Who owns snowboard companies

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You can also adjust your cookie settings within your browser settings. Disillusioned with big brands moving away from the core values of snowboarding more and more professional riders are deciding to take the plunge and start their own companies. Freedom to create snowboards they want to ride, the ability to collaborate with friends and print whatever graphics they can dream up are a few of the perks tempting riders into becoming their own boss.

Here are four rad groups of pros who have flourished since they decided to go it alone. The two of them were the stand-alone riders, owners, distributors and pretty much everything else. Their passion for snowboarding and desire to produce high-quality boards soon won them some loyal fans rats and enough orders to carry on next season. Over the coming years, their board line-up grew as well as the team, attracting names like Chris Larson and Ben Bogart.

The guys were able to widen their distribution channels, shipping boards across Europe, and work with the team at Capita MFG on production. The crew of riders and friends involved in DWD continue to do things their way - steadily building on their success ready for the next challenge.

This stunning all-terrain destroyer has become the board of choice for discerning riders who are looking for high-end performance without having to break the bank to get it. Built around a versatile directional shape the Kwon ticks all the all-terrain boxes. However, many snowboard riders complain about the durability of Nitro snowboards, especially in affordable models. The Ride is one of the best snowboard brands, and what impresses most of the riders about them is that they are built on advanced, cutting-edge technology wed to premium quality.

Ride snowboards are made up of Membrain technology that infuses urethane into cloth. This technology makes their boards distinct from other brands. It was founded in late , in Redmond, WA. Along with a team of top snowboard professionals and up-and-coming riders, a strong product line, an ardent ad campaign, and quite a bit of hard work, the first few years were a success for Ride snowboards.

Due to the growing demand for snowboard and skateboard influenced clothing, Ride introduced an outerwear and streetwear line under Cappel Clothing. Never Summer is a snowboard, longboard, and wakeboard company based in Denver, Colorado. Its reputation for durability and quality started in the early years of snowboarding.

They are designing and building snowboards since and has given the experience of years in testing and perfecting snowboard designs and methods.

They manufactured domestically and improved the technology that resulted in Never Summer. This brand was awarded the first patent on any type of hybrid camber technology. Never Summer industries focus less on excessive promotion and hype and more on using high-quality materials and excellent customer service. Check out their products on Amazon!

The Lib Tech snowboarding brand falls under Mervin manufacturing, and it has been around for decades in this industry. Not only snowboards, but Lib Tech also specializes in skateboards and surfboards. Lib Tech engineers bring new contours and flex along with innovative shapes, mixes, and construction methods every year.

This Lib Tech not only creates planks but also ride them. This snowboard brand is well —known for its Magne-Traction advantages. Each Lib Tech product is manufactured under a controlled environment with all environmentally friendly and renewable high-tech substances. GNU was founded in , and it ranked its reputation as the best handmade snowboard maker in the snowboarding industry. Their boards are best known for profound, bold images and carving sidecuts.

They focus on carrying out experiments to produce excellent award-winning snowboards by keeping their designs unique and innovative. However, GNU was the first major manufacturer to invest a considerable amount in snowboarding.

Their snowboards focus on freestyle decks and also great for all-mountain and geoboards. GNU snowboards are manufactured by using banana technology, which is favored by stunt oriented riders.

Just like the story of Jake Burton and Tom Sims, who battle for the snowboarding industry, Swiss entrepreneur Henri Nidecker also launched his snowboard brand to serve the snowboard industry.

And it took almost 62 years for the Nidecker factory to make the first snowboard. From way back then till now, Nidecker is doing its best in the snowboarding industry. Nidecker was the only brand to manufacture a steel-edged shred stick. Till today, several snowboard companies get Nidecker to develop and prototype snowboards for them.

Four legendary snowboard riders went with the idea of YES snowboards. They approached Austrian snowboard specialist GST and the help them to produce the snowboards. Their snowboard range is best known in terms of graphics. Lobster snowboards were founded by two snowboarding brothers Halldor and Eiki Helgason, in in Iceland. These boards have a traditional camber profile with the lifted corners at the contact points that give them a looser and free feel when snowboarders ride with a flat base.

There are different versions of the 3BT base shapes, and their difference is between the width of the center base and the angles of the side base. Apart from Lobster, Halldor and Eiki also own other brands like Switchback Bindings they manufacture customizable snowboard bindings. Every binding has four components that you can get in different colors—all these colors makeover 15, variations.

Switchback uses the KISS approach for design and production. They have eliminated the screws from traditional bindings, making them stand out among other snowboard binding brands. They offer bindings in bold colors that give snowboarders the freedom to choose bindings that match their outfits.

These bindings can be customized according to snowboard color, boots, pants, or even jacket. The Switchback team has featured Gulli Gudmundsson and Ethan Morgan to build trust among their customers that the bindings must be right. DC is a snowboarding shoe brand, and they continuously look for ways for better product design and performance.

Their long history of high-performance snowboard products speaks volumes about their understanding and passion for the sport. They aim to deliver revolutionary snowboard and lifestyle products year after year consistently. The production of those boards moved to Austria in Burton still run their prototyping facility in Vermont, but production takes place mostly in China and Austria.

When the ELAN factory disbanded in , there were a number of snowboard brands without a factory, including Capita. Each of those brands sought new places to manufacture their snowboards.

Capita took perhaps the most interesting and arguably best new approach - creating their own factory - The Mothership - and new, environmentally sound production techniques.

The brand was founded in Seattle, USA, but the Mothership appears to now be the heart and soul of the brand. Jones started out production in the GST factory. K2 snowboards, a subsidiary, was founded in and Ride Snowboards founded in They have their own factory and testing grounds in Washington, USA, and are highly focused on eco-friendly manufacturing processes. One of the few companies that operates their factory in the same location as their headquarters.

Academy Snowboards are also made in Never Summer's factory. Niche have bounced around a bit between factories. But manufacturing has remained in Austria throughout.

They also have their own named brand snowboards, which are produced in the same town as their headquarters - Rolle, Switzerland. Rossignol is a French brand but has been owned by various different companies over the years.

They are more known for making skis - and that seems to be where their focus is these days. Their snowboards haven't had much attention in recent times and risk falling behind. Like Rossignol and K2 and others not on this list , Salomon was originally a ski brand. And they now make a number of other products for running and hiking as well. They started making snowboards in Slash's short history was almost even shorter - with production almost ceased before partnering with Spacecraft Collective.

Their manufacturing has always been at the Meditec factory in Tunisia. Manufacturing started out briefly in Tunisia, then shifted to the now defunct GST factory in Austria. Production then moved to the SWS factory in Dubai in So there you have all the current headquarters and factories for some of the major snowboard brands.

Of course there are many other brands that haven't been included here but hopefully this helps to answer the question "where are snowboards made". It's likely that some of the above will change over the years, but for now, these are the current locations as far as I can tell.