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The sentence “Kim Kardashian went skiing in a New Jersey Mall” reads a little like something out of Mad Libs. Fiction from a pop culture fever dream. Instead, it’s a reality brought to us courtesy of TikTok. This summer, Kardashian posted a video of herself gliding down Big SNOW American Dream, the snow-covered indoor slopes at the American Dream mall in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Sporting a red jacket and black snow pants, she shushes her way down the hill, her recently re-bleached blonde hair floating behind her like a gossamer veil. “I haven’t been skiing once this whole season,” Kardashian, apparently a secret powder hound, says before loading the lift. Like I said … Kim Kardashian really went skiing in a New Jersey Mall!
@kimkardashian ⛷
When this video came across my For You Page, I was immediately plagued by approximately seven million questions. Where is this woman’s helmet? No goggles? I’m not usually one to judge a skier for choosing fashion over function. No number of degrees below zero during a northeastern winter could convince teenage me that wearing a fleece neck-up wasn’t a fashion crime. But Kim … please. Accidents happen! Even to hot, famous people! Plus, if you wear a helmet you can rock “slut strands,” the unofficial hairdo of the winter Olympics.
Next up on my list of questions were Kardashian’s skis. She’s clutching a pair of Heads and a set of un-branded silver poles with black handles and straps. (Picture every pair of rental ski poles ever rented in the history of ski-pole rentals.) There’s something delightful about picturing Lindsey Vonn and Kardashian racing for the same team. Head! The skis of hot, famous people!
The skis, however, did lead to a follow-up question in this mental interview I was now conducting with Kardashian in my head. The whole thing smells a little bit like undisclosed sponsored content. Kardashian has gotten in trouble in the past for her #sponcon, for example when she posted an ad for a morning sickness drug in 2015 which drew flak from the Food and Drug Administration. But, really, am I to believe this was all a coincidence? Kim Kardashian just happened to be in East Rutherford, New Jersey? And while she was there she thought, Hey I want to try out this indoor ski center. Adding to my suspicion, that red jacket Kardashian is wearing is branded. The logo on her chest is blurry in the TikTok, but cross-referencing my screenshots with the Big SNOW website it appears to be a perfect match for the company’s own logo. Look, I’m just one skier/journalist asking the hard-hitting questions to no one in particular.
The folks behind Big SNOW American Dream want it to be a destination for beginner skiers. A place that makes skiing more accessible and less intimidating. Which, as a lifelong lover of a sport that is historically classist, I give that ethos a resounding hell yeah. Kim Kardashian as the spokeswoman for accessibility, though? I don’t really think of the woman who can borrow historic dresses from Marilyn Monroe’s closet as being the person to make something seem accessible to the rest of us mere mortals. But, hey, maybe she really was just there to take in the novelty of an indoor ski center in a mall in the heat of the summer. Maybe Kim Kardashian just went skiing in New Jersey Mall for fun—apparently, all the Beautiful People are doing it.