‘I Want To Keep Pushing’

When Shaun White released a limited-edition run of 50 signed snowboards in January as a soft launch for his lifestyle brand, Whitespace, he didn’t expect them to fly off the shelves as fast as they did.

With the hype surrounding White competing in his final Winter Olympics in February, the direct-to-consumer boards, available exclusively through retail partner Backcountry, sold out immediately.

“It wasn’t a big money grab; I just wanted to do something exciting to get the word out about the brand, if you’re a true snowboard fanatic and wanted to be in the loop” White told me.

There’s good news, however, for those fans who may have missed out on grabbing one of those limited boards—or even for those who did but don’t want to ride an autographed keepsake. On Monday, Whitespace expanded by launching three new snowboards, as well as apparel and accessories.

In the lead-up to the 2022 Winter Games, White had been competing on his custom Whitespace board, though many may not have realized it. The three-time Olympic gold medalist’s Burton sponsorship actually ended before the 2018 Pyeongchang Games with the expiration of his contract, but his longtime partner supported him through those Games.

Since childhood, however, White had aspired to launch his own brand—like Tony Hawk’s Birdhouse. He thought, How incredible would it be to go to the Olympics standing on my own product.

Not long after the 2018 Winter Games, White and his brother, Jesse, a creative brand director, began to work on the concept that would evolve into Whitespace.

“Every little step of the way has been fully driven by my ideas and my brother’s ideas,” White said. They didn’t want to “go out there swinging with 10 different boards and 20 jackets,” he added; the pair narrowed down the offerings to just the essentials—what White himself might pack on a snowboarding trip.

That’s why the launch includes so many apparel items that would be as at home on the slopes as they are in the city.

The black performance kit includes a three-in-one sherpa jacket that allows riders to stay warm on the mountain and then head out for drinks in something stylish. The jacket retails for $499 and the performance pant, $349.

The signature puffy is similarly warm enough for bitter cold days riding but steezy enough to wear in town. It retails for $299.

If asked to describe the line in three words, White would choose performance and clean. After consideration, he adds that the third might be disruptive. “There’s the clean crispness of the logo and the products we make, but there’s also this disruptive sort of grit as well because we are the newcomers in the space,” he says.

The three boards included in the Whitespace launch similarly provide something for every rider, whether they’re a park rat, a big-mountain shredder or a powder surfer.

The Freestyle Shaun White Pro Snowboard 2023, which retails for $575, is a directional twin with a camber pattern and is available in 150, 154, 156, 158, 162 and 162 wide. (It’s also available as a rounded twin youth board in sizes 100, 110, 120 and 130.)

The AMF Park Twin Snowboard 2023, which was sold out as of this writing, features a camber x rocker profile with a progressive sidecut and blunt tips on the twin shape. It comes in sizes 148, 152, 155 and 158.

Retailing for $595, the Powder! Snowboard 2023 is directional with a nose flex pattern and features a camber flex pattern. It’s available in sizes 152, 155 and 160.

The line also features three goggles that use Lumalens technology for optimal contrast. It’s refreshing to see that the brand encourages riders to “protect their noggins” with the goggles’ seamless helmet integration design. (If Shaun White says it’s cool to wear helmets, the kids in the park don’t have an excuse.)

As with the initial limited-edition snowboarding launch, the Whitespace line is available exclusively through retail partner Backcountry.

“The whole idea was, let’s make stuff that’s fashionable and cool but that’s got the ability to withstand anything a mountain could throw at it,” White said. He’s proud that each product in the line is used, approved, and tested by him. “We’re not trying to come out with a line of cars. This is authentic to me; this is what I know.”

The line takes a cue from what’s happening in fashion currently, with riders cruising around in big puffy jackets and core outdoors brands doing collaborations with high-end fashion designers. That’s what White wants reflected in his brand, and he’s noticed it elsewhere within the industry too.

“I applaud brands reinventing themselves and putting themselves out there,” White said. “For companies that have been around as long as The North Face and Patagonia, it’s really cool to see them evolving with the times.”

White is clear, however, that Whitespace has its roots in winter sports and snowboarding, not in pretending to be a high-end fashion brand. “I think we dabble in those places and want to offer our customers something in that space,” White said. “It’s nice to dip a toe in where we would like to be.”

As White tested the products along the way, he maintained a standard as high as the walls of an Olympic superpipe. “Like my snowboarding career, it’s been an endless pursuit of progression,” he said. “I want to keep pushing.”

The design team, with White’s insight, made “dramatic changes” to the boards and to the line prior to its launch. “The proof is in the equipment; you can’t fake it,” White said. “I’m so thrilled to have people try the products and put them to the test.”

The brand is also a reflection of the different but equally authentic versions of White that exist in the public mind.

There’s the goofy, easy-natured guy making silly videos with his girlfriend, Nina Dobrev, in an elevator or appearing on Saturday Night Live, where White was recently pulled into a sketch, unplanned, while he was on the set to support his friend and host Miles Teller. (Surprisingly, White had never before appeared on or hosted SNL, despite being in the building many times for NBC’s Olympic production. He called it “a dream come true.”)

Then there’s the driven competitor we’ve watched at so many competitions over the years with a brain that has, as White put it, “been programmed by myself to win at all costs since I was seven.”

“For me to even retire was a huge undertaking, to sit and actually allow myself to be content with, ‘Hey, man, you might not win this one,’” the 36-year-old added.

Indeed, in White’s final Olympics, he finished just off the podium in fourth in men’s halfpipe. None of the three medalists—Japan’s Ayumu Hirano, Australia’s Scotty James and Switzerland’s Jan Scherrer—is older than 28. To have hung with that crew, given how much the sport has changed in the last four years (Hirano landed the first triple cork in Olympic history), is an accomplishment in itself.

“Nina’s been an amazing help with all that; what a partner to have,” White said. After his final competition ever in the Beijing Games, the couple embarked on a whirlwind, worldwide retirement tour, hitting places that don’t typically host snowboarding competitions—Monaco, Maldives, Greece.

“In this next chapter, it’s family, it’s friends, it’s relationships,” White continued. “I’m much more confident, much more in tune with my own goals and everyone else’s. I’m not trying to get there alone; I want everybody to cross the finish line together. I could not say that at the beginning of my career.”