????克勞迪婭?萊本索爾不是你我熟悉的那種常規企業家。她確實畢業于斯坦福大學（Stanford University），不過她主攻藝術領域，過去二十年間主要為各種出版物提供創意策劃。她也確實出身金融世家——她的大姐是亞歷珊德拉，當今“華爾街新女王”，同時也是百年家族企業萊本索爾公司（Lebenthal & Co.）的首席執行官，不過她自己另有一番宏大的商業規劃：打造運動風尚生活帝國。

????最近，我在曼哈頓市中心的咖啡館和萊本索爾討論了這些計劃。它們主要是圍繞“運動風尚”（Style of Sport）打造的。這是她去年申奧時創辦的一個時髦的在線雜志。這個網站剛剛更新，主要聚集于各類運動及運動與時尚、設計和藝術的交叉領域。萊本索爾身穿一條藍白相間的條紋長褲（當然是既運動又時髦），在我還沒來得及自我介紹前就從人群中認出了我。她坐下來點了一杯加冰的卡布奇諾，面帶微笑地說：“能馬上認出自己從沒見過、但馬上就要見面的人真是件有意思的事?！?/p>

????萊本索爾的整個職業生涯幾乎都在和數字影像及視覺作品打交道。她是一個地地道道的紐約人，從斯坦福畢業后回到紐約，擔任《7天》（7 Days）的美術總監。這本曼哈頓的周刊當年是由《紐約》雜志（New York）的亞當?莫斯創辦的，如今已不復存在。1990年，《7天》關門后，萊本索爾又去了康泰納仕（Conde Nast）集團，擔任《誘惑》（Allure）的攝影總監，隨后又出任了該公司旗下《女性運動與健身》（Women's Sports & Fitness ）和《悅己》（Self）這兩本雜志的視覺總監。

????2006年，為康泰納仕集團效力了14個年頭后，萊本索爾開始尋求職業道路上的新風景：她與朋友丹尼爾?斯塔克共同創作了以運動為主題的大開本攝影集《激情飛揚：極限運動的演變》（Stoked: The Evolution of Action Sports）。對萊本索爾來說，這本書標志著她開始進入一個更獨立的視覺內容創作階段。她說：“作為創意總監，你總得按別人的想法辦事。在某種程度上，你就覺得是在犧牲自己的觀點。”

????萊本索爾稱，自己的運動風尚生活在線雜志是受托里?伯奇的網站和時裝連鎖店的啟發創辦的。雜志剛面世時叫做Sportology，但在與網絡技術解決方案公司Acadaca合作后，這本雜志獲得了亟需的華麗換裝，變成了一個更時髦漂亮的平臺，并于今年3月正式推出。萊本索爾認為，她的網站不僅能提供服務，還能創造一種文化——用她的說法就是：“這不僅是個能購物的地方，還是能打發時間、獲得娛樂的平臺。我喜歡‘運動風尚’這個名字，因為它能變成形容詞，比如可以這么說——‘噢，這多么運動風尚啊！’”。

????在目前的形態下，“運動風尚”是個只發布和運動相關內容的獨立網站——即采編、設計都是萊本索爾一手打理（此外還有一些供稿作者）。網站的帖子主要是對各種運動裝備的評論，比如設計師特制運動鞋，槳式沖浪板和小零食，還有肌內效貼布（Kinesiology Tape，一種具固定作用的特制彈性膠布，可控制活動幅度，加快復元——譯注）的使用說明和滑雪板攝影集。

????Claudia Lebenthal is not your everyday entrepreneur. True she graduated from Stanford, but she majored in art and has spent the past two decades doing creative work with myriad publications. Still Lebenthal, who comes from a family of financiers — her sister is Alexandra, the "New Queen of Wall Street" and CEO of the family's near century-old firm, Lebenthal & Co. — has big, business ambitions of her own: Building a sports lifestyle empire.

????I recently met Lebenthal for coffee in downtown Manhattan to discuss these plans, which take shape around Style of Sport, a chic online magazine she originally founded last year in the run-up to the Olympics. The newly evolved site focuses on sports, and their intersection with fashion, design, and art. Before I even introduced myself, Lebenthal, wearing a pair of blue and white striped pants (both sporty and chic, of course), picked me out of the crowd. "It's funny how you just know the people you're suppose to meet even though you haven't met them" she said with a smile as she sat down and ordered an iced cappuccino.

????Lebenthal has worked almost exclusively with digital images and visuals over the course of her professional career. Born and raised in New York, she returned from her years at Stanford to work as art director at the now-defunct 7 Days, a Manhattan weekly founded by New York magazine's Adam Moss. When the publication folded in 1990, Lebenthal moved to Conde Nast, where she was Allure's photography director, and then she moved to visual director stints at the company's Women's Sports & Fitness and Self magazines.

????In 2006, having worked at Conde Nast for about 14 years and in search for a change in scenery, Lebenthal co-created a large format sports-themed photography book titled "Stoked: The Evolution of Action Sports" with friend Daniel Stark. For Lebenthal, the book marked the beginning of a more independent phase of visual content creation: "When you're a creative director, you're generally executing someone else's vision" she says, "there's a certain point after which you feel like you're compromising your own point of view".

????Lebenthal—who says her sports lifestyle online magazine is inspired by Tory Burch's website and fashion line—was initially launched under the title Sportology, but after partnering with Acadaca, a web-based technology solutions company, Lebenthal's creation got a much needed makeover, evolving into a sleeker looking platform that launched in March. Lebenthal sees her website as a way not only to provide a service but to create a culture as well – "a destination not just to shop, but to spend time and be entertained", she says, "I like the name Style of Sport because it can be turned into an adjective. As in – 'Oh, that's so Style of Sport!'"

????In its current form, Style of Sport is a stand-alone site for sports-related content – curated, edited, and designed by Lebenthal herself (in addition to a couple of contributing writers.) Posts range from reviews of sports gear like designer running shoes, paddleboards and snack bars to an explainer on kinesiology tape to a gallery of snowboard photography.