THE BIG QUESTION

Rome's pushing back at the big money makers with this boot and it's up to you to decide what side of the sea saw you should sit on. They make a valid point here. Love it or hate it, the outside heavies keep on barging the "core sports" when it looks like they can cash in. It's not really a question of if they can make a decent boot, it's a "where the hell were you when we got going issue." Should you spend your hard earned money on the guys that trudged through the trenches of having to fight their way in to sit on a chairlift 20yrs ago, or shell out the bucks to a brand that has been in your closet for one reason or another that recently decided snowboarding is also a worthwhile investment for their company now that the growth is there?

This is from the Rome site:

Should we support the idea that a brand’s roots, involvement in, and connection to snowboarding don’t matter?

Should we say, “hey, athletics-r-us brand, you haven’t given a shit about snowboarding for 30 years and your spandex-clad board of directors still don’t give a shit about snowboarding now, but that’s cool, come on in and make some money off us”?

Should we really accept them as a snowboard or skate company just because they can spend a ton of cash on some of the best, most iconic riders? Does the ability to cut a big check magically turn a pair of figure skates into a pair of snowboard boots?

Should snowboarders lie down and accept it when the mainstream tries to reduce snowboarding to just some other generic form of “athleticism”?

If you think the same logo that’s on that nut-hugger swim suit, golf ball, tennis skirt, jump rope, baseball bat and rollerblade might as well be on your next pair of snowboard boots, what will snowboarding look like in five or ten years? Will it be influenced in a way that’s true to our history?

Does any of this matter?

Does snowboarding even matter?

That’s up to you.

The Libertine Drunk, a collab between the Rome SDS and Consolidated Skateboards, is a limited edition get-together of two brands who think sporting goods companies aren’t snowboard or skate companies.