Skiing Fucks started in Salt Lake City as a brand about nothing, hence the “100% nothing” text on the original Skiing Fucks cigarette box graphic. Initially, we just wanted a way to share our excitement and stoke for the upcoming snow season. Yet, since its inception in 2020, Skiing Fucks has gradually evolved into a more meaningful brand. While on the surface, we still fully maintain that we are a brand about nothing, we now represent and stand for a lot more than that. 

To fully understand the brand’s ethos, it’s important for me to explain my core values. I hate rules that don’t make sense, gender norms, social norms, elitism, hypocrisy, people who take shit too seriously and straight-up bullshit. This extends into all areas of my life, but I especially believe that anyone should be able to get into a sport and feel accepted, no matter what level they are at. 

You know that feeling after skiing your hardest line yet, topping out your bouldering project or somehow making it down that gnarly bike trail you never thought you’d be capable of? I want everyone to feel that—in their own capacity.

In essence, Skiing Fucks is about inclusivity, challenging norms, saying “FUCK YOU” to The System and calling out the hypocrisy pervading our society. BUT, Skiing Fucks is also about forgetting the politics for a moment and just having fun with your friends. 

With all of that being said, Skiing Fucks can sort of be whatever you want it to be for YOU. At the end of the day, just try not to take yourself too seriously.

One of the original roommates, Landon Hale, is a fantastic photographer (among other things). He is very involved in the skate and punk community in SLC, which is apparent in our original Instagram photos that he took. Landon’s personality, creativity, and artistic style hugely influences the brand.

The rest of our influence comes primarily from our ethos of not taking ourselves too seriously. For example, when we made the logo, we thought it would be funny to choose a dull and strict font to contrast such a ridiculous phrase as “Skiing Fucks.” It is so exciting because people are starting to recognize our branding by the Times New Roman font.

As uneventful as it may sound, Skiing Fucks started on a double-decker dirtbag couch with a group of five roommates drinking beer and watching ski movies on YouTube after work. It was never meant to be a business. We just wanted to spread stoke for the upcoming snow season and make people laugh. In the beginning, we had no graphics, no products, no website, just an instagram with some photos that were funny (to us). One of the roommates,Jeff Preble, decided to doodle the iconic American Spirits box (with a few tweaks) and we thought it would look sick on a shirt. We printed a handful and sold them to our friends. Eventually, the snow melted, roommates came and went, and the brand went pretty quiet. It was far from a business at this point. 

What motivated me to pick it back up the following winter was running into a stranger wearing our shirt and seeing how much they loved it. That feeling is hard to describe, and I still get it everytime I talk to someone wearing the merch. That is what motivated me then and what still motivates me now. 

At that point I became obsessed with making Skiing Fucks successful. Creating a website, filing trademarks, learning about taxes and creating a LLC are pretty tedious tasks that I do not enjoy, but I knew we had something special, and I did not want to miss this opportunity.