Alex Hall and U.S. Ski Team Helped Spyder Design Its New Eyewear Line

If you follow freestyle skiing, then you follow Alex Hall.

The 22-year-old American on the U.S. Freeski Pro Slopestyle team is one of the sport’s fastest-rising stars. While Hall may not have been a household name to casual fans of skiing in his first FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships in 2017, he entered the wider radar when he competed with Team USA

TISI
in Slopestyle at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics.

And after winning his first X Games gold medal in Slopestyle in 2019, it’s clear Hall’s career is moving into even higher elevation.

Hailing from Fairbanks, Alaska, growing up in Switzerland, and now calling Salt Lake City home, Hall is one of freestyle skiing’s most exciting young stars, modernizing the sport and navigating the tricky balance between progressing tricks (more flips and spins) and imbuing his riding with style.

But it’s a strange thing to be a fan of a national team like the U.S. Ski Team or U.S. Snowboarding Team. Unlike in the five major North American league sports, MLB and the NBA, NHL, NFL and MLS, skiing fans don’t walk around in jerseys with their favorite skiers’ names plastered across their backs.

It’s a quirk in merchandising and marketing that has kept U.S. skiing stars from reaching their full potential off the slopes in their quest to become household names and connect with fans. But Hall’s new collaboration with eyewear brand Spyder may be turning things in the right direction.

Spyder partnered with Hall and the U.S. Ski Team to launch its first eyewear line, which incorporates features designed especially for skiers, like interchangeable polarized, ion mirrored and UV protection lenses on the SP6015 model and a plastic lanyard that extends out of the frames and connects with a magnet on the SP6006.

Hall points out the lanyard isn’t just useful for snow sports; he does a lot of fly fishing in the summer, he says, and the lanyard is handy when he bends over to unhook a fish or re-tie a fly.

“There are a couple different ways the ski industry is incorporating skiers wearing things their favorite athletes are wearing, and one way is the branding of the U.S. team with Spyder,” Hall says. “It’s been cool to work directly with the company and help design the eyewear. I get a lot of messages about my eyewear; there are a lot of kids who are hyped on what I’m wearing, even if it doesn’t have my name on it.”

One of the most important details in the collection, however, can be found on three of its frames: the SP6013, SP6015 and SP4012 feature the U.S. Ski Team logo embedded on the inside of the temple.

“We are very excited to be launching the Spyder Winter 2020 eyewear collection in collaboration with the U.S. Ski Team,” says Thomas Burkhardt, CMO & SVP global brands, marketing & design, Marchon Eyewear. “The Spyder brand was originally created for racing by racers. By working with the U.S. Ski Team, we are continuing that tradition by providing our consumers superior eyewear that connects to the athletes that inspire them.”

The SP6013 in the “101 snow” colorway is a red, white, and blue tribute to the U.S. Ski Team and its athletes. Hall likes to wear them when he’s skiing in flat light and when he wants to go with a “no-goggles look.”

“A good way for people to identify with their favorite athletes is buying clothes or merchandise. The U.S. Ski Team has been doing that in a cool way,” Hall said.

“Being creative in ways just like Spyder’s doing with the eyewear is a cool way to allow fans to connect with athletes and have those unique pieces they can buy and really identify with, even if there’s not that pro jersey that says my name on it.”

Other brands looking to collaborate with the U.S. Ski and Snowboard teams could follow suit to organically promote Team USA on their products and, in turn, help fans connect with their favorite athletes.

On Tuesday, Hall was included among the group of athletes to be invited to X Games Aspen, which will be held at Buttermilk Mountain from January 29 to 31 with no spectators.

It will mark the first North American freeski event of the season for Hall and the rest of the U.S. Ski Team after the Copper Mountain Big Air and Halfpipe events set for mid-December were canceled due to Covid-19.

As he trains for his X Games events—Slopestyle, Big Air and Ski Knuckle Huck—Hall is also working on some filming projects. He’s been especially into urban and powder skiing and filming, which is typically a nice change of pace from competitions. This year, however, Hall is more than ready to get back into the swing of events.

“I’m just taking it step-by-step, day-by-day, not trying to plan too far ahead in the future,” Hall says. “Usually by this time it’s already three of four events that we’ve done and a bunch of training camps.”

Following X Games, Hall is set to compete at the Land Rover U.S. Grand Prix at Mammoth Mountain, California, February 3 through 6. Unbound Terrain Park will host both slopestyle and halfpipe competition, pending local and state approvals.

Hall is also about to begin training in earnest for a Beijing 2022 Olympics bid, where, in addition to his normal discipline of Slopestyle, Big Air will make its debut for skiing.(Snowboarding Big Air debuted at the PyeongChang 2018 Games.)

In the summer, Hall and other Big Air skiers and snowboarders train on air bags at the Park City Team USA training facility. The U.S. doesn’t have as many glaciers or as much early snow as Europe, which allows European athletes to begin training earlier for the Olympics and often in better conditions. But Hall is high on the next generation of U.S. skiing stars at the Olympics.

“There are some up-and-coming skiers who are amazing and could do Big Air this season or next season,” Hall says. “For sure, there’s going to be some good results coming out of the U.S. in Big Air.”