jiberish athlete was David Byrd.
Only the true OGs will know him though.
It was all black and super clean with just our name embroidered on the upper pocket.
We were always interested in people that had unique and effortless style and did things their own way.
And that is what we curated in terms of a crew.
I rarely posted in or commented in threads, if ever, back then though.
Of the original crew, which of them have had the most impact on your brand as a whole?
We always chose riders based on style, period.
That was all we cared about and still do to this day.
Our crew typically focused on film segments and good video content.
We had our Fam all over major podiums and they did it with style.
But he is also the single most influential skier in the modern era in my opinion.
I put him alongside Candide and Tanner in terms of how much he has shaped the game.
He was doing things with a style that was on a level all his own.
Some of them are absolute legends and just entering their prime too.
At the other end of the spectrum Delorme has consistently been the most emulated I think.
He has a personality and style that people are drawn to.
Adam is really on his own program too.
Hes about as illusive as a spotted leopard.
A stacked roster indeed.
It doesnt bother us at all.
I think it is nice to see that things we have done have gained traction within the industry.
But that is just not how we do things so we never thought twice about it.
That is pretty much the motivation behind our first outerwear range coming out this Winter.
We felt like we needed to push things in a different direction.
It is definitely not for everyone…but that is kind of the point.
Weve never made clothing for the masses.
Some people prefer a darker palate and a more street-focused aesthetic and this line speaks to them.
But there are plenty of people who wont get it and that is absolutely fine by us.
Not a lot of people liked the taller fitting hoodie we made as a silhouette in late 2003.
But the right people did and we focused on them.
Jiberish’s Winter 14/15 Grand Cru Range will be the company’s first technical outerwear collection.
Good question, and I am glad you asked it.
We arent really in a position to address it since we are not especially public as a brand.
That may come across that we dont care about the consumer but that is absolutely not the case.
We are very lucky that lots of other people happen to like the clothing we design.
It is like when a musician or group puts out a new album and older fans bash it.
Most of the time that is because there is this tendency to compare it to previous songs they produced.
We are grateful that our customers have such strong memories of our early clothing design.
At the end of the day we are the same brand with the same people we started with.
The colors and cuts change but what is at the heart of the brand is still the same.
Part of that growth was our insistence on pushing the market and the style within skiing and snowboarding.
Snowsports is and will always be at the core of our business and our personal lives.
https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/772898/Jiberish-presents--quot-Right-Back-Where-We-Started-quot-(Jiberish presents Right Back Where We Started. )
Right Back Where We Started was the closest thing to a Jiberish Family movie thus far.
How difficult was it to get athletes linked up with filmers for this cut?
Is there a chance of something similar coming in the future?
Video content has always been a big part of our brand and that is not going away anytime soon.
We loved making Right Back Where We Started because it was truly a Jiberish Family video.
It was our crew, doing our thing, and we focused on taking things back to the basics.
We wanted it to feel less segmented and more like a running diary of our crew throughout the year.
Blake Kimmel had done the Spotlight Project in 2007 and that was the inspiration for RBWWS.
Blake committed and we got a number of other filmers to hop on board too.
Filming for our videos is always a logistical challenge but we have been able to make it work.
It was like herding cats getting the guys to stay organized.
Anyone who was there can attest to it because it was total chaos.
You had the best park riders in the world all at one place.
Looking back on it, I am not sure there will ever be an era quite like it.
People always would post up too and watch and it turned into a spectator performance.
I was convinced someone was going to die.
We sold-out of them within a day or two of that video being posted online.
I cannot believe it took so many years for the big brands to realize his marketing strength.
It absolutely blew up on the internet.
We had retailers hitting us up from all over the globe asking to carry our clothing following that.
Yeah, as the brand has grown and our style has evolved the video content has mimicked that.
When we first started we had no idea what we were doing and we were learning as we went.
We never had a plan other than we wanted to make good content.
We have surrounded ourselves with a lot of multi-talented and creative people.
But we werent looking to try and make a name for ourselves to the general public.
Is involving the brand with past riders something you like to do?
Absolutely, they are Fam for life.
Its really fun to work with them outside of the skiing/snowboarding context too.
But regardless they are a part of what we created and they always will be.
That is the most important thing to me.
What are your thoughts on the future of freeskiing, and in turn the future of style in it?
Those divisions allow the sport to stay diverse.
Without contest jocks there would be no money in the sport.
Without style focused riders people wouldnt be progressing that aspect.
We have been and will always be tuned into what is happening with the latter.
Lastly… any words for NS?
NS is an amazing entity.
Watching it grow and evolve over the years has been really fun.
But without it there is no way the sport would be what it is today.
It grew alongside the sport and as that happened it maintained its spot as homebase for the community.
You dont find that in many other realms or industries.
