SIA 2010 :: The Soft, Goods Experience

Jan 30, 2010  ·  12:31 PM  ·  permalink

I’ve always liked SIA. Because I like skiing and snowboarding, and I like trade shows that feature live rap performances, Pamela Anderson, and something called a shot luge. That type of stuff is the reason I get up in the morning… you know, around noon.

To be honest, I don’t really know all that much about ski gear. I buy it if it looks cool.

So when SnowHugger asked me to cover SIA in Denver, I figured the regular guy could cover how the newest magnesium thing TOTALLY helps you do that one other thing better, faster. Because when I boiled it down, I don’t care about skis and snowboards. I care about girls.

And girls, I reasoned, are often found underneath cute hats.

So my column posts will be about items that probably don’t get a lot of play at giant sexy shows like SIA. Sure, you’ll see an article or two about soft goods after the newest story about how everyone’s going crazy with the rocker this year (whatever that is…). But it always seems to take a back seat to the things that might actually get you some action after you’re done skiing.

Which, incidentally, makes you kind of a rock star when you wander the show floor with a uniquely passionate, focused obsession with crafting 200 words about a helmet or a hat.

But along the way I ran into some actual items that weren’t just attached to attractive women- I found some things that looked like they actually took some time to create. And so I thought I might actually write the posts, after all, and not just use the numbers I collected as a personal dating service- because that would be wrong…

Maybe I’m not as shallow as I thought… or I’m a sociopath. Either way, though, you’ll learn a little about what’s going down on the softer side of the sport.