The Official Burton Thread

[Kevington]

Michi Albin had a pro model on Vimana until a couple of seasons ago. It was a 161 with a narrow waist and round tips.

[jota]

I don't know if you know anything more about this:

“John Lacy Burton’s CEO, has sent this statement to his staff:

“This week we will reduce jobs throughout the company. These decisions are not made lightly; They reflect our need to align our workforce with our current business...

Our business is not immune to today's challenging market and we face other risks to our business: strong competition, climate change and flat share.

“Our commitment to transformation is for the long-term sustainability of our company.” “

[Msteff]

Sucks for those involved, that’s always a tough thing to go through. Not super surprising though, they have seemed bloated for a while given the overall state of the industry, and their declining station in it. Not to say they aren’t clearly the industry leader just that they aren’t lapping everyone else anymore.

[alexxx]

Can't speak for the situation inside Burton, I have zero connection to the "industry" or whatever, but the economic, lifestyle and climate trends haven't been super encouraging for the snow sports lately to say the least, so i'm not entirely surprised.
The prices are also getting pretty out of whack.
Wondering how are other companies doing these days...
Btw, are the yoots still obsessing over the new releases/drops every year or has it firmly shifted towards older, more affluent demographics?

[C.Fuzzy]

Imo its been evident B has lost a bit of direction with Jakes departure. Not saying these layoffs are solely due to that but where they had always tried to maintain the pole position at the head of snowboarding, it seems they're increasingly letting off the gas and not putting the time and money into making sure they have that front runner status. While I understand that it's probably not directly profitable to do a lot of those things that kept them in that position, still the 'bean counter' thinking is how brand leaders lose their lead as 'the brand' and become just another brand. Imo Jake was too big of a thinker to let that style of decision making take over and also had the command to override its pervasiveness, and he understood that the B brand was in some ways just as big as the sport.

That said, the shortening seasonal weather patterns, weaker regional winters, and the economic headwinds seem to be increasing. It's looking like a set up for more of this to come too. Seems it may only get harder and more expensive to continue to participate in this dumbass activity.

As far as new releases, I like to see new stuff because new is novel and it's fun to talk shit or ohh and ahh over whatever, but no new graphic or tech gets any tangible emotional excitement from me like it would have 20 years ago.

But neither does much of anything, anymore. So. I'm well on my way to telling kids to stay off my lawn and shaking my fist at the clouds.

The good with the bad. beep beep.

[AyAyRon]

Im sure this is in direct response to the shitty winter experienced by many regions this year. I'm not sure there is a definite trend of shitty winters or not, after a three decades of living in the mountains i can't see any linear trend. There was a series of shitty winters in the 90's, 2000s, 2010's. People have short memories.

[benjinyc]

I think they over expanded, they make too much stuff, too many collabs, too many overlapping board models.. too many clothing lines (Daybeacon, Analog, Mine77, Carbonite)

[eleveneightnate]

Is Step On a huge profit maker for them? It seems like that has led to stagnation within their traditional boot and binding lines and I know a lot of people that pass over them now because of that. But yeah, I agree with Benji... they just make too much shit.

[jota]

Imo its been evident B has lost a bit of direction with Jakes departure. Not saying these layoffs are solely due to that but where they had always tried to maintain the pole position at the head of snowboarding, it seems they're increasingly letting off the gas and not putting the time and money into making sure they have that front runner status. While I understand that it's probably not directly profitable to do a lot of those things that kept them in that position, still the 'bean counter' thinking is how brand leaders lose their lead as 'the brand' and become just another brand. Imo Jake was too big of a thinker to let that style of decision making take over and also had the command to override its pervasiveness, and he understood that the B brand was in some ways just as big as the sport.

That said, the shortening seasonal weather patterns, weaker regional winters, and the economic headwinds seem to be increasing. It's looking like a set up for more of this to come too. Seems it may only get harder and more expensive to continue to participate in this dumbass activity.

As far as new releases, I like to see new stuff because new is novel and it's fun to talk shit or ohh and ahh over whatever, but no new graphic or tech gets any tangible emotional excitement from me like it would have 20 years ago.

But neither does much of anything, anymore. So. I'm well on my way to telling kids to stay off my lawn and shaking my fist at the clouds.

The good with the bad. beep beep.

strongly agree… I see that they are very focused on selling intangible things... but they don't venerate the desire to ride their boards. In fact, sometimes it even seems that it is the least important thing for them... their boards… but maybe only seems…

There is nothing emotional on their boards. As you said one day, it seems like with their graphics they want to please everyone and IMO that lose personality and character…

In the middle of the '74 crisis, Porsche launched the 911 turbo and changed everything. Sometimes you also have to invest or spend on things that are not profitable to create a “big brand.”

[jota]

Is Step On a huge profit maker for them? It seems like that has led to stagnation within their traditional boot and binding lines and I know a lot of people that pass over them now because of that. But yeah, I agree with Benji... they just make too much shit.

Yes… Less is more…