Originally published by GrindTV.
Last month, the skiwear and menswear brand Aztech Mountain announced that ski icon Bode Miller would be joining the brand, assuming the role of chief innovation officer.
According to Observer.com, Miller — the most decorated male skier in U.S. history — will assist in product development and marketing initiatives, and serve as the face of the brand’s Autumn/Winter 2016 ad campaign. Miller’s foray into the fashion world is not the first for an action sports athlete. Here are some of the more notable athletes who have dabbled in the fashion industry.
Shaun White is the most successful snowboarder of all time, with 15 X Games gold medals (the most ever), two Olympic gold medals and a professional snowboarding and skateboarding career that stretches back to age 13, when he made his debut at Winter X Games 2000.
In 2008, White launched the Shaun White for Target line, a boys clothing collection inspired by the action sports lifestyle.
Following the success of that line, White decided to launch another clothing line this year — WHT SPACE, for Macy’s — which White stressed has a more adult aesthetic, with focuses on premium denim and hand-painted leather.
Given that he has his hands in seemingly everything from art to wave parks, it should come as no shock that Kelly Slater — with his history of modeling for high fashion — would test the waters of fashion design.
Slater partnered with menswear designer John Moore to release his Outerknown clothing line last year. The brand focuses on using sustainable practices to present surf style in a mature manner with classic accents.
Trevor Andrew (AKA “Guccighost“) is a 37-year-old Canadian snowboarder who competed in halfpipe at the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics. He’s turned a lifelong obsession with Gucci into a job, designing a clothing line for the luxury brand.
The story, according to W Magazine, goes as follows: Strapped for a last-minute Halloween costume in 2013, Andrew cut a pair of eyeholes in his Gucci bedsheets and walked through New York City, where multiple New Yorkers called him the “Gucci Ghost.”
Encouraged, he went through the city painting his “GucciGhost” interpretation of the Gucci logo on walls, and developing an online following for it. Before long, he caught the eye of Gucci’s creative director — Alessandro Michelle — who asked Andrew to collaborate on a fall/winter line of clothing.
Alex Olson is the son of legendary skateboarder Steve Olson, who was inducted into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame in 2014 and is credited for “introducing skateboarding to punk rock at the dawn of the ’80s.”
Yet despite his father’s big shadow, Olson has established a legacy wholly his own through skateboarding and fashion design. The 30-year-old Olson turned pro for Girl Skateboards back in 2008, and currently rides for Nike SB.
But away from skateboarding, Olson has developed and designed two separate fashion brands: The unisex Bianca Chandôn brand (which has been praised by the New York Times “Style” section) and the Call Me 917 skatewear brand.