These are the skiers that open and close ski movies, cover our walls, and stand on podiums.
It’s impossible in most other sports.
This begs the question, are professional skiers a dying breed?
At their core, professional skiers are marketing assets.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bbz0e54F_fi/
Marketing spends are driven by the ability to prove a return on that investment.
In other words, does the money a brand spend on promotion return as sales?
Nowadays, a brand can put a dollar value on the impressions garnered from a social media post.
This ability to digitally attribute marketing investment has completely changed the game, inside and outside of skiing.
Levinthal acknowledged the financial aspect of the decision as well as the change saying.
We’re going to be supporting more athletes.
Take a skier like Lupe Hagearty for example.
Last year Lupe qualified for free healthcare because his income was under $16,000.
Especially before Instagram and the whole social media explosion."
Skiing is not isolated in this trend, snowboarders, skaters, etc have seen the same changes.
Then it’s like, what the hell am I doing?
I’m stressing over this trick that I can’t get and nobody is going to care about.
Social media creates more opportunity, yet also lessens the value of professional skiers.
