Davide Giardini is originally from Lake Garda, Italy, a multisport heaven for cycling, skiing, wind sports, and climbing in the heart of the Italian Alps. He moved to the USA over 15 years ago as a foreign exchange high school student and has been in the country ever since. While competing at the highest level of sport, Davide has always maintained a foot on the "other side" of the business sports, in sales & marketing roles. Being an active, personable, respected, and highly skilled professional in the communities he serves has given Davide a front-row seat in understanding and leveraging the trends, needs, and wants of athletes. In this episode, Cole and Davide discuss the relationship between brands and retail, the importance of the human element of the retail shopping experience, the athlete-to-brand relationship, and much more! You can catch up with Davide here on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/enduranceproguides/   Essential Reading for Outdoor Marketers: https://kit.co/BackcountryMarketing This podcast is brought to you by Port Side Productions. If you work at a brand or agency in the outdoor industry that needs help bringing a video project to life, head over to portsidepro.com and send us an email. We’d love to help!