By: Felicia Dumont

Athletes in the snow sports industry are notorious for traveling the globe to ski against the top competitors at the best mountains in the world. Freeskiing is saturated with young boys and girls who are eager to shred every peak on the planet. There are extreme benefits to this profession, like the opportunity to learn of foreign cultures and their people, but being on the road all the time is not all perks. Living out of a suitcase, eating out at restaurants, and always sleeping in a hotel bed, couch or a buddies floor can be tough on your emotions, immune system and family. So, courtesy of the professional athletes and industry friends at Empire Attire, we would like to provide all you traveling snow sports athletes with 10 tips on how to successfully live on the road.

Photo Credit: Torin Yater-Wallace

1. Peter Olenick

“Bring more clean socks and undies than you think you’ll need.”

2. Simon Dumont

“Get an agent.” Agents really help with managing travel. They will help you sort out where you need to be and when.

3. Jossi Wells

“The best tip I can give, and it’s pretty legit coming from me because I always take too much, when it comes to packing, pack what you think you need.  Then cut it in half and you’re good to go.”

4. Torin Yater-Wallace

“Don’t drink soda, ever.” Torin is still working on his travel skills, first being how to sleep on a plane, a trick not yet mastered by the young ski star. 

5. Luke Van Valin

“Always pack your bag the night before your flight, specially if your going to the after party.”

6. Jake Largess

“Pack as many socks as possible”

7. Gus Kenworthy

“Make sure you travel in jeans because getting a boner in sweatpants is not very fun on a plane”

8. Colby West

Click to Listen “Colby West Travel Tip“

9. Brian Schroy

“Stick to one airline.” That way you can rack up frequent flyer miles that provide you with priority through long lines and gets you upgraded to first class.

10. Michael Spencer

“Make sure you have one carry on that just has everything you would ever need where ever you go; computer, phone, passport, toothbrush, toothpaste. If you have all of that in your carry on who cares if you bags get lost, you can go anywhere.”

X Games Europe is an entirely different experience than it is in Aspen.  Apart from the different language and the culture, the parties go until 8 in the morning, humans survive off beer and baguettes, and the fans are truly fanatical.  I witnessed kids jumping over security guards just to get a picture of Bobby Brown, completely sacrificing their bodies to the gravel below.  The X Games are a great opportunity for superstars in winter sports to appear in front of a massive European audience.  People travel from all over the continent to witness the contest and feel the excitement of action sports.  It is only right for the athletes to pay their respects by putting on a show for the people of Europe, and that is exactly what they did.

Bobby Brown was able to pull off the win in Men’s Slopestyle, taking down the nearly unbeatable Tom Wallisch.  Bobby skied so consistently all day, throwing down 3 different runs, all of which were stomped.  Bobby scored a 95.00 on his second run and was able to secure the lead.  Second place went to Tom Wallisch with a 93.33 and Andreas Håtveit in third with a 92.00. Andreas was wearing our black Team Pipe Glove. On the women’s side, Kaya Turski took home the gold medal with a 92.66, followed by Anna Segal (91.00) and Dara Howell (89.66). Kaya Turski has won 6 straight gold medals at X Games, 3 in Europe and 3 in Aspen.

In the superpipe, the young Torin Yater-Wallace finally earned his first X Games gold medal with a 95.00.  Torin has podiumed with silver in 2011 and bronze this year in Aspen.  Thomas Krief, the hometown hero, proudly represented his country with 91.66 points and a second place finish. It was a very beautiful celebration for Krief and his family and friends.  David Wise was bumped out of his winning spree and received a third place finish.  For the ladies, Roz Groenewoud was on top of her game scoring an 89.33.  This was Roz’s second X Games gold of the year.  Second place went to heavy hitter Devin Logan with an 87.66 and third to the local girl, Anais Caradeux, with an 85.00.

The Empire Attire team was a little banged up in Tignes.  Unfortunately, Simon Dumont tore his ACL doing a straight air in the pipe.  Simon rushed back to Colorado to undergo surgery, which was a great success. Even though he is upset about his injury, Simon is looking on the bright side.  He believes that this injury is going to make him more motivated and hungrier than ever when he gets back.  Henrik Harlaut also had trouble with his knee and decided to sit out the slopestyle competition.  He says his knee is feeling much better and that he will be skiing again very soon.  Jossi Wells was experiencing severe pain in his ankle.  Although Jossi competed in slopestyle and halfpipe, he was forced to take it easy to prevent further injury.

The AFP is thrilled to announce that the Dumont Cup has changed from a Gold level event to Platinum status. This is the first Platinum level event to strictly feature slopestyle. The competition will be held at Simon Dumont’s home mountain, Sunday River, on March 22-25.  Granting the East such a significant event will provide athletes with an equal opportunity to compete at the highest level.

“Every year the Dumont Cup gets bigger and the course gets better,” said Simon Dumont. “Sunday River has helped to make all of this a reality and we are only going to grow from the contest’s platinum rating.  Hopefully, over time we can add new disciplines such as halfpipe and a nighttime big air.”

