“Riding in Head to Toe Louis Vuitton”: Shaun White Recalls the Moment He First Met Virgil Abloh

Shaun White is a 3 time Olympic gold medalist. He established himself as a legend by repeating the feat of winning the gold in halfpipe snowboarding multiple times. He announced his retirement from the sport after finishing fourth in the 2022 Winter Olympics. Apart from snowboarding, he is known to love adventure.

Shaun White has been very enthusiastic while speaking about creating something of his own. Just before the Winter Olympics, Shaun parted ways with his long-time sponsor Burton Snowboards. He decided to pursue his lifelong dream of having his brand. He announced the launch of his own brand “White space” on Instagram stating that it was something he wanted to start for a long time.

Shaun White on his first meeting with Virgil Abloh

Speaking to Dax Shepard on his podcast ‘Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard’ Shaun White revealed his first interaction with the legendary fashion designer Virgil Abloh. Shaun described his first meeting with Virgil to be very impromptu. “I was snowboarding up that mammoth mountain and I look over a see this guy riding in head to toe Louis Vuitton,” he said. He was very surprised and described Virgil’s outfit as an interesting choice.

Shaun instantly recognized that he was Virgil Abloh, the famous designer who was the mastermind behind Off-White and a lot of Louis Vuitton designs. Speaking about Virgil on the podcast, Shaun spoke about how they had their first interaction in the mountains while skiing. He later called Virgil to get to know about the secret of running a successful company.

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“I got access to this legend, let me pull some inspiration from him,” he exclaimed. Shaun explained to Virgil about his brand and laid down the vision he had for his company. Virgil was impressed by the name of Shaun’s company which was derived from his last name. They talked about the designs and Shaun sent Virgil some products of his new company.

White’s Louis Vuitton collaboration

Shaun spoke about how he has always been an admirer of Louis Vuitton. Virgin and Shaun decided to collaborate before the Olympics. They made a new collection of Louis Vuitton luggage, a snowboarding trunk, and a guitar case. A white stripe that goes down to the base of the snowboards is a signature callout of the collaboration of White Space and Louis Vuitton. 

However, Virgil passed away due to cancer while the collaboration was still underway. “It’s heartbreaking that he passed away during this. He didn’t get to see the finished product,” he said. Shaun further went on to describe how he is setting up his brand. He considers himself to be fortunate not having to climb the corporate ladder like other startups.

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With White Space hitting the stores let’s see how successful will Shaun White be in his new venture.