"IT REALLY SHOOK THE ESTABLISHMENT OF VAIL," says Bill Jensen, the Colorado ski resort's chief operating officer. Was it a new downhill speed record? The announcement of a billion-dollar ski-area development? No, this momentous event was a performance by Snoop Dogg. To the shock of some locals, last April, the resort chose the hip-hop icon to headline its annual spring festival marking the end of ski season, in the hopes of attracting a clientele younger and more diverse than that normally associated with the resort.

"It was very calculated," says Jensen, 53. "The younger generation connects with that urban lore, and Snoop Dogg is part of that." It worked; the sold-out show drew 10,000 people, making it the largest music event in Vail history.

Snoop's concert was more than just beats and rhymes, though; it was the sound of an outdoor industry waking up to a new reality. With the United States set to become "majority minority"—meaning more than 50 percent nonwhite—by 2050, survival in any business requires getting on the right side of the demographic curve. And after decades of overlooking minority communities and urban culture, action-sports destinations and gear manufacturers are taking steps toward attracting younger, more diverse participants. Last August, in Salt Lake City, hip-hop stars the Black Eyed Peas took the stage at Outdoor Retailer, the outdoor industry's largest trade show, for a performance announcing a new partnership with JanSport. Proceeds from the show—and a line of Peas-designed backpacks—will go to Big City Mountaineers, a nationwide nonprofit that takes at-risk teens into the outdoors.

"Seventy percent of our under-18 population is now classified as multicultural," says Roberto Moreno, a first-generation Mexican American and the founder of Alpino, a national organization, based in Denver, that introduces minority kids to snow sports. "If we as an industry don't figure out a way of breaking the code and becoming more inclusive to people of color, we're out of business in 25 years."

And while Snoop (who's also rumored to be thinking about his own skateboard line) and the Black Eyed Peas are as likely to attract suburban thirty-somethings as inner-city teens, their presence in this arena is indicative of a more substantial shift. Nine years ago, a struggling ski spot outside of Los Angeles called Mountain High (see "Case Study," page 22) began increasing ethnic diversity on its staff and started advertising on hip-hop and Spanish-language radio stations. Last year the resort recorded the most skier days per acre in the country, with a clientele that's half nonwhite. "The vibe is definitely getting down to the kids in the urban markets," says John McColly, Mountain High's 36-year-old director of marketing.