The Shaun White part of this article is the kind of thing I imagine is said at a third rate business conference. That being said, I have my own observation about Shaun White and business.
Shaun White is the most popular snowboarder right now. I recently started snowboarding and purchased my own gear. What surprised me was that I was not overwhelmed by links to the Shaun White model board + boots + jacket + etc. This is a kid who is sponsored by the biggest (?) snowboard company (Burton), has 2 gold medals, and his own video game. I would expect to see entry level, mid-level, and expert level boards all in the Shaun White line. I really don't understand how they can not market his gear that way. (I am still pretty new to snowboarding, but so far I have not even seen a Shaun White model.) Maybe another HN person has some insight on this (like my ad filter was completely blacklisting Shaun White or something ).
