Shaun White Wants to Amp Up Snowboarding’s Popularity With Snow League

Snowboarding legend Shaun White is launching the Snow League to bring organization, sponsorship, and a sustainable living to the sport and its talent.

Why It Hits: With non-traditional leagues like F1 racing and pickleball attracting thousands of new fans and rich investment, a push to give snowboarding its due could mint the first cold-weather cultural juggernaut.

Between The Powder: With backing from Blackstone’s David Blitzer and former NFL star Larry Fitzgerald, Jr., and media counsel from Range Media Partners, Snow League is ready for action.

• It’s the first year-round, competitive federation for snowboarding and freeskiing, which will kick off with four halfpipe competitions featuring 36 athletes from 15 countries.
• The league will bring together the two things that athletes want most — a world title to go after and Olympic qualification so they’re not bouncing from competition to competition (usually on their own dime).
• The first season will have a record-high prize purse of $1.5 million (split into $250,000 winnings for each event, with an additional $250,000 for season champions) — a huge upgrade from the four figures that winners currently take home from competitions.
• White knows that the real money in snowboarding is from brand sponsorships and media deals, so he and his team are courting luxury and fashion brands (like F1’s LVMH deal) and are prepping a docu-style series (like Netflix’s Drive to Survive).

Closing Run: An all-in-one traveling snowboarding circuit steeped in luxury sponsorships and events is kind of a no-brainer — the competitions will likely take place in high net-worth locales like Aspen or St. Moritz. (F1 races ain’t a cheap ticket either.) In the US, snowboarding participation jumped 10% last season to 9.9 million, and 60% of the 4.6 million recreational snowboarders have an annual income above $100,000. The Snow League has the potential to make competitions a vacation destination in and of themselves.