“The Dumont Cup has grown into something bigger than any of us could have imagined,” said Michael Spencer, AFP Vice President. “The fact that kids from the East are able to attend a contest of the highest level and compete against the best pros in the world, without needing an invitation, is an experience unlike any other.”

The Dumont Cup offers a unique Am/Pro jam format where amateurs split the roster of the finals with prequalified professionals.  Over the last two years, former amateurs Alex Schlopy and Nick Goepper took home the cup and launched their professional careers as a result. The Platinum level slopestyle will provide even greater exposure to East Coast up-and-comers.

The US Freeskiing Grand Prix at Copper has come to an end.  It might have been the first halfpipe competition of the season, but it sure did not appear that way.  There was no holding back in the finals for this talented group of athletes.

Simon boosting switch

For the Empire team, Jossi Wells, Simon Dumont, and Sarah Burke advanced to the finals.  Peter Olenick decided to compete in qualifiers, after a long time out due to injury.  He took it very easy in his runs, being that it was his first day back in the pipe, but the crowd went wild for his flares and 900 at the bottom.  Jossi boosted high with effortless style, which the judges rewarded him for.  He decided to stay away from some of his more daring tricks, since he also had a season full of injuries last year. Jossi still earned a respectable 8th place finish.

Peter Olenick back on his feet

Simon took a serious digger at practice last Tuesday.  He shook it off in true Dumont fashion and decided to compete in qualifiers on Wednesday. Simon qualified 3rd in his heat, throwing down a safety run.  He decided to go for it in the finals, putting together one of the more technical runs of the day.  Unfortunately, Simon was unable to get enough speed for his double 1260 on his last hit and ended up in 9th.  The competition season is very young and Simon will be the man to beat when he puts his run to his feet.

Simon peeps the competition

Sarah Burke was a trooper in the women’s competition.  She put down a solid run in qualifiers, which did not get scored as high as she would have liked due to a couple butt-checks. On her second run, she took a gnarly fall on the deck but got up with a smile.  She advanced to finals with her first run, but could not quite stick the run she wanted.  She finished the competition in 7th place.

The kids line up for Jossi

By Brian Schroy

After many months of debating, Simon Dumont has finally made a decision on which ski company to represent on the road to the 2014 Winter Olympics.  He will join living legends such as Bode Miller, Lindsey Vonn, Ted Ligety and Jon Olsson as the newest member of Head Skis.  Simon will be the face of freeskiing for a company predominantly known for its excellence in ski racing.

Simon stated earlier this afternoon, “It’s awesome to be a part of a winning team. Being alongside athletes like Ted Ligety, Bode Miller, Lindsey Vonn, Elisabeth Görgl—and being compared to World Cup athletes of that caliber—is very exciting for me. They’ve opened up their race program to me, and are treating me like a world class athlete. I love the skis, and I love the materials they use. It’s a team of athletes that loves to win, and you know how much I love to win.”

We could not be happier with Simon’s decision. Head is a highly reputable company that makes an unbeatable product. We feel that Simon’s future is in very good hands.

by: Brian Schroy

The Red Sox have been the pride and joy of New England since they were founded in 1901. Now they are more popular than ever. Growing up in Maine, Simon instantly became accustom to the Red Sox culture. He patiently waited for the Sox to win the World Series in 2004 and celebrated again in 2007. Thanks to Sunday River, Simon’s life long dream became a reality as he stepped onto the pitchers mound at Fenway Park to throw the first pitch. 37,000 fans waited for Simon to release the baseball into the glove of catcher. Only one thing crossed his mind as he stood on the top of mound, “I better not mess this up”. After much debate over which pitch to throw he decided to go with a good old fashion fastball. The pitch made it the distance, but did not quite make the strike zone. Simon has no plans to switch from skiing to baseball, but he can now say that he threw the first ball at Fenway Park.

What was the highlight of your night at Fenway Park?

Simon: It was amazing being able to walk around the field without even being looked at by security. I got to walk over to the Green Monster and touch the scoreboard. I also had the chance to walk around the bases. It felt like I was on top of the world. I was amazed how long I got to stay on the field. I walked around for at least 30 minutes before the game even started.

Would this be considered a career highlight for you?

Simon: It was not as much a career highlight as it was a great sense of achievement. Growing up in Maine I loved the Red Sox. We all did. When I got to walk over to the mound and throw a pitch in front of a sold out crowd I realized I had truly made it. It was a dream come true.

Do you think it would be a different experience for you if you threw the first pitch for another team?

Simon: Absolutely. It would have still been a great experience, but nothing could have topped throwing out the pitch in Boston. Boston fans are unlike any other fans in the world. They love their team win or lose. Throwing the pitch somewhere else would have lack the energy of Fenway Park. That baseball field is filled with history and I got to become a part of that.

Who do you have to thank for making this event happen?

Simon: Sunday River made this all possible for me. They even game me 7 tickets to give to my family and friends. Also Red Bull was very helpful. They had a truck escort us to the game and provided us with an awesome after party at the Greatest Bar. All in all it was a perfect night and I am very thankful for the experience.

