Swatch Nines Snow in Niseko, Japan
SPORTS & CULTURE | Swatch Nines
The Friendly Antagonist of Competitive Sports
For twenty-one years, Dossier has celebrated those who resist sameness, and few events embody that spirit like the Swatch Nines. A friendly antagonist to the world of competitive sports, the Nines refuses to be boxed into traditional formats. Instead, it creates playgrounds — unique venues where top athletes, filmmakers, and photographers converge to celebrate human talent, creativity, and the untamed spirit of action sports.
Ever evolving to meet the needs of the culture, the Swatch Nines experience now spans four cornerstones: Snow, Surf, Skate, and Bike. Each discipline is given a stage that is less about medals and more about moments — those impossible flashes of progression that redefine what’s possible.
This week, Swatch Nines Snow 2026 has kicked off in Niseko, Japan, running through April 11th. The course was designed with direct input from riders themselves, including Swatch Proteam athletes Kaishu Hirano and Jesper Tjäder. Their fingerprints are everywhere — from the geometry of the jumps to the audacity of the rails.
Kaishu captured the ethos perfectly: “What excites me most this year is the chance to create something the world hasn’t seen yet. Every year, something happens where you’re like, ‘Wait… is that even possible?’ And if I can be part of creating one of those moments, that would mean everything to me.”
The course itself is a manifesto in snow and steel:
The largest skate pavilion ever built for the event, fully rideable by both snow and skate athletes.
A 50‑meter rail, the longest in Nines history.
A sky‑high big air jump designed to thrill both riders and spectators.
A next‑level quarter pipe engineered purely for progression.
It’s not just competition; it’s collaboration. The Nines is where athletes design their own stage, filmmakers capture the impossible, and photographers frame the fleeting. It’s a reminder that sport, at its most vital, is not about rankings but about imagination.
In Niseko, the snow is the canvas. The riders are the brushstrokes. And the Swatch Nines, once again, proves that the most radical act in sport is to keep dreaming.
