I’m ready to jump

Scrapes, bruises, broken bones, and all

There have been far too many moments over the past 11 years where I’ve questioned exactly what the fuck I’m doing. What started as a grand experiment to see what happened when women did things society believed men could (or should do) has evolved into something that has yet to be defined. While there’s so much to be proud of and grateful for, making skis and snowboards is not cool, it’s actually dumb, and for a lot of reasons:

• It’s expensive to manufacture hard goods. And by expensive I mean it costs us the same amount many people want to pay for them. I know this because last spring we ran our Community Care Sale, where people offered a price we could either accept or reject. More than half of the offers that came through were less than what we pay to manufacture. I don’t blame y’all, just facts. 

• If the actual cost of goods doesn’t crush you, the shipping will. A box alone is $7, and then there’s the cost of shipping (which we pay for to stay competitive), which runs between $20 and $50 per order. Add to that the labor, and you quickly wish you sold lip balm.

• If it doesn’t snow, sales tank. I get why people are climate change deniers—sometimes it’s fun to act like children and cover your eyes and scream YOU CAN’T SEE ME. Too bad that doesn’t actually make it snow when it’s supposed to snow. If mountain regions across the United States don’t experience major snow storms by mid-December, the season is a wash for sales, despite how skiers and snowboarders perceive the season. Take last season for example—the snow didn’t fall until the end of January, so while skiers and snowboarders remember it as a “good year” because we were shredding pow for three solid months, low consumer confidence in October through December meant we lost the most lucrative quarter of the year.

• It’s bougie as fuck. It’s a wildly expensive hobby available only to the most privileged unless you of course you piece together five part-time jobs in the industry so you get your employee discount and/or are a recipient of charity, which is not inherently bad except for that it’s a model that rarely changes the system. For example, the crumbs—I mean scholarships—big corps like Vail dole out don’t really move the needle. This happens when you answer to shareholders and not your community. 

• You work the most during the best season of the year, winter. Oops. 

• It’s still defined and run by straight white men. My love of sliding on snow oftentimes isn’t enough to push through the heteronormative, sexist, out-of-touch bullshit that comes out of this industry or that dude’s mouth next to me in the lift line. And while I can acknowledge it is better than it was when I started Coalition over a decade ago, because I’m a woman who understands her worth, I refuse to smile and nod at its current state. 

• It’s inconsequential. Obvo… Maybe this is my inner existential crisis revealing itself, but enduring a second Trump presidency on top of his first cluster fuck of an attempt, figuring out how to keep wheels turning during a pandemic, and bearing witness to multiple genocides and climate disasters is enough to make me ask myself, “What was I put on this planet to do?”

I imagine I’m not the only one grappling with that last point. If we already felt like this thing called life wasn’t working the way it’s supposed to, that I wasn’t doing enough, that there had to be a different way, this election—and the impending consequences that are becoming more prescient as we watch the appointees named—are certainly enough to make us want to jump out of the moving car. 

What I feel like I do know is that we have a long and bumpy road ahead of us and there is no need to rush, even with the urgency. I will continue to feel like an asshole while I craft copy for our BFCM sale¹ and update discount codes and count inventory and keep my fingers crossed that we hit our sales goals this month because that’s what it means to run a small business and there’s no shame in that. 

And in every spare moment, I will dream and plan and plot, reminding myself that all at once and right now will not undo what has been done. And if I think what I’m doing now is dumb, I am the one who got myself here and I could undo that, painfully yet carefully and ideally in a way that isn’t a burn-it-all-down but a build-it-all-up. 

And I hope you’ll join me in this re-imagining². 

Until next week…

Jen Gurecki, she/her, CEO of Coalition Snow

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I’d love to hear from you! Share how you’re feeling and what you need in this moment. The comment section is open to all subscribers, paid or free.

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Did you know? Coalition is so much more than a ski and snowboard brand. We are a team of creatives and dreamers who love to get our hands dirty.

If you love what we put into this world and want to infuse the same energy, joy, and je ne sais quoi into your business, consider working with us as a sponsor or a collaborator on your newsletter, creative content, or event. DM us for details.

Other places to find us:

Website: www.coalitionsnow.com

IG: @coalitionsnow

1. Cause your girl is trying to be good at her job, if you want to be the first to know about our big BFCM sale, sign up here.

2. There is an incredible call to action and what I would like to offer paid subscribers is a container to move through everything with grace with ease. A community of people who share your urgency and also support you in moving at your own pace. A network of resources to help you make the best decision on how and where you direct your energy.

You do not need to be an activist (or even an aspiring activist) to attend. You might be someone who:

• Wants tools on how to have difficult conversations with family members over the holidays.

• Is a small business owner, freelancer, or creative and wants to find out how to use their skill and/or business as a tool of change and/or would benefit from learning what’s working and not working for other people as they navigate this and business in general.

• Cannot spend hours scrolling on Instagram or filtering through the barrage of news around them but want to understand what’s going on in the world.

• Feels compelled to do something but isn’t sure what that looks like yet.

• Is really fucking tired and hungover from drinking wine out of a straw for six days and knows that being surrounded by amazing people is what they need to pull themselves out of their hole of despair.

If you’d like to learn more about this monthly offering, respond to this email or send me a DM.