Coolhunting

Shaun White Launches the Snow League

A new take on competitive snowboarding and the culture that surrounds it Few names in snowboarding carry the weight of Shaun White’s. A three-time Olympic gold medalist and cultural icon, White has …

Mar 13, 2025 - 13:39

A new take on competitive snowboarding and the culture that surrounds it

Read Culture

Shaun White Launches the Snow League

A new take on competitive snowboarding and the culture that surrounds it

Mike Tommasiello

13 March 2025

Few names in snowboarding carry the weight of Shaun White’s. A three-time Olympic gold medalist and cultural icon, White has spent decades redefining the sport, pushing the limits of progression, and elevating snowboarding into the mainstream. But even with the rise of snowboarding’s presence in the Olympics, he saw a glaring gap: outside of those high-profile years, competitive snowboarding has been losing steam. Longstanding events have disappeared, and the infrastructure to support pro riders has thinned. Enter Snow League, White’s latest venture—a high-stakes, globally broadcast competition series designed to inject fresh energy into the sport. With a refined format, elite sponsorships, and an emphasis on storytelling, The Snow League isn’t just about competition; it’s about creating a cultural moment.

the-hideaway-by-pacifico-at-the-snow-leagues-inaugural-event — Chromeo, Photo by Riccardo Savi/Getty Images. Courtesy of Pacifico

Founding partners including Pacifico tapped into this cultural moment with The Hideaway by Pacifico, an exclusive afterparty held at a secret set of coordinates, inviting fans to seek adventure. Rene Ramos, SVP, Brand Activation, Constellation Brands, tells us, “Both Pacifico and The Snow League embody a sense of discovery and encourages its fans and consumers to tap into their adventurous spirit” an idea woven throughout the tapestry of the soon to be global event.

Shaun White, Photo by Riccardo Savi/Getty Images. Courtesy of Pacifico

From Aspen to China and beyond, White is reimagining what a pro snowboarding circuit can be. We caught up with him in Aspen, at the tournament’s launch, to talk about the league’s ambitious launch, its athlete-first approach, and how it could reshape the future of the sport.

Why launch Snow League now? What gap in the snowboarding world are you looking to fill?

If you look at the past few Olympics, you’ll see that snowboarding and free ski has had an increase, right? It started with halfpipe, then they added slopestyle, now big air competition. Within the Olympics it’s trending upward because it’s exciting to watch, the athletes are colorful, they’re great people and the viewership is there, so they’re getting the numbers. Outside of the Olympic years, there’s been a decline within snowboarding. There used to be an event called The Dew Tour backed by Mountain Dew. They started with five events, went down to three, down to two [and then none] The Burton US Open used to take place that had multiple events over the season. [Now there’s the Burton Mystery Series]. It’s an interesting time where I just think something new needs to come about, and everybody’s been doing the same thing for so long that it just felt like the right place in time.

I’ve been able to use my voice [in my retirement] within the sport, my connection with the resort owners and operators, my ability to talk to sponsors, and obviously my connection with the athletes. I was poised to do all this, [and I] love it. We kind of poked the line. I started calling athletes saying ‘Hey, would you be interested in this?’ I talked to all these amazing, incredible athletes, and they were thrilled at the thought of this series in this league. Then the resort operators, everybody, agreed we needed something new. Something exciting. Dreams become a reality. All of those ideas came together and here we are today. But I do also think that there’s a disconnect where for the longest time within the sport, there’s a stereotypical sort of party element to the rebellious beginnings of the sport of snowboarding.

jiayuliu_womensqualifiers_s1e1tsl_adammoran_4502 — Jiayu Liu, Courtesy of Snow League

And it’s a culture within the sport, and it’s totally great, and there are elements of that still within the sport, but I don’t think it is the sport, you know what I mean? The clientele that comes to Aspen is very wealthy. They want to have this experience, they want to have a good time. And I feel like other events that come to town, they skew much younger. Twenty year olds party, it’s totally fine, and I get it. But the marketing, everything they’re doing is skewing to this younger audience. We’re not excluding the younger audience, we’re just bringing that elevated Aspen experience to the clientele that comes here. And along with them, sponsors, Tiffany is making our trophies. We’ve got Pacifico Beer, and Grenadier. We’ve got these incredible brands that want to be invested in winter sports but haven’t found their in until now.

There are a lot of different things that are coming together to make this event special. I want to treat athletes like athletes. I want to make them feel special. We’ve made jerseys with their number, their country, access to locker rooms. it’s this elevated experience not only for the people coming, but for the athletes themselves and the highest purse price within the sport, with equal pay men and women. There are amazing things that aren’t happening at other competitions, and we’re trying to set the standard.

Through Snow League, you’ve essentially created a platform for new young talent. How did you go about choosing the riders for this inaugural season? What’s it been like to really create this space for so much new young talent that’s trying to follow in your footsteps and go through the doors you’ve opened?

