Channel Mastery - Ep. 114: James Niehues & Todd Bennett From Open Road Ski Company

Open Road Ski Company

The man behind the maps

“… about the experience, about getting out there, about feeling nature, that's what we all ski or snowboard for. And we do that, in some ways and often it's a great excuse to kind of put down the digital world and really be in nature.”
- Jim Niehues

EPISODE PREVIEW:

Art Trumps Technology with James Niehues, The Man Behind the Maps.

Algorithms have their place, but for specialty/artisan brands, emotive storytelling and a human over algorithm approach will continue to win the day. My guests today in this episode personify this. You’re about to meet the artist and team behind Open Road Ski Company and Man Behind the Maps. Note: This episode is co-produced by our friends at Snowsports Industries of America (SIA).

James Niehues is The Man Behind the Maps. He’s literally defined on-snow resorts through his illustrated maps and is the point of terrain reference for countless skiers and riders. I challenge you to find a single skier or rider who isn’t familiar with his artwork.

When Todd Bennett and Ben Farrow, co-founders of the Open Road Ski Company, realized that there wasn’t an anthology printed of James’ incredible artwork, they set about creating a vision and opportunity for Niehues. In this podcast, you’ll hear first-hand how the book “Man Behind the Maps” came to be.

The story of Niehaus and his collection of on-snow resort maps is nothing short of incredible, and you will get to hear it first hand from James, as well as Todd and Ben, in this episode.

Niehaus is a very humble man, and Bennett and Farrow worked hard to bring a genuine, absolutely top-tier book to market featuring the genius of Niehaus. In this show, James shares his process behind his artwork. He discusses his trips around the world and how he got connected with Todd and Ben to bring his ski maps into one collection.

Long-time fans of Jim’s, Todd and Ben approached him with little publishing knowledge but with a passion to turn Jim’s life work into a timeless, museum quality piece of art in the form of a beautifully curated coffee table book. By launching a Kickstarter campaign, the enthusiasm from the skiing community turned what Ben and Todd thought may be a flop of a launch into the #1 Funded Art Illustration Project in Kickstarter history.

It has been through their storytelling and their shared passion for skiing that Man Behind the Maps is in the marketplace now and soon to be in all homes where skiing is enjoyed.

FEATURING:

JAMES Niehues

James Niehues is the artist known as The Man Behind the Maps. Over the past 30 years, Jim has been painting ski maps for over 200 resorts around the world.

Todd Bennett and Ben Farrow co-founded Open Road Ski Company after realizing the ski resort maps they knew and loved were created by the same artist. In 2017, they reached out to Jim and started the process of bringing the book, Man Behind the Maps, to life.

TOPICS COVERED:

Ski Resort Maps, Man Behind the Maps, Kickstarter, Brand Storytelling, Ski Resorts

SELECT QUOTES:

“The elements that I enjoy probably the most would be the flying. I just really enjoy being up in the air and looking down on the magnificent terrain that I get a chance to see. And this is, I think one of the most important things about it is to present the ski area as it is. It's out in the wild, it's experienced in the great outdoors.”
“That's something that I want to really portray. I want to show the ski area with all this potential. When a skier goes out skiing, he's not only skiing down that slope, he's enjoying the fresh air, the crispness, the exercise, just the experience. That's what I hope to convey. And I can present it in a way that when they look at a trail map, they can say - this is what I'm going to experience. ...I don't have a job. I have a passion for it.”
“… about the experience, about getting out there, about feeling nature, that's what we all ski or snowboard for. And we do that, in some ways and often it's a great excuse to kind of put down the digital world and really be in nature.”
“And as we worked through the book, we said it's so important that you have that feel and that good tactile feel to the whole process so that you do feel that experience of being out in the mountains looking at a map, be it as you would a trail map in your pocket, or standing there at the ski area. All that was really part of the thought process that led to the product and bringing people back to the experience….We've heard a lot from our customers or through this process is people are going, "I remember the time that I was at this mountain, or this day, or this time with my kids." All that's been part of the whole audience participation in the whole project from the beginning.”
“The ski map images, the most visible and most used image that any ski area uses. If it's a good representation, it will represent a good ski experience. And I wanted it to be something that would be retained and dreams would be made over it. That people would get into it and explore it.”
“And we weren't sure, we weren't sure if Kickstarter was still a relevant platform, if it was the right platform for us... But I think after a lot of debate we said, "It just has that right feel. It has a feel that a community will build around, that somebody can get excited about, that people could actually bring something to life". Because Ben and I not being traditional publishers, we didn't have a lot of money, we didn't have a lot of backing to make it happen. And so it was also a great way to test how big of a project that we are getting ourselves into.”
“I was impressed with the carton that it came in, because you knew exactly what you had on the front step. It had my little signature on it. And so you knew that it was the book. And I picked it up excitedly and brought it in and opened it up, and was just overwhelmingly impressed with the quality feel of it. Even the weight of it. I mean this was a substantial book, and I think that's important. It's a book that will sit on the coffee table and not grow old. It'll fit into any decor.”