Pretty in Pink?

While I was up at Snowbird for this year's Octoberfest, I decided to poke around the clearance sales at Christy's and Cliff sports. Because I'm a light and not very aggressive skier, I mostly have to stick with women's skis. As I was looking everything over, I kept wondering why every last darned women's ski seemed to have some shade of pink or purple on the graphic. There were a few blue or red exceptions, of course, but the overwhelming majority of skis were... well... pretty awful.

In the end, I bought a pair of K2 Phat Luv's (that should provide me with the ability to plow through crud that I was aiming for) despite the fact that I think the purple swirly girly graphics are just plain silly (in the store, the saleswomen looked offended when I jokingly referred to them as the Phat Ugs). Ultimately, how your skis- or bike or climbing shoes or the countless other women's specific outdoor items- look doesn't really matter all that much. And maybe for most girls like myself, the super swirly cutsie poo graphics are just mildly annoying. This is of course, supported by the fact that I actually did buy the skis. However, I nearly didn't.

But what about the guys who would in truth be better off with a women's bike frame or a women's boot? Not many have the self assurance to go blazing by on a hot pink bike, or buckled into some opalescent purple ski boots. Perhaps I am just really ignorant about the whole marketing process, and all these froo froo graphics really do sell more skis, bikes, etc., but it seems to me like they might be missing out on some demographics- like the tom boys (such as myself) and guys with high arches and low volume feet, etc.

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