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Stop Skiing in Jeans. It’s Not the 1970s Anymore.
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While denim daredevils ruled the slopes last century, today’s skiers generally prefer high-tech snow pants. A brief history
https://www.wsj.com/articles/stop-sk....co/bf3sKc73Ig
By Jacob Gallagher
Feb. 5, 2020 3:10 pm ET
PITY THE denim-wearing skier. The bottom line is that “skiing in jeans is a terrible idea,” said James Fox, 48, a digital librarian in Acton, Mass., and lifelong skier-turned-snowboarder. As he pointed out, jeans are neither waterproof nor insulating. Those who brave the bluff in jeans are often inexperienced bunny-hill bumblers who don’t know any better.
Ribbing them is a rite of passage for seasoned skiers. Last month, Backcountry.com, an online outdoor retailer, issued a knowing promo email with the cautionary subject line, “Friends don’t let friends ski in jeans.” The inside joke even turns up on bumper stickers like the popular “Dick Cheney Skis in Jeans,” repurposed as partisan political swipes.
Yet not so very long ago, wearing jeans on the mountain conveyed insouciance. In the 1970s, irreverent ski bums favored denim over one-piece ensembles that might be seen as trying too hard. In the satirical 1980 guide “The Official Preppy Handbook,” an elite, young ski enthusiast is shown wearing straight-legged Levi’s “which don’t really segue into boots.” And in 1987, jocular rappers the Beastie Boys similarly wore straight-off-the-street outfits, including crinkly jeans, while skiing in Missoula, Mont. For the cocksure slopester, practical ski pants were seemingly not an option.
If anything, denim’s cool factor on the slopes arguably rose in the later 1980s and ’90s when nervy snowboarders would glide off snow-packed ramps in faded, wide-legged jeans. Those snowboarders were either confident that they would never fall or, more likely, unwilling to let judgmental peers deduce that they worried about taking a spill. The jeans were part of a rider’s “steeze,” said Kyle Edson, 26, an apparel designer in New York and longtime skier. “I remember seeing that out West a lot as a kid, tall tees and jeans—really baggy jeans.”
Even though technical fabrics supplanted denim, so vital were jeans to the history of snowboarding that in 2010, snowboard brand Burton dressed the Olympic team in waterproof Gore-Tex ski pants screen printed to look like ratty, faded denim.
Might jeans become trendy again? Certain unflappable, hotshot skiers still bomb down the mountain in real denim. “If you see someone in jeans who’s really crushing some moguls, it’s worth respecting,” said Tom Livingston, 31, an actor and artist in Seattle, Wash. who had just finished an afternoon of skiing when we spoke over the phone. Of course, you can also dance through moguls with ski pants on. And they’ll also keep your ankles dry. Just saying.
Stop Skiing in Jeans. It’s Not the 1970s Anymore.
Beastie Boys, that’s a funny shot. Never seen that picture before.