j dubski

01:07 min • 16/11/2024

joona at jossi wells invitational 2024 filming: oliver hoblitzelle tatsu yamagishi owen dahlberg borja azurmendi brady perron rohan key skiing & editing: joona kangas

Park

Athletes

Joona Kangas

Competition

Jossi Wells Invitational - Cardrona - 2024

Joona Kangas

Profile and significance

Joona Kangas is one of the clearest examples of how modern freeskiing can blend contest success with a deep film and street pedigree. Born in 1997 and raised in Finland, he came up through local hills like Himos before settling in Lapland and riding for Levi Ski Club. That northern upbringing, with long winters and floodlit parks, shaped a skier who would go on to win the 2014 FIS Freestyle Junior World Championships in men’s slopestyle and later represent Finland at the 2018 Winter Olympics. For many fans, though, his legacy is just as tied to the gritty, DIY style of the Keesh collective and a steady stream of influential video parts.

Within the freeski community, Kangas is regarded as a style leader rather than a numbers-only contest machine. His best competition years overlapped with his rise online: SLVSH games, Keeshlife edits, and later full parts like “Land of the Darker Sun” turned him into a reference point for skiers looking for a loose, creative but highly controlled approach. That combination of technical depth and effortless-looking flow keeps his clips circulating on social feeds long after individual contest results fade from memory.

Today, Kangas balances life as a professional skier with business studies, using his time at Häme University of Applied Sciences to build skills that support his career off the hill. Supported by multiple international sponsors and still active at the top level of freestyle, he has shifted toward “skiing on his own terms”—fewer World Cup starts, more filming, more invitational events, and more influence on how freeski style evolves.

Competitive arc and key venues

Kangas’ competitive arc moved fast. After dominating junior ranks in Finland, he broke through internationally by winning the 2014 Junior World Championship slopestyle title in Chiesa in Valmalenco, Italy. That result announced him as one of the strongest young riders in Europe, especially impressive given that it came in only his first handful of FIS events. It also set up his move onto the World Cup circuit, where he began to test his rail-dominant, creative approach against the best in the world.

On the FIS World Cup tour he stacked a series of strong showings in slopestyle and big air. Key highlights include a seventh place in slopestyle at Seiser Alm, Italy, and a ninth place in slopestyle at Quebec City, Canada, in 2017—both results that put him within touching distance of the podium at fully stacked events. An eleventh-place finish at Snowmass, USA, early in the 2017–18 season confirmed that his run construction could earn serious scores when he held it together top to bottom. Those results, combined with his world junior title, were enough to secure Olympic selection.

At the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics, Kangas was the only male slopestyle skier representing Finland. The course favored big, risky rail approaches and heavy trick density—conditions that matched his strengths on paper—but he was unable to land the full package in qualification and finished outside the final. Even so, his presence at the Games, backed by his World Cup top-10s, cemented his status as a world-level athlete before he chose to step away from full-time FIS competition in 2019.

Since then, “events” for Kangas have meant another kind of stage. You are more likely to see him at Jib League stops, SuperUnknown sessions, or invited shootings in parks like Kläppen than at a standard open field World Cup. A 2025 profile from Häme University of Applied Sciences highlighted that he was named best male skier at a SuperUnknown gathering in California, underlining that his peers still view him as one of the sport’s most complete riders even outside the conventional ranking system.

How they ski: what to watch for

Kangas’ skiing is built around three pillars: powerful rail precision, relaxed airtime, and a constant search for slightly different takeoffs and landings. On rails, he is known for centered, locked-on slides and presses that look casual but leave no margin for error. Watch how he uses surface swaps, quick direction changes and subtle nose or tail pressure to create lines that zigzag across an entire rail section instead of simply ticking off one feature at a time.

On jumps, the same attitude shows up as smooth, fully held grabs and spin directions that avoid the obvious choice. Switch takeoffs, off-axis rotations and late tweaks are common in his clips, but they rarely feel forced. Instead, he rides with a medium-high speed and lets the trick unfold slowly in the air, often holding a grab from the lip almost all the way to the landing. That timing, combined with soft, controlled landings, is a big part of why fellow skiers talk about his “feel” for snow as much as his trick list.

Street and backcountry shots reveal another dimension: Kangas is comfortable adapting his park skill set to handrails, wallrides and natural trannies. In these settings he often adds small but memorable details—ollies into kinks, nose-butter entries onto natural rolls, or little drifted pivots on the way out of a pillow line—that reward slow-motion rewatching as much as first impressions.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Choosing to step away from the structured life of the Finnish national team after years of investment took both courage and clarity. Kangas has described the 2012–2019 national-team period, which included Junior Worlds gold and an Olympic start, as a crucial education—but he also wanted more creative control over his skiing. Since that transition he has built a career around projects that reflect his own taste: smaller crews, longer stays in one zone, and an emphasis on filming rather than chasing ranking points.