Simon and his mom at Fenway.

Entrepreneurial Empire is a blog series dedicated to documenting the business development process at Empire Attire, Inc.

We at Empire believe in transparency, community, and networked development. Inasmuch, the purpose of this blog series is to share with the world our feats and failures as young entrepreneurs.

Staying tuned in the future you might catch stories about lessons learned in social media development (we’ll let you know whether or not this blog series is successful, for example) what its like working closely with professional athletes / entrepreneurs, how you deal with last minute manufacturing dilemmas and how to find the right work / party balance (this is crucial).

We offer this blog series to the world of aspiring and active entrepreneurs, to our friends, fans and shareholders, and to anyone who appreciates the drama intrinsic in a young enterprise. So without further ado, our first installment:

The Evolution of Empire Attire

Image by Ryan Parks

by: Otto Hanson, Empire Attire COO

It would be unfair to begin this series without explaining how Empire Attire evolved into what it is today. And so, for the first installment of our business development series, we offer the reader a brief history of Empire Attire.

In late 2007, Freeski icon Simon Dumont realized that no one was making a ski glove that fit with the styles and trends in the sport and lived up to the rigorous quality standards expected of an athlete who spends more days on the slopes than off. He enlisted the support of friends and family within the industry to found Empire Attire, and together they began building gloves that would eventually grow to become a benchmark of style and quality within the freeski world.

Between 2007 and 2011 Simon grew exponentially as an entrepreneur along with the support of Jake Largess, Tim Russell, Steele Spence, Michael Spencer, Empire’s loyal athletes, their sponsors, and many other friends and family. The company had many successes and, as one might expect of any bold entrepreneurial endeavor, many failures. The team at Empire progressively became better and better versed in the arts of glove design, marketing, sales, and yes finance and accounting. Simon looks back and remembers at one point thinking: “This is a lot harder AND a lot more fun than I had expected.”

Towards the beginning of 2011, the founding team at Empire Attire decided they had sufficiently brought the company to life and given it a support system that was stable enough to bring on additional team members to explore other opportunities within the company. Today, Empire has three new full time employees along with most of the original team, and we are going harder and stronger than ever before. The new management team, combined with the original team, is actively exploring all kinds of wild possibilities like changing the company’s name and logo, branching out into other actions sports, and entering into other product categories. These are some of the big decisions we plan to write about in this series and we hope to get your feedback regularly so please stay tuned and don’t be bashful.

Lastly, we wanted to mention that none of this would be possible without the generous support of Simon’s and our other athlete’s sponsors over the years, namely: Red Bull, Toyota, Oakley, Target, Nike 6.0, Salomon, Giro, Rockwell, Kicker, and Sunday River. We at Empire Attire only hope that we can grow to be large enough to give back to the sports communities like these great companies have.

“Here is an edit of all of my best comp runs through out the year. As you can see there are so many competitions through out the year and I wanted to take a second to say thanks to all my sponsors that allow me to do all of these competitions.”

-Simon Dumont

by: Brian Schroy

Over the course of the next few months, we’ll be giving profiles on different athletes across the action sports world, which we started last week with our piece on Peter Olenick. This week, we’re continuing with our penchant for obscure knowledge, and asked Simon Dumont to sit down with us. After asking a few questions, we managed to dig up 10 facts that most people never knew about the man, the myth, the legend.

1. What is your biggest fear?
“ My biggest fear is not being remembered as one of the best skiers in the world. I want to leave the sport with a legacy.”

2. Apart from skiing what are your favorite activities?
“I enjoy tennis, golf, road biking, volleyball, and anything else involving competition. I like to constantly challenge myself so I do not lose my competitive edge in my down time.”

3. What is your favorite condiment?
“I love any kind of hot sauce. Hot sauce releases natural endorphins and it just tastes delicious. If there is any hot sauce brand looking for an athlete then let me know.”

4. What is the weirdest thing you have ever made a profit off of?
“When I was a little kid I was in an LL Bean ad skijoring. Skijoring is when you ski behind a group of dogs.”

5. What is your favorite place in the world?
“Rio De Janeiro. It consists of rainforest, great beaches, amazing food, beautiful women, and a breathtaking city. What else could you ask for?”

6. If you could choose any other sport to be professional at, what would it be?
“I would be a golfer, driver, or soccer player in Europe. Those guys live the life.”

7. Who is your celebrity crush?
“I have 3: Keira Knightley, Minka Kelly and Rachel McAdams.”

8. If you had to choose, would you rather do the Quarter Pipe or Cube Pipe again?
“I would probably choose option C. Shoot myself in the arm.”

9. Who is your favorite athlete outside of skiing?
“I would say Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan. I admire the best of the best.”

10. Who is your biggest influence?
“Riley Poor. Someone who has gone through so much adversity and can stay so positive makes me envious.”

If you want to win a full line of gear hand signed by Mr. Dumont, please enter our Facebook Contest Facebook Contest by July 1st.

Empire’s own Simon Dumont and Jossi Wells have been chosen to help resurrect Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign. Here’s a killer behind the scenes look at the upcoming commercial.