U.S. Free Ski Branding Takes Shape Ahead of Olympics

(ATR) Even before winning full acceptance at the Olympics, the disciplines of freeskiing become a brand in the U.S. thanks to a sponsorship from The North Face.

The outdoor clothing and gear company has signed an eight-year deal to become the first sponsor for the new U.S. Freeskiing brand. The move demonstrates the marketing appeal of the free skiing, even before all of its disciplines gain Olympic admittance.

Although halfpipe skiing and slopestyle skiing are only provisionally on the Sochi 2014 program, the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association is confident enough of their popularity to build the brand around them. Another discipline, skicross, is already in the Games.

"Go on a mountain -- this is what the young kids are doing now. They are freeskiing," Andrew Judelson, chief revenue and marketing officer for the USSA, tells Around the Rings.

The North Face, which prides itself on pushing boundaries, believes it has found a good fit with freeskiing, considered the new frontier of snowsports.

"We have a rich history in snowsports, both ski and snowboard," Aaron Carpenter, vice president of marketing, The North Face, tells ATR. "Over the last decade in particular as we’ve grown really rapidly, we’ve been involved in the key milestones in snows sports."

"The freeski element of skiing in general is growing like crazy, so we see massive opportunity in the future of the sport," says Carpenter.

Brand Identity

U.S. Freeskiing joins two other established USSA brands: the U.S. Ski Team and U.S. Snowboarding.

"You clearly have a segment that is distinct and different from the traditional U.S. Ski team and Snowboarding," Judelson says.

"Freeskiing is a convergence of the two. You’re taking the technology of snowboarding, applying it to twin tip skis and taking them into halfpipe and slopestyle. These are new ways people can compete or recreate in snow sports."

David Ingemie, president of SnowSports Industries America, tells ATR that by highlighting freeskiing as a separate brand, "It allows them to bring in more money."

"What’s sometimes not understood by people watching amateur sports is how much it costs to do them," Ingemie says, "It’s not inexpensive to put on an event, or to fly teams of 12 or 14 and coaches and support staff all over the world. They don’t just show up and go down the hill."

Judelson expects a logo and brand identity to be announced in mid-summer. By then, International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge likely will have decided which new events or disciplines will debut in Sochi.

Sochi Program Unfinished

Slopestyle snowboarding, Women’s ski jumping, biathlon mixed team relay, figure skating team event and luge team relay are also under consideration.

At the Executive Board meeting in Acapulco in October, Rogge was tasked with making the decision following the world championships -- and after consultations with the IOC sports department and other relevant stakeholders. IOC spokesman Mark Adams tells ATR to "expect the decision possibly at or around" the EB meeting in London in April, although the precise timing is still to be determined.

The North Face Advantage

Judelson says that by becoming U.S. Freeskiing’s first sponsor, The North Face is making "a huge statement. They’re willing to take the calculated risk" associated with believing the disciplines will get into the Olympics.

The North Face will outfit the U.S. team at both the 2014 and 2018 Winter Olympics, but its presence will obviously be bigger if all disciplines are included.

"We know the announcement hasn’t happened yet," Carpenter says, "but we saw Vancouver and saw how the sports were evolving there and we could see there was a pretty clear path to the Olympics."

The North Face already has ties with the sport through the X Games and The North Face Park & Pipe Open Series and will be increasingly involved in big events in the run-up to the Olympics.

Although Carpenter says the company "doesn’t get too hung up on age," skiing and snowboarding are among the "action" part of the business. "(Freeskiing) does skew a little younger," he says, "and is also one of the fastest growing parts of our business so it’s a key element in our future plans."

Ripe for More Sponsors

Judelson expects other sponsors will be eager to strike deals. He says suppliers, such as ski manufacturers, "are unbelievably excited about freeskiing because this is where they’ll sell a lot of skis. In a very fragmented industry, this will allow them scale to reach competitive participants and 16.5 million skiers and snowboarders in the U.S."

Unlike hockey, in which a majority of fans never get on the ice, many skiing and snowboarding fans head for the mountains to experience the sport firsthand.

Most ski resorts now have a halfpipe and terrain park for slopestyle.

"Skiing is what dad did, so somebody did snowboarding," Ingemie says. "Dad’s now snowboarding, so you have freestyle skiing."

And the ski industry isn’t the only one that will want to catch a ride with the freeskiers. "I’m sure there’ll be an auto sponsor in a minute," says Ingemie, who also expects credit card and phone companies to show interest. "If you want to hit that 16- to 24-year-old,you’d better be in this."

Freeskiing is also a natural for television. Shaun White, the halfpipe snowboard gold medalist who was the highest-paid male athlete at the 2010 Winter Olympics, is also one of the best in the world in slopestyle That means the U.S. broadcaster winning the rights to the Sochi Olympics would have White competing in both weeks of the Games.

Organizing the Right Way

When snowboarding officials approached the U.S. ski federation in the late 1980s for help getting organized, there was no clear consensus on a leadership structure. The industry and culture were resistant to management.

"We didn’t engage the industry the right way to reinforce the brand," Judelson says. "We learned. We spent years reestablishing the relationship with the core to make sure we were embraced and respected by that culture."

To head off a repeat of those problems, the federation held a round-table focus group in December during an event at Copper Mountain. Athletes, such as Jen Hudak (ski halfpipe), agents, sponsors, media partners and industry representatives took part.

"The outgrowth from that was collaboration," Judelson says, "working together versus the USSA forcing something upon a culture or a core set of participants. The good news is we’re doing this the right way."

Competition Testing

The top freestyle skiers in the world will compete Feb. 2-5 in the 14th Freestyle World Championships in Utah at the Deer Valley and Park City Mountain resorts. Park City is considered one of the best freeskiing resorts in the world.

Ski halfpipe became a world championship event in 2009 and slopestyle makes its debut this year.

"It is very important to show how well halfpipe and slopestyle can be run and that these sports have amazing talent and depth," event director Jeremy Forster said in a statement. "We are hopeful Worlds will give these events the momentum they need to become Olympic sports."

An event this week in Denver is more for the benefit of sponsors than the IOC. Fifteen of freeskiing's premier brands will choose three skiers to compete head-to-head in the Nature Valley Big Air "Battle of the Brands" event as part of the Denver Big Air presented by Sprint.

A 102-foot high ramp will be in Denver's Civic Center Park. The brands are Armada, Colorado All-Stars, Faction Skis, Full Tilt Boots, Head, Icelantic, K2, Line Skis, Marker – Volkl, Moment Skis, Nordica, Rookie Team Rev Tour, Scott, Tecnica Blizzard and 4FRNT Skis.

Post-Olympic Year Growth

The U.S. Freeskiing brand is part of unprecedented growth for the USSA in the post-Olympic year.

"From a strategic brand marketing perspective, few times in one’s career do you have an opportunity to literally launch something from the ground up," says Judelson, who joined the USSA about eight months ago, after stints as Chief Marketing Officer for the Sports Illustrated group and senior vice president of corporate sales and marketing for the National Hockey League.

Judelson says that net revenue typically would shrink in the year after the Olympics by at least 10-20 percent.

With unprecedented athletic success in Vancouver – 17 U.S. athletes brought home 21 medals – and very few retirements, "I am very bullish on the fact we can say we will have growth in our business this year over 2010," says Judelson, who declined to give specific numbers.

He says the USSA will announce a four-year hotel partner deal and that the federation has "significantly increased" the commitments from incumbent partners in their renewals, thanks to an ability to show greater value and leverage returning athletes.

"We need to deliver value to our partners, 24-7, 365 days, not once every four years," Judelson says.

Written by Karen Rosen.