“Land of the Darker Sun,” released in 2021, is one of the cleanest windows into this phase. Shot in Finnish Lapland, the Swiss Alps and Riksgränsen in Sweden, the short film strings together street, backcountry and resort features into a cohesive portrait of how he likes to ski when there is no start gate involved. Later appearances in Keesh full movies and in K2 team projects like “Rikka,” filmed in Tokyo and Hokkaido, pushed his profile beyond the core freeski audience and underlined his value as a film skier capable of holding down full segments, not just one-off shots.

That filming focus has also made him influential as a stylist. Younger Finnish riders and international park skiers study his Keesh and K2 segments not only for the tricks, but for choices of speed, body position, and how he uses terrain that other people might ignore. In an era when many contest runs look similar, Kangas has become an example of how to keep freeskiing’s improvisational, playful roots alive even at a very high technical level.

Geography that built the toolkit

Kangas’ skiing is inseparable from the places that shaped him. Early days at Himos and other central Finnish resorts introduced him to park skiing on compact, efficient hills where creativity matters more than vertical drop. A family move north brought him to Levi Ski Resort, inside the Arctic Circle, where he still calls home. Long winters, floodlit slopes and the repetition of lapping the same lines night after night helped him develop the consistency you see in his competition runs and film segments.

From there his circle of “home” hills expanded: Finnish resorts like Sappee hosted national-level slopestyle events he won in his youth, while European venues such as Font Romeu, Seiser Alm and Silvaplana became regular stops during his World Cup years. Backcountry trips to Lapland and heli or touring days in the high Alps introduced him to bigger terrain, which now features heavily in his film parts. More recently, projects like “Rikka” have taken him to the deep snow and compact lift-served zones of Hokkaido as well as urban backdrops in Tokyo, further rounding out the environments where his skiing feels at home.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

For viewers who also ski, Kangas’ choice of equipment offers useful cues. As a long-time athlete for K2 Skis, he rides playful, freestyle-oriented skis with enough width to feel comfortable both in parks and in softer snow. Paired with bindings from Marker, his setups are built to handle heavy rail impacts, side hits, and bigger step-down jumps. Soft but supportive boots and a progressive mounting point help explain why his switch landings and butters look so natural even on variable landings.

Outerwear and streetwear from Capeesh Supply reflects the same aesthetic as his skiing: relaxed, functional, and clearly rooted in skate and street culture. While individual gear choices will depend on a skier’s local conditions, riders looking to emulate Kangas’ feel should pay attention to how his setup supports both rail precision and all-mountain versatility. The balance he strikes—park-capable but still reliable for backcountry jumps and natural features—shows in how confidently he moves between urban spots, resort laps and powder.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

For casual viewers, Joona Kangas is simply enjoyable to watch: his tricks are big without looking anxious, his landings are soft, and his lines often include surprising details that make you rewind the clip. For core fans and up-and-coming skiers, he represents a path that values style, creativity and long-term love of the sport as much as podiums. He has proven that you can win world titles as a junior, make an Olympic team, and then deliberately shift focus toward filming, small-crew projects and building a sustainable life around skiing.

If you are a skier trying to progress in slopestyle, big air or urban skiing, Kangas is a particularly good study subject. Watch how he chooses tricks that he can land consistently rather than chasing the biggest possible rotation every time, how he keeps his shoulders calm over rails, and how often he uses speed and line choice—not just spin count—to stand out. Whether he is lapping Levi in midwinter darkness, exploring the high alpine, or drifting through Hokkaido powder with the K2 team, Joona Kangas continues to show that the most memorable freeskiing blends technical difficulty with personality and a clear sense of fun.

Brand overview and significance

Capeesh (often seen online as “capeesh fashion house” or Capeesh Supply) is an independent ski apparel and streetwear label created in 2020 by Norwegian freeskier Ferdinand “Ferdi” Dahl and two childhood friends. Born out of park and street skiing rather than a traditional outerwear company structure, the brand is positioned as a rider-led fashion house: part technical outerwear builder, part creative studio, and part community project for skiers who live in baggy pants and belts all winter long.

Instead of chasing mass-market volume, Capeesh works in tight seasonal collections with a clear visual identity: oversized silhouettes, exaggerated cuffs, bold plaids and washed tones, plus visible stitching and details that nod to workwear and vintage snowboard gear. Early on, the woven belt line became a calling card, showing up in park edits and on lift lines well before the outerwear range expanded. By the time insulated jackets and shell pants arrived, the brand already had a recognizable look that slotted straight into the modern freeski aesthetic.

