TPM Episode 479: Josh Malczyk, Global Brand Director, K2/Line
The Powell Movement
Mike Powell
4.9 • 860 Ratings
🗓️ 6 April 2026
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Josh Malczyk is the Global Brand Director for K2 and Line Skis, he's a good friend, and a guy that I saw go from the bottom of the barrel of ski marketing with a niche brand, to the top of the food chain directing one of the industry's most iconic brands....From the core skier wearing Tall T's to the collared shirt wearing brand guy. It's fun to see friends grow up/move up and last time I talked with Josh on the podcast, he was secretly on his way out of Line Skis for the first time. On part 2,we talk about leaving his job, Season Equipment, coming back to Elevate Outdoor Collective, how K2 became a boot company, and how to bring K2 Skis back.
Josh Malczyk Show Notes:
4:00: Athletes, round 1 at K2, and the beginning of Season Equipment
22:00: Elan Skis: Over 75 years of innovation that makes you better.
24:00: Season, snowboard factories in Dubai, Josh's last Season, and back to Elevate
42:00: Outdoor Research: The best comes out of the Pacific Northwest
45:00: Round 2 at K2 and it's a different company, promoted the top, travel, and more
63:00: Inappropriate Questions with Stewart Beall
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. |
| 0:16.8 | I'm your host Mike Powell, |
| 0:18.4 | and this week I'm going to most likely close my season out by finally picking up my pass at the summit at Snow Kwame. |
| 0:25.0 | The past two years have been the worst seasons of my life. |
| 0:28.1 | This year because of snow, last year because of sickness and death, and over the past three years, I've used skiing as something to make me forget about my shitty life. |
| 0:36.2 | But skiing or not, this year, |
| 0:37.9 | it's been tough to forget. Really, I just haven't been happy in a while either. While I keep saying |
| 0:43.1 | I see light at the end of the tunnel and I might for a day or two, I always get sucked back into |
| 0:47.6 | the vortex of not being happy. And I find myself getting angrier and angrier by the day as well, |
| 0:52.6 | which I think is part of the whole grief process. But really, at 52 years old, while I love skiing and I love that it makes me forget about all the shit in my life, I'm not frothing to be up in the mountain in shitty conditions anymore. From what I saw this year in the Pacific Northwest, to what I saw in Jackson, to what I saw at Palisades, it's really scary to see what's happening to winter. But what's even scarier is what's going to happen in the future. I mean, I am no scientist, but it doesn't look like there's ever a chance of things getting much better. While we should be in damage control mode, we keep loosening our regulations so the rich can get richer regardless of what it does to our planet. |
| 1:32.2 | The crazy thing is that while Protect Our Winners beats the drum in the name of climate change in the outdoors industry, outside of Patagonia making noise, does anyone in snow actually do |
| 1:37.2 | anything that matters? I mean, there are a couple of brands, Alon being one of them, |
| 1:41.2 | who's totally changed their manufacturing process to be more environmentally |
| 1:44.5 | responsible with a production process. But for the most part, so many brands pump products out |
| 1:49.5 | of factories that don't care too much about investing in cleaner and greener manufacturing |
| 1:53.3 | processes. And no, I haven't been to China or places like that to see the factories. But I have |
| 1:58.8 | countless friends, old roommates and co-workers who did |
| 2:01.7 | spend time there, and I would ask them about kids working in terrible working conditions, |
| 2:06.0 | because I just imagined all the kids standing in inches of water. But my friend said that wasn't |
| 2:10.4 | the case. But the chemicals and the processes and the way that they handle their waste is a totally |
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