Shaun White’s Journey From Olympian to Entrepreneur

0:00When creating your own company, you realize that you're building the mold. You're the one in the driver's seat going, we need to do this. Or, you know what, this isn't working for us. Let's pivot to that. You know, you're really in control. And that's been so exciting for me because I've been in that mold for so long with other brands.

0:24Hey, what's going on? I'm Benjamin Gottlieb, and you are listening to this special episode of Shopify Masters, your companion for starting and building a business. If you are a fan of snowboarding, you're a fan of Sean White. Five-time Olympian, three Olympic gold medals, 15 golds in the X Games, which of course is an all-time record. I could go on and on. But as any elite athlete can tell you, life after sports can be just as challenging. You're sitting with this intense competitive drive that brought you so much success. Where do you channel it? Well, for Sean, part of that answer has been his company, Whitespace.

1:03It's an active lifestyle brand that sells gear and apparel for both on and off the mountain. Sean is my guest today, and he's here to tell you why he's turned to Shopify to scale his business. Sean, what a treat. Thanks for doing this, man. Of course. Thanks for having me. This is awesome. You're welcome. You know, as much as I'd like to talk about all your favorite lines at Mammoth or Bear Mountain, I guess we got to start with this idea of change, right? You had a big change in your life recently, retiring from professional sports, something you dedicated your entire life to, and then you turned to entrepreneurship.

1:39Why? I mean, for me, it just felt like the natural sort of progression. During my career, you know, on the slope competitively, like while I was competing, it just came with the territory that through success, different brands that I worked with wanted to have like signature products. So it's like, oh, we should have a Shawn White pro model snowboard and a Shawn White goggle. And, you know, these products started coming my way, which was fun because then I got to, you know, sit and like test the different items and make changes. And then, you know, I think later on in my career, I even got involved in the marketing side.

2:15Well, like, how is this item going to be now portrayed to the consumer, all these different things? And what I was getting was a crash course in how to build my own brand.

2:30which was so fun to realize later on. I'm like, wow, I kind of built this skill set over these years, and now I can apply it to something that I'm doing. But I always felt like my job as an athlete when joining a company was interesting. It always felt like it was my job to best fit the mold that they've created, but still be myself. You know what I mean? So it was limiting in a way, is what you're saying. Yeah, you know, they have their logo. They have their slogan. These are the colors we use. This is how the products view. This is what we do. This is us. And you go, okay, that's cool. So how do I fit that, but still try to be me in a way?

3:06Because, you know, most people that were fans of mine or are fans of mine, you know, see me in a certain way and they're like, oh, okay, he's just kind of jumped ship and is now doing this thing over here, which doesn't align with everything else we see. So not only for myself, but for the brand, they would want me to have my spin on it. And then when creating your own company, you realize that, you know, you're building the mold. You're the one in the driver's seat going, we need to do this. Or, you know what, this isn't working for us. Let's pivot to that. You know, you're really in control.

3:38And that's been so exciting for me just because I've been in that mold for so long with other brands. So it was something that kind of naturally came my way. And I've ridden for other companies, you know, like I mentioned, my whole career. so to be able to you know part ways was a little intimidating you know it is nice to just kind of live in that safety net of being with the brand that you know but for me it just felt like this was time and then I actually didn't realize this last Olympics would be my last Olympics I'm definitely the guy that was like I got four more in me they're like I don't know maybe but yeah and the hope is that this is something that lives on much further than my competitive career.

4:22Absolutely. And you've had partnerships with so many brands, Burden, Oakley, I could go on with that list. But I think it is really interesting because even though very few people in this world have had an experience like yours in athletics, this experience of starting a business is somewhat similar. You know these products so intimately because you were using them for work, literally every single day. So back to this idea of starting your own business. How did you determine what products to start with and what to build? No, it's good. I mean, I think when looking at the brand, a lot of consideration went into what's the initial offering?

5:05What do we want to do? And the nice part about the brand is we're not exactly creating things out of thin air. You know, we're using my life and my sort of, you know, years in the sport as a template for like, well, if I wouldn't use it or I'm not into it, why would we put it into the brand? So when looking at it, I was like, okay, let's do the quality over quantity sort of thing. We could have splashed the market with a bunch of different snowboards, but I'm like, well, what do I use? And what do we really want to pinpoint? I was like, okay, perfect. I need something that I perform on. This is my competition board.

