Support snowboarding buy from your local shop

Now it can’t be said that I don’t grumble, as I do like a good moan, but also like to think I am very good at letting my fellow man be himself without ridicule, a trait that is almost a necessity in this job.

I am also (if you hadn’t noticed) very passionate about my snowboarding as to me it is not just a sport, but also a lifestyle and way of life and has over the years been a great medium by which I have met many great like minded folk.

As a result I can be a little protective of our sport and how it is portrayed, which has over the last few years led me to dislike a number of companies for their blatant use of the snowboard bandwagon as a marketing tool. However, whether this is something I have either gotten used to or that now snowboarding is mainstream and not the cool new thing anymore, I have not recently noticed mamy examples of such behaviour. That is until today.

I spend a lot of my weekend time at the airport, some of you may have noticed the weekend regularity of my posts, and today I noticed a lady walk past with a Jack Wills board bag. Now I am familiar with the brand but not greatly ( I don’t own any) and have nothing against them or even their decision to make and sell a very snowboard specific product. Or even that it doesn’t fit in any way their normal product line of their brand statement, that they ‘’create fabulously British goods for the university crowd, drawing inspiration from Britain’s rich history and culture. Clothing authentic and relevant for today’’

What really got me is that it was a super simple sleeve bag with a shoulder strap, no padding or anything that would make it more than a bag that can fit a snowboard in, certainly of much less quality than the free bag pretty much any snowboard shop in the UK would give you with the purchase of a new board.

Now that they would use this poor girls brand loyalty to advertise themselves to the snowboard and ski market annoys me, but to get her to pay for the pleasure of owning this bag at a hugely over inflated price is just plain rude.

A standard padded sleeve bag that you can buy from and branded by your local shop will sell for about £30, Jack Wills had their basic board sac on sale on their website for £129, admittedly it is now reduced to £79. Now I do feel for the poor girl who by being loyal to what could be her favourite brand has bought something that benefits them far more than her or the sport associated to it. If she had gone to her local snowboard shop she would have ended up with something that not only does the job better but been hell of a lot cheaper.

The moral being, support your local snowboard shop, because they support you.

I don’t think it even looks that nice.