Within the freeski ecosystem, Capeesh sits in the same cultural lane as other rider-founded outerwear labels, but with its own twist: a heavy emphasis on tailoring, cut, and styling as much as on pure tech numbers. Their pieces appear in influential edits, SLVSH games, and Jib League sessions, which means many skiers encounter the brand first on screen, then start spotting it on-hill. For Skipowd.tv viewers, Capeesh is best understood as a small but influential fashion house that treats freeskiing as both sport and style language.

Product lines and key technologies

Even though the brand is compact, Capeesh offers a full ecosystem of on-hill and off-hill pieces. The outerwear line centers on loose-fit jackets like the Revamp and Bombshell, plus insulated silhouettes such as the Big Puffy. These jackets typically use polyester shells with around 10K waterproof and 10K breathable ratings, PFC-free water-repellent treatments, fully taped or critically taped seams, and YKK zippers. Select insulated models use premium synthetic fills like Primaloft Gold around the torso for warmth without excessive bulk, keeping the profile baggy in look but practical in function.

Pants—names like Pantaloni, Fancy Pant and various Deconstructed iterations—follow the same design philosophy. They pair 10K/10K-rated polyester shells with fleece and mesh linings, long inseams, and wide legs that stack naturally over boots. Many models integrate venting, magnet-secured pockets, and the brand’s signature interchangeable Velcro patch system, letting riders swap logo patches or graphics without changing the pant itself. That patch ecosystem extends across some jackets too, making the kit feel modular and collectible.

Beyond outerwear, Capeesh keeps a deep bench of layering and lifestyle pieces: hoodies, “hoodiys,” quarter-zips, crewnecks, long sleeves, tees and ribbed beanies. These are generally cotton or cotton-blend basics sized to match the outerwear’s oversized cut, so a rider can build a fully coordinated look. Accessories—most notably the woven belts—carry low-profile buckles, often magnetic Fidlock closures, and colorways that tie back into the seasonal jackets and pants. Together, the collection functions as a small but cohesive wardrobe rather than a disconnected set of products.

Ride feel: who it’s for (terrains & use-cases)

On snow, Capeesh outerwear is built for park laps, resort jibbing and street missions first, with all-mountain usage as a solid secondary role. The 10K/10K fabric spec and DWR treatment are dialed toward typical resort conditions—cold, dry days, intermittent snow, and the occasional storm session—rather than multi-day backcountry objectives or the wettest coastal climates. In practice, that means you can expect to stay dry through long park days, rail sessions, and normal chairlift cycles, especially when you manage layers correctly underneath.

Fit is a major part of the “ride feel.” Pants run long and wide so they drape over highbacks and ski boots, giving that modern, stacked silhouette that many park skiers want, while still allowing full range of motion for butters, nose blocks and big spins. Jackets are cut loose with dropped shoulders and generous hem lengths that cover you on hand drags and low rail tricks without riding up. The overall experience is best suited to skiers who value style and freedom of movement over ultra-minimalist, race-inspired cuts.

For riders who split their time between resort park, side hits, and occasional tree laps, Capeesh outerwear slots in as an everyday kit that looks right in rail gardens, plaza-style parks, and nighttime sessions under the lights. Those charging high-speed alpine lines in harsh weather or doing full-day touring may prefer higher-spec shells, but a surprising number of all-mountain skiers still choose Capeesh for the blend of comfort, warmth, and expressive silhouette.

Team presence, competitions, and reputation

Capeesh’s credibility is tied directly to its founder. Ferdinand Dahl is not only a designer and co-owner; he is a multi-time X Games medalist and Olympic slopestyle finalist whose skiing has shaped the current era of park and street riding. When he wears Capeesh at major events or in parts, it sends a clear signal about the brand’s authenticity. Viewers spot the pants and belts in footage from Jib League stops and in SLVSH games filmed at locations like Grandvalira, where Dahl’s runs help define the visual identity of the sessions.

The wider “team” is less about a conventional, heavily marketed roster and more about a recurring cast of filmers and skiers appearing across Capeesh edits, the brand’s inspiration page, and collaborative projects. Many of these riders have main hardware sponsors from big ski and energy drink brands, but choose Capeesh for outerwear or belts, reinforcing the label’s status as a culture-first choice rather than a purely commercial one. It’s common to see the gear alongside other core brands in international competition recaps and independent movies.

In community discussions, Capeesh generates strong opinions—exactly what you’d expect from a design-forward brand. Some skiers praise the quality and fit, calling out improved construction over earlier micro-brands, while others debate the aesthetics and the premium price point. That friction is part of its reputation: Capeesh is not trying to please everyone; it is building a distinct look for skiers who want their outerwear to communicate identity as clearly as their trick selection.

