Burton Snowboards - History

History

Burton Snowboards was founded by Jake Burton Carpenter in 1977. Carpenter was inspired by the snurfer, invented by Sherman Poppen. He modified it. In 1977 Carpenter moved to Londonderry, Vermont to make the first Burton Snowboards. Carpenter first made snowboards by hand in his garage. He couldn't afford the proper equipment—so he applied polyurethane wearing a scuba mask. His co-founder Dimitrije Milovich, was an East coast surfer and founder of Winterstick.

In 1978, they moved to Manchester, Vermont. During the early years 4 or 5 workers sold, shaped, and repaired their snowboards.

Carpenter campaigned for local resorts to open their lifts to snowboard riders. The first mountain to have reportedly let snowboarders in was in 1982, the Suicide Six ski area in Pomfret, Vermont. Next was Stratton Mountain, and later, Jay Peak and Stowe. When resorts started to accept riders, the public did too. Burton was in place to supply them with snowboards.

In 1982 Burton was marketing their product at the National Snowboarding Championships, which were held at Suicide Six. In 1985 the National Snowboarding Championships moved to Stratton Mountain and became the U.S. Open Snowboarding championships which was operated and owned by Burton. This competition helped legitimize the sport.

In 1985 Burton established the European Division of Burton in Innsbruck, Austria. In 1986 distribution started in New Zealand. In 1992 the Burton factory relocated to Burlington, VT. In 1994 they opened the Japan division in Urawa-shi.

As of 2009, Burton owned 10 companies that sold snowboards, outerwear, and shoes. R.E.D, Gravis, Anon, Analog, Forum, Special Blend, Foursquare, Jeenyus, and most recently Channel Islands. Channel Islands is a surfboard company, and surfboards seems to be Burtons next goal. In 2008 Burton began to make surfboards in Vermont.

In 2008, a number of complaints arose when Burton produced snowboards with topsheets illustrating self-mutilation and Playboy bunnies. The Burton Love being one of the board series which has been discontinued for the 2012 line. In its place, Mr. Nice Guy.

Each year, Jake Burton has hosted the Fall Bash, to promote good will among employees and friends of the company. In 2009, the Fall Bash became the subject of controversy after the company attempted to censor press about it.

In 2010, Carpenter announced that Burton Snowboards would cease manufacturing in Vermont, moving production to Austria. "imply put, it costs us significantly more to produce a board in Vermont than we are capable of selling it for, and sadly, this is not sustainable in the current economy."