It’s great. We do invite riders, but it’s not an invited series. We go off the world points which are accumulated over the season. I’m sure we’ll come up with our own type of qualifying point standard, but for now, that’s what everybody’s going off of. Most countries choose their athletes from that point list, and we’re going off that for season one. These are all invited riders from that point list. We’ve got some incredibly talented athletes here, and for our event riders will be getting points that qualify certain nations/countries for the Olympics.

ayumuhirano_mensfinals_s1e1tsl_dashanosova_7817 — Ayumu Hirano, Courtesy of Snow League

It’s a top tier event. I wanted to make sure that’s important. I would hate it if I were competing to have to go out of my way at an event that wasn’t getting me to the next level where I needed to go. That’s the whole point of this—it’s one place where you could show up, make great prize money and get amazing exposure. We’re broadcast over 90 countries and [athletes are] telling their stories. We put microphones on the athletes, which hasn’t been done before. We want to get in the huddle and hear what are they talking about. How are they feeling? Are they nervous? Are they excited? Are they angry? We are taking cues from other sports, but a lot of it’s through my personal experience. We’ve actually changed the format of qualifying and we changed the format of the finals.

You’ve obviously seen the evolution of snowboarding firsthand. How does Snow League push the progression of the sport?

I think the big news is the qualifying and the finals format. The finals format is unique to our event because they are doing a head-to-head showdown, similar to a March madness sort of bracketing system. The first place qualifier goes against the last place qualifier and so on. It’s a format that people know from traditional sports. We have professional judges that aren’t actually judging, but can give us a play by play of what happened and why. There’s a lot of sports science explanation of what’s happening to get people that don’t know the sport to better understand it. We’re doing a new type of head-to-head format that’s going to create more drama, more excitement and get more technical. When you start the finals, when you’re competing against another athlete, you get to choose which wall you drop in on first. Then the next run, you’re forced to use the opposite wall that you dropped in on because it naturally changes the order of tricks that you can do. There’s only so many variations of what you can do coming in on one wall compared to the other. It’s going to be a lot of strategy, a lot of upset, and a lot of interesting ups and downs through the season.

xeutongcai_womensqualifiers_s1e1tsl_adammoran_4415 — Xeutong Cai, Courtesy of Snow League

What’s your vision for the league long term? It launches in Aspen but where do you go from here?

We’re off to China as our next stop—Secret Gardens where the Olympics was hosted. And then we are going back to Aspen and then to Switzerland. Let’s get the athletes excited, get the sponsors excited, get the broadcast, everybody pumped up, show ’em what we’re about. The points from this event will roll over to next season, and that’s kind of the traditional sort of run of shows we’ll have in the following years. We’ll start with China and we’ll move through the season, but we hope to get to 10 to 12 events over the next two to three years.

Sponsorship and media are such a big part of modern sports. How are you making sure that Snow League is as much of a cultural moment as it is an athletic one?

We’ve got some amazing people here that I don’t think I’ve ever seen at a snowboarding competition. J Balvin’s running around, and my friend Miles Teller from Top Gun. You’re seeing the sort of people that would come to an event in Aspen here and join themselves. It’s like you’re getting people that follow them and excited about them now looking at the sport. I feel like it’s blending the genres from music to movies to models, people you can see. It’s just a different walk of life here. That’s why we chose Aspen. It’s one of those places that’s talked about and looked at as a premier destination internationally as well. As we evolve each event will have its own life force to it. China will obviously be much different than Aspen, Locks will be different than China.

the-snow-league-celebrates-inaugural-event-in-aspen — Big Boi, Photo by Riccardo Savi/Getty Images. Courtesy of Snow League

I think the biggest thing I’ve asked for is geting feedback from the athletes. Did the qualifying feel good? Did you get your runs in time? How do you feel about the final format? Give us advice. Was the catering good? Give us the feedback. We want to make it better and put the athletes first. There’s a reason why we changed the format for qualifying. Normally you would show up to do your run, you have 30-40 men competing and they start. When I was riding I was the top seeded rider, so I would drop in last. I would wait sometimes over an hour before my run actually started. You’re in the mountains. I would have to go for a free ride around the mountain and call my coach and go, Hey, tell me when it’s my turn. Five people up and I’ll come ripping back and try to get my run done.

That’s a pretty bad way to do it, so now we’ve changed the format to be small, heated brackets. What happens is within that bracket, you get to go immediately because there are fewer riders. It’s not four, it’s more than that. But you see this quick turnaround. Ff you made a mistake in your run, you pop back to the top, you can do your run again, and we guarantee the riders that you won’t wait over 20 minutes between the runs. I was explaining this to the athletes and they’re like, yeah, we get it. They’re like, oh, we have a rider involved. Even with the finals format, I’m like, look, you’re going against somebody, this competitor of yours, and you can play to their strength or their weakness, because what I would do is I would just create an unbeatable run and then just rinse and repeat it throughout the season.

If you could go back and pitch this league idea to your teenage self, what would your reaction be? What would you think?

Oh man, I’d pitch it to myself today. They made me a jersey with my name in the USA, and I was like, oh, I feel the desire to compete. It’s so fun to see. Obviously it’s an emotion that I still carry. I think if I told my younger self, I’d be on the moon having a common place where I can follow a tour throughout the season that’s going to not only broadcast me across the world, but I can make an amazing living just doing the competitions, that crescendos with a big prize, a big blowout event at the end of the season, and I get my trophy. I would be very, very pleased.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity