With IDX Style, progressing in the terrain park has never been easier. IDX stands for Infinite Degrees Unknown and is a social media platform and community that allows users to post and search for specific ski or snowboard tricks. The point of IDX is to help terrain park and freestyle riders by watching uploaded tricks and interacting with the riders who may have posted them. As in other sports, film study can be critical in progressing through and landing new tricks on snow, and with IDX users can post their tricks and rewatch others’. Video uploads are typically 6 to 10 seconds long and can be liked, commented on, saved, and shared.

IDX is a community-based application that hosts several competitions and virtual jams that get rewarded with Bisk, IDX’s currency that can be withdrawn as cash. Right now, Turf Wars 2024 currently features an East vs. West Coast battle for the best clips. Essentially, the leading tricks on the winning Coast will be rewarded with 50,000 Bisk ($500 cash). Video clips can be submitted until April 20, 2024.

I got to snowboard with Brendan Hart, the CEO of IDX, for a day and I asked him some questions about the app. All of the answers were genuine and candid and helped me understand the app and its mission on a deeper level. Below is the raw, basically unedited, conversation that we had.

How does IDX Style work?

“It’s pretty easy. You download IDX where you get assigned a crazy, random username. You can go in and edit your profile, add a biography and sponsors, and set ski/snowboard preferences. From there, the next step is uploading a trick and calling your style; Trick names can range from Backflip 3000 to Squeaky Three and anything in between, adding that personal sense of style to any trick. Every clip can be tagged, whether it is a 360, 540, frontside or backside spin, or a rail trick, so that other users can click on the tag and see more of the same. Adding this metadata to your clip allows it to be discovered on the homepage as well as in these tagged channels. You can also search for specific tricks with the search bar and can use the maps feature to geographically locate where a trick was recorded on a 3D map. All social features such as sharing, liking, commenting, favoriting and saving are functional within the app and encourage users to build up their bag of tricks, stash of lines, and gallery of edits.”

Would you consider IDX Style social media?

“Yes, I consider it a social media that is dedicated towards pushing your progression as a skier or snowboarder.”

What is the inspiration behind IDX?

“IDX spawned out of me working for the US Ski and Snowboard team for two years at my old job and aggregating all of this trick data from competitions to analyze US skiers and snowboarders. We figured, hey, this trick data, these trick names, this video, this searchable index platform for tricks is perfect for someone who wants to progress in the park. Through user interviews and speaking with all levels of skiers, from legends to weekend warriors, we figured out that we could create this community platform where you can upload tricks as a huge asset for people to get discovered by others, by sponsors, by rail jams, and more.”

What was your position with the US Ski and Snowboard team?

“I was a freeski and park snowboard data analyst.”

How long have you been snowboarding and in terrain parks?

“IDX definitely spawned out of my work with the US Ski and Snowboard team, but also out of my love for snowboarding since I was seven; my family would make trips to Hidden Valley and Grand Targhee every year, and I went to the High Cascade Snowboard Camp one summer. I fell in love with park snowboarding, seeing Shaun White at the X-Games, and watching any type of Travis Rice film. I lost a little bit of that working my corporate job in NYC, but rediscovered my love for park snowboarding and freeskiing through working with the US team.”

What is the target audience for IDX Style?

“Our target audience is basically anybody who is entering the terrain park and wanting to learn their first 180, send it off their first big booter, or even unlock dub cork 12 mute grab. That age range, more or less, ranges from 13 to 18-year-olds who are in the park every day, to the 25 to 40-year-old range folks who are trying to rediscover the park.”

What is the individual incentive to use the app and why should I download the app?

“I think you should download the app if you are a visual learner and want to visualize any trick. Why you should upload and interact with the IDX community is another thing with the main incentive being to get recognized by others on IDX and build up a core audience of people who recognize your talent, skill, and style. How we do that is through our curated content, whether it’s the for you page, the hot page, the following page, and also through our in-app currency called Bisk. Bisk is given out by others on the app, by IDX itself through events, and is an easy way for park rats to walk away with some lunch money. We offer subscriptions that access premium features of the app and provide users with a monthly Bisk allowance. A good amount of people, once they receive Bisk, will send it to a user whose trick they found incredibly sick or difficult. There is not a lot of Bisk hoarding in IDX, it circulates.”

Explain the concept of virtual competitions and IDX community events.

“The reason these virtual events are so important is because skiing and snowboarding is already so inaccessible. In these virtual competitions, everybody calls their style and throws up their bag of tricks for a certain month. From there, the idea would be whoever hit the gnarliest features and got voted on by the IDX community could get an invite to an in-person rail jam, bridging that virtual to physical gap. Say they win that in-person rail jam and then sponsors probably come calling, their IDX profile and social medias grow, and they hopefully start to build their ski or snowboard career. It starts with IDX.”

What are you doing right now to push the concept of IDX forward?

“Along with pushing personal progression and recognizing the unknown, we want to grow freeskiing and snowboarding through this massive database of trick and competition data. We recently partnered with Winter X-Games for the Men’s Ski Slopestyle competition where our technology was used to give real-time insight into how difficult a run was currently going compared to the other competitors. We overlayed it onto a graphic for the digital stream for X-Games and the technology worked well. I think this type of technology is going to grow in the future because ski and snowboard viewership has decreased and we need to reattract that core audience of people who want to go outside and spend time learning how to ski or snowboard. Like Craig McMorris said on the Bombhole Podcast, we need to treat these competitions like other major sporting events, giving them our latest and most advanced forms of technology.”

Why are people going to upload their clips to IDX instead of Instagram?

“It comes down to IDX specifically recognizing the unknown and the features we have built around that like Bisk. The way that we structure our feeds and reward our users is unique. Instagram is optimized for engagement, whereas IDX is optimized for your progression and your recognition as a skier and snowboarder. We already have users who exclusively post on IDX over Instagram and other socials and see this trend continuing in the future.”

What is your vision for IDX in the next five to ten years?

“I see IDX, five to ten years out, as a park ski and snowboarding operating system where companies like X-Games and FIS can access our data for their broadcasts, and people can continue to use the consumer app to push their progression and recognize the unknown. We want to tap into in-person rail jams where potential brands and sponsors can see athletes riding their gear in the park. For mountains to see that their parks are being utilized in certain ways and use this data to add more, or certain types of features, or focus more on jumps or the halfpipe for example. We want it also to be used as a major resource for coaching. A ski and snowboard operating system, where all parties of the environment can benefit, is where we see IDX in five to ten years.”

IDX went through some intense beta testing before its release, how did this help to solidify the app?

“I think IDX is a trustworthy download. First off, everyone who’s been a part of IDX is extremely passionate about freeskiing and park snowboarding. I think that is evident in us working with X-Games and us building out a largely free app. How we got here was working with every single type of park skier and snowboarder at the University of Michigan where I went to school. The main insight provided with the beta testing was that users need to be able to easily upload and watch as many clips as possible. Being able to watch as many K-Feds and backboards so that we can get inspired to go out and learn that whether it’s in our own backyards or a resort terrain park. The beta testing also helped to cement the functionalities you expect from a social media platform: uploading, tagging, searching, and sending.”

What is the mission of IDX?

“The mission is simple. Create a globally accessible platform for people to push their own progression. For athletes to be recognized, to recognize the unknown, and to grow free skiing and snowboarding.”

As an avid park and freeride snowboarder, IDX Style is one of my favorite new apps today. The app’s user interface is clean and simple to use and countless features support IDX’s mission of pushing ski and snowboard progression. For anyone looking to take their riding to the next level, whether that is the beginner or advanced stages, IDX will be there for you with video clips and Bisk.

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