The Burton marketing machine!

Burton; from trailblazer to opportunist marketing machine.

Burton is the most successful snowboard company in the world, and became that way based on tremendous innovation and relentless hard work. Unfortunately, like many companies that start off small and become big, their sheer size becomes something that needs to be supported by ever increasing sales...sometimes at any cost. The innovation that led to their success often wanes, and marketing takes over. Readers of this newsletter will recall issue #3, where we shared the story of Burton rejecting PHNX Boards as a throwback to the past. Burton was instead a trailblazer "...dedicated to progressing the sport and the technology like no other". That is, until it became apparent that retro snurfers were making a comeback, and so they released their...uh...Throwback! And now, after the success of that board? With all your resources, do you innovate and make an even better snurfer, like we did with PHNX Boards' American-made, double-patented Board-2-Ski shape and Rip-Cord Binding/Brake System? Or do you simply switch up the graphics on your Chinese import...and MORE THAN DOUBLE THE PRICE!Yes, according to Burton (we asked) the only difference between last season's $129 Throwback and this season's $320 Neighborhood is the graphics. Oh, and by the way, if you want a matching Neighborhood B-10 jacket to go with your board, that will be $1,000! Its pretty clear that Burton's neighborhood used to be regular folks but is now Beverly Hills...even though there's no snow in L.A.

So, if we put a cool sticker on the PHNX Boards Trailblazer and renamed it Magic Trick...would you pay $500?

ECC Longboards' Back Yard Surfer: this is what innovation looks like!

One of our customers is the owner of a skateboard company in Pennsylvania called ECC Longboards. Owner Shawn Arlock left Wall street to concentrate on doing what he really wanted to do: create long-board skateboards that recaptured the memories of his youth, growing up on the Jersey shore. In Shawn's words: "With an industry that has become cookie cutter cut-out boards massed produced, we felt the need to fill a gap, and go back to how it was all started by creating something with a little more personal touch". That personal touch includes making his own exotic wood veneers in-house, and hand making and finishing each board. While creating his skateboards, Shawn realized (as we did) that snurfing was poised for a comeback, but rather than produce a "cookie-cutter" imported board, ECC Longboards applied the same hand-crafted production and finishing techniques to his "Snow Surfer". In addition to really cool colored dies, the Snow Surfer has a p-tex base and wide shape similar to the Burton Throwback, but with a much more solid feel...and made in the US. If you are tempted to buy a Throwback, we urge you instead to support ECC Longboards. Are we crazy to promote a competitor's board? Well, first of all, we think its fun to own several boards, which is easy to do since they are all so much cheaper than a resort snowboard. In addition, we've said that the Trailblazer is great in most snow conditions but not optimum for really deep snow, where a wider board like the Snow Surfer might perform better. Even when we get our deep powder board produced, go ahead and buy both boards and support two companies dedicated to snurfing innovation!