US Ski & Snowboard Launches New Brand

One Team. That was the message conveyed last week at the 2017 U.S. Ski & Snowboard annual Partner Summit in Park City, Utah. The big news of the week was the launch of the organization’s new logo and branding, unifying a series of logos that have been in place for nearly 20 years.

The new brand seeks to simplify the organization under one banner that replaces the four separate logos of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association, U.S. Ski Team, U.S. Snowboarding, and U.S. Freeskiing seen in the past. In addition, the organization has stopped using its USSA acronym and will now be known simply as U.S. Ski and Snowboard.

Over the past year, U.S. Ski & Snowboard worked closely with athletes and San Diego-based advertising firm i.d.e.a to develop the new logo. The image is a simple shield with a large “US” insignia front and center with three stars underneath signifying the three steps of a podium. A mountain range is depicted below symbolizing where athletes of the organization compete along with red and white stripes evoking images of the national flag.

Image Credit: U.S. Ski & Snowboard

Attentive fans may have noticed the new logo on the uniforms from the 2017 World Championship events for both alpine and Nordic late last season.

“When you hear of an assignment like this, you want to be involved,” says i.d.e.a founder Ryan Berman. “We only have four seconds to grab someone’s attention, so how do you create a mark that starts the story? It doesn’t have to tell the whole story, but it has to start the story. Then, as people become interested and want to learn more, then there are all these places to learn about the story through the athletes.”

The theme of ‘One Team’ was a motivating factor for athletes and executives alike as a unified brand and message could help unify the athletes across all disciplines and also simplify the organization’s messaging when trying to attract the attention of potential sponsors.

“For me, as an athlete, to be able to introduce myself to a non-endemic sponsor or somebody from the media that doesn’t know what sports we do and what they are is really important,” adds slopestyle athlete Tom Wallisch. “To say that I’m a member of the U.S. Team or something simple so that people can understand what it is that we do is pretty cool.”

For more information on U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s rebranding, watch our video from the Partner Summit below: