TPM Episode 247: Mike Arzt: Snowboard Visionary, Burton>Airwalk>The Public Works
The Powell Movement
Mike Powell
4.8 • 824 Ratings
🗓️ 11 October 2021
⏱️ 73 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Mike Arzt has been behind the scenes in the snowboard industry since he was 16 years old. He's been a shop grunt, salesman, buyer, Burton factory store employee, RED Sales and Marketing guy, athlete tech, Blue Torch Snow Director, Airwalk employee, freelancer and eventually, entrepreneur. He’s done everything and you’ve for sure seen some of his work…. Between the Red Bull Cold Rush like events, marketing and branding projects, Arzt has been humbly behind some game changing marketing.
Mike Arzt Show Notes:
3:00: Silverton takeover, a love for snow early, and curated luck
10:00: Ryan’s Ski Shop, being the snowboard guy, working with the Bruton Rep, and his first tradeshow
14:00: Going to NZ after High School, setting goals of UVM and Burton and making both happen
20:30: Stanley: Get 30% off site wide with the code drinkfast
Peter Glenn Ski and Sports: Over 60 years of getting you out there
10 Barrel Brewery: Buy their beers, they support action sports more than anyone
23:00: RED Helmets, corporate presentations, money, being replaced and then getting the dream Burton job
30:00: Olympics, leaving Burton for Blue Torch, and Airwalk
40:00: Dragon: Their glasses FLOAT, use the code Powell15 to save 15%
Alpine Vans: Upgrade your adventure, Upgrade your life
Elan Skis: They will make you a better skier...no bs
42:15: T-Bag, the end of Airwalk, Head Snowboards, and Helly Hansen
52:00: The Public Works, Battery 621, and the pandemic
63:00: Inappropriate Questions with Steve “Stix” Nilsen
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Have a seat on your porcelain throne. |
| 0:02.3 | It's time to talk some shit on the Powell Movement. |
| 0:13.5 | Welcome to the Powell Movement. |
| 0:16.9 | I'm your host Mike Powell, and I'm getting fired up for winter. |
| 0:20.3 | I can't wait to get back on the hill again. |
| 0:22.8 | And since I'm not a hardcore drug user, the mountain is the only place in my life where |
| 0:27.3 | I truly do lose consciousness of everything and I'm purely focused on the moment. |
| 0:33.1 | Everybody has some bullshit that is part of their lives, but if you ski and snowboard and |
| 0:36.7 | challenge or maybe |
| 0:37.6 | even scare yourself a little, you're going to forget about all the mental crap. And yeah, |
| 0:42.2 | while that feeling of focus may only last as long as the run does, I feel like I love snow more and |
| 0:47.8 | more every year, not only because it's so rad to experience all the fun that it brings you time and |
| 0:53.1 | time again, but it also helps |
| 0:54.8 | you forget things for a moment, and we all need that freedom. But like anything that makes you |
| 0:59.4 | forget your problems, lift tickets are expensive and habit forming, and the experience is getting |
| 1:04.3 | worse every season. It's like these mega passes that do deliver a cheap fix did solve a problem, |
| 1:12.6 | but as time has grown on, the cheap fix isn't really working. |
| 1:14.7 | With drug users, the cheap fix is fentanyl and it kills people. |
| 1:18.5 | In the mountains, it's the super path that promise cheap freedom but delivers a different |
| 1:22.7 | kind of line. |
| 1:24.0 | And once they've tricked you into that mega pass, they spread their greed out throughout the mountain with parking, expensive food, rentals, lessons, lodging. You get it. |
| 1:32.4 | So that puts us all in an industry where everyone is screaming for diversity. |
... |
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