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Girls of ISPO 2012 – Sex STILL sells

The Reef girls are an ISPO institution.

Last year we noticed that a lot of snowboard companies at the ISPO tradeshow were using the oldest trick in the book to sell their wares: Get some hot girls to hand out flyers, stick even more boobs on the graphics, and in Ride’s case – even turn your entire stand into a live strip club. Sex sells, right?

There was quite a lot of negative feedback from the female shred community at the time, so we thought this year’s show might be different. Time to grow up and focus on the technical superiority of your product, yeah? Er, clearly not. This year’s show featured more flesh than the pit wall of the Moto GP. Here’s a rundown of the serial offenders…

After last year's controversial strip joint stand, Ride Snowboards thought they'd play it safe this time. With... erm, a burlesque show! Wahay!
No sign of Kylie Minogue at the Moulin Ride...
A Ride burlesque girl, clearly selling some bindings. Or something.
Road hog.
Skullcandy's airline-theme brought us these hostesses with the mostess.
The DC PLY board. Guess they figured: boring name, not so boring graphic. This is the, ahem, bottom...
... and this is the top. Sheeeeit.
'Good' Boards went with the local Bavarian theme, proper low key like.
'Wanted: Hot girls to give foot massages to random blokes at a sweaty tradeshow.' Nice work if you can get it.
Imperium's booth paid homage to the American bombers of the 1940s, when girls were girls and boys wanked off to comics.
Imperium girl number two. Not sure what to make of the dog mask?
Imperium girl number 3. Cheeky devil.
Keegan Valaika's Gnarly brand deployed the standard ISPO honey trap: free beers.
We don't know what the best way to sell a scooter is, but we're pretty sure this ain't it.
Remember folks: It's OK to use sodomistic innuendo so long as it's RETRO.
Putting the finishing touches to the Greek bailout package. Or signing autographs for pervs. Hard to tell.
The end. Of the world as we know it?

So, it seems the girls of ISPO are here to stay. What do you think? Harmless fun or insult to female riders everywhere? Let us know what you reckon. Oh, and if you’re actually interested in looking at all the new kit and not just arse, then check out our full round-up of the 2012-13 snowboard gear.

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