David Lesh: Environmentalism Troll, Photographer and owner of Virtika ski apparel

About this episode

Vance Crowe interviews David Lesh, the pro-skier-turned-entrepreneur The New Yorker branded the "Rocky Mountain Pariah" for provocative, deliberately transgressive marketing videos (nude models, guns, staged environmental "violations" like fake lake pollution) for his ski apparel brand Virtika. Lesh recounts an unusual childhood — born in Chicago, raised in India until age six by hippie/artist parents, culture-shocked on returning to the US, broke and picked-on through school, in and out of juvenile trouble, homeless the summer after high school — and traces his path into pro skiing (never top-tier, mostly a photo/video athlete) and eventual frustration that sponsor brands wouldn't let him invest in or help run their businesses, prompting him to launch his own company with zero outside money or oversight. He argues most "environmentally conscious" apparel marketing is hypocritical (clothing production itself is bad for the environment regardless of brand virtue-signaling) and that his openly anti-sanctimonious, high-shock-value videos work precisely because they're differentiated and generate word-of-mouth controversy corporate marketing (helmed, in Crowe's theory, by risk-averse people insulated in their own social bubble) would never approve. They discuss the backlash to his first viral video — losing his ski-coaching job, being banned from the resort, hate mail, federal-charge threats — and his choice to double down rather than apologize, framing it as taking cancel culture's power away by refusing to show weakness (drawing an explicit parallel to Trump's 2016 unapologetic persona). The conversation closes on his relationship to drugs (heavy MDMA/cocaine use in his mid-20s, now sober), his current definition of happiness as total personal freedom and lack of obligation, and his ambivalence about children given his own difficult family background.

“People sent all kinds of crazy hate mail. I've had people spit on my car, they've yelled at me in the streets... People hate me. They want me to die. They want me to die in the avalanches. They want me to get shot in the head. They want my dog to die.”

“I had a choice to make... make all this incredible money, 35 grand a year, or to continue... being a bum... I'm too young to sell out. I can't do this. And I turned down the job.”

“The whole COVID thing is... kind of uncovered two very different groups of people with the mask and no mask thing... there will always be freethinking people that refuse to sort of like get in line and do what they're supposed to do.”

Key moments

• ~0-2%: Cold open — the hate mail and death wishes Lesh receives.
• ~5-20%: Childhood in India, culture shock in the US, juvenile trouble, homelessness after high school.
• ~28-30%: The core critique — clothing/outerwear marketing as "the most unethical, counterproductive, phony" environmental posturing.
• ~31-42%: The viral "Last Friday" video backlash — job loss, resort ban, federal-charge threats — and the decision to double down rather than apologize.
• ~42-46%: Crowe's "college party girl" theory of why corporate marketing can't see outside its own bubble; parallel to Trump's unapologetic 2016 appeal.
• ~44-50%: Money vs. passion choice at 18-19 — turning down a $35k/year warehouse job to keep skiing.
• ~90-100%: Drug history (years of heavy MDMA/cocaine use, now sober), definition of happiness as total freedom, ambivalence about having kids.

Notable quotes

“People hate me. They want me to die... they want my dog to die... The more successful you are... the more well known you are, the more fun you have in your life... a lot of them are gonna hate you.”

“Creating clothing and outerwear is one of the worst things that you can ever do for the environment... these companies that paint this picture that they're this magical company... it is just nonsense.”

“You just have to stay strong... they're not gonna get very far. They're not gonna hurt my feelings... so I take their cancel culture power away from them.”

“I'm too young to sell out. I can't do this. And I turned down the job.”