The Hippie Who became a Corporate
Sep 19 2007 | Views 192 |
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Tags: skip yowell selling out hippie jansport slimbing mountains
Tags: skip yowell selling out hippie jansport slimbing mountains
Recently Skip Yowell , co founder of JanSport had come to my University to give a talk about his new book,"The Hippie Guide to Climbing the Corporate Ladder & Other Mountains: How JanSport Makes It Happen ". To be fair to the man, it was a pretty interestingly paced talk mostly tracing his journey from a aimless wandering hippie to becoming a corporate honcho. Special emphasis was made on his climbing expeditions and how he is an extraordinary adventure junkie. Also a section was devoted to how JanSport gives back to the community and the projects that they have undertaken.
I must confess though, that from the name of the book and the information that I got about him online, I was picturing a stereotypically long haired bearded peace loving hipster. But what I got was a guy who looked much more uptight than any of my professors. There were some jarring moments during the talk, like when he explained the picture on the back of the book, which features him surrounded by tibetan villagers. Skip's version of it was that the mongloid inhabitants of Tibet had never seen anybody with hair on their face and chest(and you thought I was stereotyping).
At the end of the talk, he offered to sign our bags and answer any questions that we might have. Skip was gracious enough to sign my backpack even though it boldly proclaimed the word Samsonite, which was akin to treachery in the psuedo serious world of Brand Loyalty. As he signed the bag I asked Yowell, whether he felt he had lost out on the hippie ideology somewhere along the line. The change from wandering aimlessly in the pursuit of some kind of truth, to pushing bags onto an unsuspecting mass of consumers.Specifically I wanted to know what his definition of selling out entailed?
Skip looked me straight in the eye and gave me the reponse I had least expected, corporate jingo! He defined selling out as selling an inferior product. There's some instant intellectualism for you. I guess the fault is mine more than his for expecting what the book promised. If Skip Yowell is a Hippie, then I'm Margaret Thatcher.Not only has his sold out on his beliefs big time, but by the medium of this book he is even trying to exploit his hipster days for a quick buck. Peace out!!
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