What is Freeskier doing in Las Vegas? Weren’t they just at X Games in Aspen?

Yes, while it may seem odd for Skiing’s Independent Magazine to be cruising around Las Vegas, sunning their bums in the desert sun, testing their luck in craps and throwing it down on the tables there is a legitimate reason for us to be here. Namely, the Snowsports Industries of America (SIA) trade show. Annually, the entire snowsports industry hops a flight to Vegas and cruises into the Mandalay Bay convention center to throw one massive tradeshow where we can all show-off our next year’s offerings.

Since it is our duty to show you what’s going on in the world of skiing, we’re going to show you what these companies are offering for the 2009-2010 or “oh-ten year” as we’re calling it.

SIA Day 1 – Super Gallery

Because we have so many photos and it takes forever to go through our photo galleries, we’re banging out a Super Gallery so you can easily jump through all the photos. If you still want to save any of the images, we’ve got them to the right inside our traditional photo galleries as well.

Spyder

Spyder has a whole new look for 2009-2010, as some of you may have seen from their athletes in the X Games, which they are very proud of! Go Colby, Keri, Duncan and Tucker!

Here’s what they’re looking forward to next year…
– The CR Johnson jacket is now more affordable than ever and is offered in three colorways. We’ve got video of the new jacket that we’ll be posting online tomorrow, so stay tuned.
– Denim is back, as you can see from the photo below.
– Spyder is offering a full line of jerseys, bandannas, gloves and lifestyle gear to match all of their products.
– They have a new pattern called “sickbird” that you saw on their X athletes, it comes in three colorways (red white and blue, go America) and is super original.

The new Spyder “sickbird” pattern pant.

Unicorns doing it? Nice touch, Spyder.

Oakley

Oakley is one of the most tech, legit and sought after brands in the ski industry. With athletes like Tanner Hall, Simon Dumont, Grete Eliassen, JP Auclair and more riding for them, it is hard to not recognize their gear. For next year, Oakley is once again stepping up their game, introducing a completely new goggle frame and a series of signature series apparel from their athletes.

As always, new colorways for the goggles.

The new Oakley Spice goggle, similar to the Crowbar however it has a different nose bridge which they are calling a “breathe right fit” that sits lower on your face, is more comfortable to wear and still has all the stellar Oakley High-Definition Optics that you come to enjoy.

Oakley doesn’t just go make a jacket and throw it on one of their athletes, they work hand in hand with them to make sure that their signature jackets match the personalities of the riders. Here is Grete Eliassen’s “Trina” jacket, it’s named after her favorite rapper, Trina, who she has shared the stage with. Ask her about it, she’ll go on and on about the night…

This is probably the most popular jacket on the planet right now, due to Simon’s X Games performances in pipe, big air and slopestyle. Introducing the Air Raid jacket and pant. Sorry folks, the Empire logo on the bib is just for Simon.

One of the rad new colorways for the Crowbar, the Canada color. Guaranteed we see Matt Harvey wearing this one.

Under Armour

Year three from Under Armour is not going to disappoint, as these folks have been continually stepping their game up in the outerwear biz. As many of you know, these folks offer the most technical baselayers and are introducing a completely new material called Base MAP which is certainly a game-changer.

The Base MAP technology is the warmest, lightest and driest midweight baselayer fabric around according to Under Armour. Their athletes agree.

Under Armour is stoked to have Justin Dorey, Bobby Brown, Mike Clarke and Tanner Rainville joining the team this season.

All Under Armour gear has Armourstorm construction, which means that it is fully waterproof, breathable and has tapered seams.

This season, the folks at UA have teamed up with Recco to do a custom Recco reflector in the arms of their jackets. Very stylie, and safe.

Also, Under Armour hopes to have Scott Hibbert (Team Manager) out of the land of poutine, hockey and maple syrup very soon. Stay tuned.

Helly Hansen

Ok, we all know that Helly Hansen has been around forever, 130+ years actually. They’ve been an innovator since day one and make some of the most trick outerwear in the game. This year, they’ve teamed up with Moods of Norway, one of the newest and hottest brands out of Oslo to create some really original and sweet new pieces.

Still killing it with super tech baselayer systems, upping the style game.

Simple, stylie and very functional. Classic HH.

HH DownFlow system (the jacket is inside out) provides all the warmth of down, however allows for air to circulate inside the jacket thanks to the hexagonal pattern. I told you they were super tech with this stuff…

Well, that’s it from day one here at SIA. Stay tuned to Freeskier for daily updates from the biggest and best companies here at the tradeshow!