5:39This is for your advanced rider. The rails are thinner. You can make your turns better. It's a little stiffer course. Yeah, then you got your powder board. That's for the kind of all-mountain sort of riding. I hesitate to call it a powder board because I can ride it switch. You can kind of, some don't allow that. This is like really, you know, that perfect powder board that I want. They're perfect kind of all-mountain board. And then I have something a little softer. I usually ride it a little bit shorter in length, and I ride that in the park. So it's like, perfect. We'll have these three boards, and we'll just like, you know, really hit home with those.

6:17And then when looking at the line to do the outerwear, it was like, oh, well, exactly that. I want this specific jacket. It's called the performance jacket. And it's like, this is what I compete in. I need something lightweight that keeps the water out, keeps the wind out, and something I can kind of drop a layer and be comfortable in it because I don't want to be cumbersome while I'm riding. And then we went to like, OK, the cargo jacket. That's that mid-weight jacket that's like perfect for these kind of conditions. And so everything that's kind of geared around what I would need and what I would use on the mountain, competition or not.

6:48And then when thinking about the company in general, I was like, well, man, I'm in New York right now. I'm in Tokyo. I'm in these places, but I'm also then up at the mountains. And there's only so much stuff I can pack with me. I'm like, I need to make items that I could probably wear around the city and not look odd that I'm like, why is he wearing a full-on ski jacket? Into this restaurant. Yeah, like I look like I'm gonna compete. Yeah, I need something that like, you know, crosses that bridge of fashion and function. So I think we did a really good job there kind of making these items. Like we had a kind of thermal underlayer that I wore on the mountain.

7:25And then I was in New York and I wore it under a suit to receive an award that night. And it was totally, no one said anything. No one's like, is that his thermal layer? You know what I mean? It's like, no, that's legit. No, it works. And that's the way we kind of designed it. And when I say we, you know, my brother is an amazing guy. He's been in my corner for a long, long time. And when I was being offered those products we mentioned earlier, you know, the goggles, the gloves, the helmets, boards, all those things, he was the one I turned to because it's my older brother. I was like, what do I do?

7:56Give me advice. How do you help me? Like, and he'd just be weighing in on it all the time. And then I'm like, why don't you just design it? And so he then became my kind of in-house sort of family member designer, one man design team. And he was in my corner creating all these lines with me. and we had a lot of success and we actually parted ways at one point. Um, you know, life just takes you different directions and he wanted to do something different. And I was like, okay. And, um, and we came back together to do the brand white space. So it's been this amazing sort of like, you know, the old things are clicking, everything's coming back together.

8:32And, and, um, you know, having, having him in my corner again, it's just been so fun and so rewarding, especially at this stage in my career as well. And by the way, for folks who are listening, if you want to check out some of the products that Sean is talking about, head over to whitespacesnow.com. All sorts of things from snowboards, goggles, men and women's apparel. It's all there on the site. And Sean, by the way, you've got one of those boards in the background right there. I got to ask, which board is that? The white one. This is the SW Pro. So this is like the really performance driven one which is a funny story about this because I didn't necessarily know I wanted to do the line right away.

9:08I had hopes and aspirations to do it, but I was like, ah, you know, I could do this, do that. I'm really weighing my options. And in between sponsors, they changed the rules around what wax you can use on the mountain. So certain types of wax were kind of, and should be, they were banned because it's not environmentally sort of safe. The wax gets into the snow, the snow melts into the water. It is just a whole thing. And so thankfully, they changed it, but everybody had to switch what type of materials they're using on the bottom of their boards because the new wax wasn't really compatible with the old materials.

9:45And so everybody was in a rush to get these boards made at a factory in Switzerland. And like, I'm one of everybody calling in to get these new boards made. And so through them, I'm like dialing this in. I'm like, hey, I want the edges like this. I want the nose this shape. I want the flex. And yeah, we had different things coming through and little did I know that that would be this board you see behind me. I was like, oh, this is perfect. We can start this company off with like this thing that I just dialed in to be the board I rode at the Olympics, which is really fun. It's really fun. And of course it makes perfect sense for you to have a company like this, but I want to take a turn a little bit to the folks that are listening, because we have a lot of people at home or wherever they are listening to this episode right now who are like, I have the greatest idea.

10:31I'm an expert in X, Y, and Z. But it's a little bit scary to take a leap of faith and to jump into something that maybe you haven't done before, which is run and manage and market your own business. If I could, do you have any advice for someone who's sitting on that precipice? Maybe if I could use a skiing pun, looking over the top of that cornice down that run and like, should I drop in or not?

