Sit-Ski Trailblazer Trevor Kennison’s Signature SPY Optic Line Advocates For Adaptive Athletes

Receiving a signature product or line with a sponsor is one of the high points of an action sports athlete’s career. Not only does it signify meaningful investment in the athlete’s career on the part of the sponsor, but it also allows the athlete to more easily connect with likeminded fans and generally build their own brand.

Unfortunately, even in 2023, brands don’t provide nearly as many opportunities for adaptive athletes to launch signature collections as they do able-bodied athletes. That’s why sit-skier Trevor Kennison’s new signature line with SPYPY
SPY
Optic is such a meaningful collaboration—hopefully providing a blueprint to other brands in this space who sponsor adaptive athletes.

In 2014, Kennison suffered a T11-12 spinal cord injury while snowboarding in the backcountry in Vail, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. But rather than ending his action sports career, in many ways, Kennison’s accident was a pivotal point.

The 30-year-old’s demonstrated resolve and determination as he went through rehab and got back on the slopes on a sit-ski have made him one of the most influential adaptive athletes competing today.

He’s accomplished goals few others can claim, including dropping into Corbet’s Couloir at Jackson Hole as part of the 2019 Kings & Queens of Corbet’s event and becoming the first sit-skier to take on the 70-foot X Games big air jump in 2022.

Kennison’s return to the Vail backcountry six years after his accident to attempt the world’s first double backflip on a sit-ski is one of his most powerful accomplishments to date—going well beyond setting records.

As he described, he wanted to go back to the site of his accident for closure and redemption, to accomplish a special goal and redefine the location where he lay in the snow for three hours with a fractured spine, unsure he would live to see another day.

That day, as well as three years of Kennison’s life following his accident, is documented in the must-watch documentary Full Circle, which premiered at the Santa Barbara Film Festival in February (with digital showings to be announced).

With nearly 100,000 followers on Instagram and an impressive roster of sponsors that includes Eddie Bauer, Go Pro, IKON Pass, Fat Tire and SPY, Kennison’s influence on the adaptive athlete community goes without saying—but his story transcends sports.

Sponsors understand that, and more than just checking a box, they are investing in Kennison meaningfully—including with signature product, so crucial to action sports athletes’ overall success.

With SPY, Kennison is part of a curated team of ambassadors, including skiers, snowboarders, skateboarders, surfers and motocross athletes, whom the brand has termed “Change Agents.”

Being part of the heavy-hitting group “is something that still blows my mind,” Kennison said, “as SPY+ sees me at the same level, an athlete.”

The SPY+ x Trevor Kennison Collection includes special edition colorways of the Galactic ($120) and Lil’ Galactic ($120) helmets, as well as new versions of the Marauder Elite ($280) goggle, Marshall ($130) goggle, and a signature color of the Czar ($120) sunglass with a matte black frame.

Both goggles feature condor feather artwork on the straps, a nod to a tattoo Kennison, a New Hampshire native, got to pay homage to his great-grandmother and his Columbian heritage. (The Columbian crest features condor feathers.)

It also, of course, is a nod to his continued desire to fly—now, it’s just on different equipment.

“I wanted to make the design of my gear appealing to a broad audience,” Kennison said. “That’s why we chose the condor feather artwork and the reflective lenses we did for the goggles and sunglasses. It’s not about being an adaptive athlete; it’s about style and performance on and off the mountain.”

Though he hopes his collection resonates with anyone who enjoys outdoor adventure, highlighting an adaptive athlete with signature product is an initiative Kennison hopes all brands can undertake to continue to build up the adaptive community and make it possible for athletes to support themselves in their chosen sport.

“I really hope this collab with SPY+ brings more attention to the integrated marketing of all brands to support more adaptive athletes into their brand identity,” Kennison said.