Geography and hubs (heritage, testing, venues)

Capeesh is registered in Norway, and that Scandinavian backdrop is visible across its imagery and edits—urban rails, floodlit parks, and long winter nights where outerwear doubles as everyday clothing. Much of the early brand story took shape in and around Norwegian resort parks and street spots, where cold, dry snow and consistent night-skiing conditions influence how riders layer up and how garments must resist abrasion from concrete, metal and icy landings.

As the line has grown, Capeesh has expanded its footprint beyond Norway. International shipping is baked into the online store with dedicated flows for Europe and North America, and the brand partners with core freeski retailers abroad. In Québec, for example, the gear appears on the shelves of D-Structure, a freeski specialist whose own presence on Skipowd.tv and long-running community role make it a natural match for a rider-led clothing house. That shop connection also offers North American customers a more local way to see and size pieces.

On film, Capeesh frequently shows up at destination parks and event venues. One recurring backdrop is Sunset Park Henrik Harlaut by night in Andorra’s Grandvalira area, where SLVSH Cup Grandvalira sessions create high-visibility moments under stadium-style lighting. These settings are not just scenic; they are proving grounds for how the garments move, vent and layer when riders are repeatedly hiking features, filming clips, and skiing into the evening.

Construction, durability, and sustainability

Capeesh’s construction story blends technical function with an explicit commitment to “sustainable and ethical practices” across sourcing, manufacturing and shipping, as outlined in the brand’s own informational pages. In practical terms, that shows up in choices like polyester shells with PFC-free water-repellent treatments, Primaloft Gold insulation in select jackets, and the use of proven hardware such as YKK zippers and magnetic pocket or belt closures designed for long-term reliability.

Pants and jackets lean on 10K/10K membranes, fleece and mesh linings, and careful seam work to balance comfort, warmth and durability. Reinforced cuffs help protect against edge cuts; vent zips and mesh-backed openings are placed to dump excess heat during hikes or street sessions without compromising weather protection. The interchangeable patch system, meanwhile, has an unexpected sustainability angle: by allowing riders to refresh the look of a garment season after season with new patches instead of new pants, it encourages longer product life.

Quality control is supported by collaboration with trusted retailers and ongoing feedback from a demanding core audience. Because many Capeesh customers are filming, hiking, and lapping rails almost daily, any failure in stitching, waterproofing or trims surfaces quickly in the community. The brand’s continued growth in that space suggests that its construction choices are holding up under real-world abuse—though like any 10K/10K street-influenced kit, its strengths lie more in day-to-day resort and park use than in high-altitude expedition contexts.

How to choose within the lineup

Choosing the right Capeesh setup starts with being honest about your climate, how you ski, and how baggy you want your silhouette to be. If you ride cold, dry resorts with lots of park time, insulated jackets like the Big Puffy or similarly warm silhouettes will keep you comfortable through long chairlift rides and night laps. In milder conditions or if you run hot, lighter insulated or shell-style pieces such as the Revamp series pair better with midlayers underneath, giving more control over temperature.

For pants, think about stack and volume. Pantaloni and Fancy Pant styles emphasize the full baggy look, especially when sized up, and work well for riders who value maximum range of motion and a draped profile over their boots. The Deconstructed variants add visual interest through paneling and seam details, and may offer slightly different pocket layouts or patch locations. Riders spending more time in the streets or on harsh rails should prioritize models with reinforced cuffs and consider pairing them with base layers or long thermals for warmth.

Accessories tie the kit together. The brand’s woven belts are a functional upgrade if you like to wear pants low but still need security on big spins and drops; the magnetic buckles are quick to open and close with gloves on. Hoodies, quarter-zips and tees can be chosen based on how they sit under your jacket—many skiers prefer slightly shorter tops under very long jackets to keep movement clean. In all cases, reference the brand’s size charts carefully; Capeesh pieces are intentionally roomy, so many riders stay true to size and still get a relaxed, modern fit.

Why riders care

Riders gravitate toward Capeesh because it feels like an extension of the scene rather than a distant corporation. The person designing and wearing the clothes is the same one stacking clips at high-level events and in influential edits, and that credibility matters in a culture where authenticity is constantly scrutinized. The gear itself walks a line between technical outerwear and fashion: waterproof and warm enough for real winters, yet expressive in cut and detail so it looks as intentional in the city as it does in the park.

For Skipowd.tv users scrolling edits and then heading out for their own laps, Capeesh offers a tangible way to plug into that world—belts that hold up through a full season, pants that match the way modern freeskiing moves, and jackets that photograph well without sacrificing basic functionality. It is not the only path a skier can take, and it won’t suit every budget or taste, but for those who see skiing as a blend of style, community and progression, this small Norwegian fashion house has become one of the clearest visual signatures on snow.

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Joona Kangas

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