Oakley Community Days in Laax

Last January, the Knuckle Mag team was in Laax to present our sixth edition of the magazine. It was the perfect opportunity to enjoy the show at the Laax Open, one of the most iconic showcases of competitive freeskiing and snowboarding. But it was also a chance to meet our partners—the ones who support us and make it possible for us to keep producing the magazine year after year. 

Oakley is one of them. Throughout the week, they hosted the Oakley Community Days, an event running alongside the Laax Open, featuring gear testing, open sessions with the pros, and free snowboard and ski lessons. It was also the perfect excuse to go full fan mode during the public sessions and ride with Egan Wint (@princess.menace on Instagram) and the TDI crew. Knuckle followed the Oakley Community Days throughout the week and had the chance to sit down with the man behind it all: Peter Walberer - Sports Marketing & Communications Manager. Interview.

Credits: TDI X OAKLEY

What was the idea behind creating the Oakley Community Days?

We started the Community Days events two years ago with an event catering to the cycling / bike world. The initial idea was and still is to be approachable as a brand and to get in touch with our consumers (skiers & snowboarders).

Yesterday, you told me that the idea behind the Oakley Community Days was also to give back to the community. What does that mean to you?

We as a brand have a long and rich history in winter sports, especially in the freeski and (freestyle) snowboard world. We see that our consumers want to get in touch with the brand and of course the athletes we work with. Through our community days events we wanted to create a platform that adds value to everybody’s day on the mountain. This goes from free product tests to educational aspects, live experiences with our athletes, workshops, talk formats, you name it.

Credits: TDI X OAKLEY

TDI crew – Technically Doing It – played an important role during the three days at the Laax Open. What do they bring that you want to promote and share?

The TDI crew is a great partner for us as they are paving new paths both on and around the mountains in their unique style. Think of our mantra #BeWhoYouAre – the TDI crew to us is living and breathing that idea. And when they show up you can always expect good times! 

What role can a brand like yours play in changing the rules and making skiing and snowboarding more accessible and inclusive?

There are many ways for brands like us to contribute their part to this. Like I mentioned earlier, we are trying to get in touch with skiers and snowboarders through event platforms like our Community Days series. By offering money-can’t-buy experiences and other fun and / or meaningful activities to all levels of skiers and snowboarders, we want to show the world how much fun a day on the mountains can be – especially if you spend it with likeminded people from all over the world.

What are the next steps for you? Because the main barrier unfortunately remains the cost of a weekend in the mountains.

We always try to stay close to our consumers and offer something that really speaks to the snow sports community. This means that we always look for new ways to improve everyone’s experience with Oakley. In other words, to us this is more of a process than just one single event or campaign and we at Oakley all share the belief that everyone and the world can and will become better.

If you look at our Community Days series for example, you will find that we have different activities at pretty much all of the single events while the message / purpose of the events stays the same: we want to empower people to be who they are and unlock their potential anytime and anywhere.

During the sessions, most of the participants were snowboarders. What about skiers? What happened to Mathilde Gremaud and Colby Stevenson?

Fair point (laughs) ! As this season brings the little extra pressure of the upcoming Olympic games for our athletes, we wanted to let them do what they do best and not ask too much of them during this busy week. Mathilde however did join our sessions at the newly built Freestyle Academy on Wednesday and got to join some happy kids during their training there. And for the rest of our agenda we relied on non-competing athletes we work with.

When are the next Oakley Community Days scheduled?

There’s more Oakley Community Days to come in this season! The next one will take place in Åre, Sweden, followed by Japan and Canada. Then there’s OCDs in Livigno, Italy, middle of March before the last two stops in the USA and Norway.