11:00I'm pretty gut driven. It's like, what's your gut telling you? And what are the goals and what are the sort of things that you need to hit along the way? You know, are you looking down that run and it's just all cliffs and there's only one tiny way to make it to the bottom? Or are there a couple options? Do you see the full run or do you just see part of it? But, you know, for me, even in my competitive career, I had the vision of the entire season in my head. I got to do this contest, then this one. And by the time I get to there, I'll be the, you know, everything in a big picture. And then I would break it down into these little kind of bite-sized achievable things and then make my way through it.

11:38But I think that's really it. It's like having that plan and knowing, you know, is there people around you that can support you to do that? So I'd love to sit here and say that, you know, I'm hanging my hat doing everything. I'm not. I'm not. And I can't.

11:59I know what I'm good at. I test the products. You know what I mean? I can firsthand give you the best board out there because that's what I needed to, you know, deliver the performance that I've had over the years. And I know that I can weigh in on the marketing and the visuals and all those things, but I need to rely on other people. So like I said, my brother's in my corner doing those things. I have another friend of mine that's doing the kind of behind-the-scenes, making sure the shipping's going where it needs to be. But I would say really dig down deep and kind of feel what is your gut telling you.

12:31And if this is something that's been going over and over and over, man, you have to take that leap of faith. it's like you know people say it's probably a coin phrase all the time but you can fail at something that you really don't like doing you know what i mean and and to take a chance on something and do something that you've always wanted to do and you will enjoy doing and it's firing you up i remember i called my friend his name's miles we used to be we used to just be little buddies that that met at a snowboard contest when i was about eight years old and He's running the behind the scenes for me.

13:06Oh, no way. Yeah, yeah. It's amazing. It's awesome. The company's not like what you would think. I think a lot of people would assume that there's like this huge financial backer and there's this big giant marketing team and all this stuff. No, it's like three or four of us and we're just scrappy. We're getting it done. It's finding what people are good at and being able to help them achieve those goals. Just like I know I'm good at this part of it. We need the other people to fill in those spaces. And you can't really do it alone. It depends on what your business is and what you're trying to push forward.

13:38But, you know, having that sounding board of people around you is really, really helpful. So in other words, understanding what you're really an expert in, but then finding the right partners or coworkers or employees who can kind of fill some of those other spots, which really brings me to my next question. Because as I mentioned, this program is for aspiring entrepreneurs. and a question that we get a lot is how you determine who you should partner with. One of your partners for Whitespace is Backcountry. How did you decide they were the right team to work with? No, it's a great question. For me, when I was sitting there thinking about starting the brand, looking down that, what did you say, the face of the mountain there, the top of the fall line, over the corners, and you're like, okay, here we go.

14:25So, you know, I realized I'm like, wow, what can I really do right now? What's my bandwidth, you know? And if we're going to be doing, obviously, I was heading into the Olympics to compete in China. And so I'm thinking, wow, I know I want to dial in the boards and we can do that. We can handle that on our own. But when it came to the outerwear, the underlayer, all these extra items, I'm like, backcountry just made the most sense because they're tried and tested in the industry. they have the respect, but they also have that customer service, right? So they have what they call gear heads where you can call up and I've used them.

15:02I'm like, what, what bicycle helmet do I, you know, I call them up for anything, things that have, don't have anything to do with snowboarding, but you can call them and get an expert to tell you what you're looking for and steer you in the right direction. I mean, I think going into a shop and, and buying a board, something like that, you're, you're meeting somebody, you know, in real life and that really helps you. This is the same exact thing, but online. But that was a big question. I'm like, who's picking up the phone when there's an issue? Who's picking up the phone when, you know, somebody has a question or something's gone wrong or something, you know, and it was so important to work with them.

15:33And the team's been amazing, obviously, you know, using their manufacturing, using their distribution, using their, you know, email blast to get the word out there. I mean, of course I can, I can do some crazy tricks and do some things and talk about it, use my social media, but that only goes so far. You really need to get that awareness out there and to build that sort of groundswell. So I think that they were kind of like a no brainer for us. And it allowed us to spend all of our time doing one thing really great, which was the boards, then to do a lot of things okay. Yeah. It's funny to hear you say, I can do some crazy tricks because you've done stuff that people had never seen before.

16:15So you're kind of underselling, being a little humble about that, I think, Sean. But it's interesting to hear you talk about what you were looking for for a partner. And for folks that are listening, that's the same exact thing you should be looking for, right? If you're using a service or a product and it's something that resonates with you, there's a good chance it'll resonate with your customers. Speaking of partnerships, Sean, you've also got a partnership with us coming out today. Yes. This is a limited edition release on the Shopify store, Custom Beanies. Tell us about that, if you don't mind.

16:46There's a couple of things that happened when this came about, which I'm so thrilled about the partnership because again, looking down the face of the mountain, I was like, wow, well, you know, Shopify, you have some of the biggest brands in the world using the platform. I'm like, we want to be competitive. We want to be in the same space as these others. And it was just like that next jump for us. But the funny part is that the founder of Shopify actually started with a snowboard brand. He wanted to start a snowboard brand and sell snowboards and was like, gosh, there's nothing that really helps.

17:19And then built the platform to sell the boards and realized that the platform was actually quite valuable and something that people would need maybe more than the boards. But I just love the kind of ripple effect that the action sports industry and snowboarding and specifically has with people. And I just loved that about their origin story and our origin story. And so the beanies have a little kind of Shopify and Whitespace logo. And I was like, oh, this is so cool to kind of bring it back and do something, you know, where it all started. Where it all started. Toby's story, of course, is integral to what we're doing here at Shopify.

17:55And by the way, if you're interested in some of the products, again, these are limited edition. So head over quickly to Shopify.supply. My guest today, Sean White, five-time Olympian, three-time Olympic gold medalist. Before we continue with the program, I'd like to take a quick moment and thank you, our listeners, for joining us today on the show. Shopify Masters is your companion for starting and building a business, but we're also building something else, a community of entrepreneurs. So please, if you can, leave us a review with your feedback on today's episode and make sure to follow or subscribe to the show wherever you're listening.

18:32And thanks so much. Back here with Sean White. Sean, you could run a brand on any platform that you choose, but you picked Shopify a couple years ago. Yeah. Why? No, I mean, obviously some of the most, you know, amazing brands in the world use Shopify. So we wanted to be competitive and be, you know, in the same ballpark and professionalism that they were. But I think for me, it was the ability to convert viewers into sales.

19:06So actually getting people to the site and having that amazing experience and then jumping and actually buying something and supporting the brand. And to see just, it's hard to talk about because I'm somewhat, obviously a perfectionist, but what we had going to what we have now is just night and day difference. And not only am I more proud of the brand and more hyped to send people there, but the response has been amazing. And when people go on, you can actually view and see everything. And it's less clicks. It's just straight to the point. And you're getting the message across and it's clean.

19:43It's just awesome.

19:50You know, the decision was not a hard one to make, but we're so thrilled with what we've been able to build. And by the way, if you want to check out some of the gear, you can head over to whitespacesnow.com. It's all right there. It looks very chic. You mentioned something that's really interesting, which was how things looked a couple years ago to how they look now. I know you're a perfectionist. But can you recall some of the pain points you had and where Shopify was able to kind of alleviate some of those? I think for us, it was a point where anytime we wanted to add something new, it was like pulling teeth.

20:24Every time like, oh, let's switch this image out or let's click the link and that'll bring you to this page that shows, you know, these color options. And like, well, in order to do that, we got to reconfigure the entire thing. It was just everything had an extra step or some type of headache in it. And it really kind of capped our creativity and our ability to show what we wanted to show. And so when we made the switch and revamped the site, it just, everything just got a lot easier. So now when I'm like, oh, I just shot this cool clip. I want to put that as this. Or I want, you know, when you scroll over the jacket, this happens.

20:59Like, it just got a lot easier. And that's the cool part about it. And everything's so fast-paced right now in the world with social media, all these things. I can go shoot something, have this amazing content and put it onto the site and, you know, get sales from it because people are excited and want to see what we're doing and what's different. And we're not limited by, um, you know, our tag. Yeah. You don't have to go to like a big time developer. It doesn't take days or weeks to put something up. You can literally do it yourself. This is what it sounds like you're saying. Exactly. Yeah, exactly.

21:31I want to go back a little bit to what you said about filming some cool content and then posting it or using it for marketing for folks that are looking to sell products online. This is a major pain point. What do I post? How do I collect it? Um, obviously because of the nature of your experience, your professional experience in this craft, you go out and shoot something snowboarding and, you know, you know exactly what you're looking for. But I'm curious when you want to put something on your site or you want to film some content related to white space, are there things that you're particularly keying in on that you want to hit before you go out and do that?

22:05Yeah, I think obviously getting the product clear and, you know, having all that just displayed nicely. But I think the story behind the product is the one that we like to hit home. It's like, well, why? And what's different about this than anything else? Like, I just had a whole story about the board behind me, how I developed this, I competed on it. And this board is what you're getting at the store. That's what I ride. It's not a version that's souped up for me and we kind of like mellow it out for the consumer. Like, no, this is exactly what I use and you're getting. And I think there's something special there to tell that story.