Chuck Mumford and Chris Garcin started Pit Viper to inject a bit more (okay, maybe a lot more) fun into skiing and riding. But behind all the party vibes, for the past decade they’ve also been sneaking in a good bit of functionality and performance into their products, too. So I talked to Chuck and Chris about the early days of trading sunglasses for hotdogs; growing the company; forest gnomes; working with Gronk; Chuck’s philosophy of ski reviewing, and more.
TOPICS & TIMES:
- Chaos & String Theory (4:11)
- Origin Story of Pit Viper (6:45)
- Hotdogs (21:33)
- The First 100 Pairs (22:58)
- Where Did the Name Come From? (24:14)
- From the Garage to Global Domination (26:44)
- Marketing (34:28)
- Working with Rob Gronkowski (42:26)
- Party Vibes vs Performance (44:44)
- Goggles? (51:19)
- Lens Tech, Low Light, & Forest Gnomes (56:01)
- Making Technical Apparel (1:05:54)
- Chuck Mumford’s Ski Emporium (1:12:48)
RELATED LINKS:
Just a personal pet peeve with sunglasses… In my opinion logos on lenses are great for advertising but bad for the actual user. Please care a little more about the paying customers and at least give an option to delete graphics on the lenses.
Fuck Golf may be an all time Blister moment