Kidsday talks with Shaun White

We met with Olympic snowboarder athlete and now clothing superstar at the Target offices in Manhattan where he was introducing his latest clothing line.

What is the most scariest part of having your own clothing line?

I think whenever you put yourself out for criticism it’s tough. You’re taking a leap of faith saying I really like these clothes, I really these designs or artwork and you’re hoping that other people like them as well.

Tell us about your new line.

The newest wave of things is by far, I think, our best. It gets better and better every year and we get more and more in tune with working with Target, my brother, Jessie. We work harder and harder at making the line better, but right now we have even more products than before. More shirts, sweatshirts, shorts and we have actually a new shoe that just came out.

Does snowboarding get harder as you get older?

To be honest it doesn’t. It’s strange, I feel like when I was younger I had a hard time because I wasn’t maybe strong enough, or big enough to do certain tricks or if the snow gets really deep and bumpy sometimes, it’s like you don’t have the weight to carry you through that, it’s really hard. I found that it’s gotten easier since I’ve gotten bigger and stronger, but the falls hurt more as I get older. Probably because I’m growing bigger. I don’t know it’s a give and take. Lately it’s gotten a little easier. I can visualize what I want to do and make it happen.

What’s your favorite snowboarding trick?

I like to just do really big airs and look around, because no one really does that. You got to be like a certain level of confidence to actually just do a big flip, not worry about where you’re going to land and kind of like look around and point at a friend or something. Tricks are scary. You got to work up to it. Like I don’t just show up and do like the Double McTwist 1260, that’s like OK, here we go. I’m like super nervous about it. Good thing I wear like a mask and you can’t see that I’m biting my lip.

Have you ever gotten seriously injured?

I have, but every single time that I’ve been injured it’s really taught me something. I was injured when I was about 17 and I hurt my knee and what happened was it was probably one of the best things that happened to me because I learned so much after that. There’s a certain amount of attention that you need to give your body. You need time to recover, you need time to sleep, you need to eat a certain way, you need to do certain things to prevent injuries and to prevent your body shutting down. I think from doing that I’ve avoided further injuries.

Where is your favorite place to snowboard?

On the mountain. It’s funny but they actually have a thing in Dubai and Japan where they have — it’s like a giant refrigerator and you go in there and you can snowboard. It’s actually colder than the normal mountain. You’re in there like all right this is fun, but I’m done, I’m over it. It depends on what I’m going for, but I love snowboarding overseas. Japan, Norway, parts of Switzerland.

Who is your hero?

I grew up watching Tony Hawk and all these guys skateboarding at the local park and that really inspired me. My brother’s always been there for me showing me new tricks and things like that. I’d say my biggest inspiration is my family. They’re the ones that said I could do these things. When I started snowboarding there was no Olympics, there was no XGames. But my parents just saw I was good at it and saw how much fun I had and that I was enjoying myself and they allowed me to do this. To have that support from my parents to drive seven hours up to the mountain, sevemn hours back, to call in sick for work, to like do anything that they could to get me to the mountain.

What does your clothing line consist of and what age is it for?

Gosh, the age group is, we just kind of deem it boys and young men’s, but I’ve seen girls on the street wearing the plaids. It’s kind of anybody who can fit into it, but it consists of shirts, sweatshirts, dress shirts and most recently we added hats, belts and wallets and things like that. What’s fun is that the line keeps growing so we take on more and more products and my favorite are the shoes so far because it’s always fun to skate in your own shoes.

Who helps you create your clothing line?

It kinds of comes from all over the place. My brother mainly. He’s the one that sits down with me and we come up with the general idea in the beginning, of the colors we’re going to use, certain styles, mostly artwork direction. Do we want to make it old, is it new, modern, is it pictures and what do we want to do. And then from there we kind of develop samples, then we get samples, do fittings. There’s so much that goes into it, but the end product is worth it.

What made you want to come out with a new line?

I don’t know. It was strange. I really didn’t wake up one day and say I’m going to need this clothing line. It’s just kind of naturally happened. My brother’s always had this kind of cool artwork, these really cool designs, and ideas. We really didn’t have a place for them. We would do board graphics and certain things but we never really had an outlet and then slowly through design and snowboarding jackets, pants and things like that. So when you’re making snowboarding clothing it’s got to be weather proof, water proof and storm resistant. All these things and it was such a relief to make street clothing because it was just a tee shirt. You don’t have to worry about those things. That’s kind of where it naturally evolved from. I’ve been designing for Target for 10 years now. When I was 14. I got sponsored and then from there it’s just grown. Kind of naturally happened.

Do you ever think about people not liking any of your clothes?

Every day. This morning I was like, oh my goodness. I don’t know. It’s the risk you take. I always think of it it’s kind of like music in the sense. Some people like certain bands and some people don’t like certain bands. But the people who do like the band at the time they really appreciate the music and they really enjoy it. So if you like the line, it’s there for you. It’s kind of how it goes.

Do you think it’s OK to judge people on how they look?

Definitely not. I don’t know I think it’s funny because I think you can’t help but do it sometimes because you see somebody and you’re like hey they must be this way. During my travels and things like that I found out that those are really, really terrible ways to go about things. I’ve met people that looked totally like they don’t act at all. You meet somebody and maybe they dress a certain way, or they wear tight pants or clothes, you know what I mean, and they’re actually a funny person, or a musician. Everybody’s got their own thing. I think that’s the best part of the world. Everybody’s got their own style, their own thing going. You don’t really know until you talk to somebody.