Oldhead wrote: Thu Jan 23, 2025 8:14 am
Hilarious to think most snowboarders understand the intended purpose for their bindings. 95% buy the binding they see other people riding and which one is consider cool at the moment. You are overthinking a marketing gimmick.
Something something... "Rome Black Label bindings, and K2 Thraxis boots..." something something
eleveneightnate wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2025 8:08 am
To be fair, most people aren't up in arms about anyone's personal preferences here and never have been (debating the merit/function of actual products and marketing claims is different IMO). Mr. Partridge came in and explicitly asked us for our opinions on various things, which people gave, but he didn't like the answers so he started appealing to authority and making wild claims like "people who ride ultras, stratas or contact pros don't ride swallow tails" lol... Of course people are gonna push back. Same with "hey guys let's talk about Step Ons" "okay, i don't like them" "NO you can't say that, you must not be a shredder and know how to fit your boots properly!".
It's just a couple of people that can't cope with differing preferences, but that doesn't mean the rest of EZ is ruined or something.
and PLEASE PLEASE......if you are going to quote me, DO NOT misquote me....that is a really asshole thing to do
my actual quote: "yes, people who ride ultra, strata or contact pro, most likely wouldn’t be the type of rider that would ever use the float pack. they would not likely ride a swallow tail’s either."
Hilarious to think most snowboarders understand the intended purpose for their bindings. 95% buy the binding they see other people riding and which one is consider cool at the moment. You are overthinking a marketing gimmick.
a board designer and engineer know that if you try and build a board that pleases everybody, in the end you will please nobody. i agree with your statement here, but a rider who buys a freestyle union binding because gigi rides them, i would imagine are not the typical rider profile that would also buy a swallow tail. snowboard co generally prefer to match the design intent of the binding with the pro that rides it.
i’m not clear which marketing gimmick you are referring too. is it, you think freestyle vs freeriding bindings is a gimmick?
Last edited by dpartridge7 on Fri Jan 24, 2025 1:38 am, edited 3 times in total.
Dude, give it a rest. You came here seeking validation but probably picked the wrong crowd and largely didn’t receive it. No bid deal, we’re for the most part probably not the audience you’re looking for and seemingly you don’t care very much as paraphrasing your earlier comments “FASE is going to have trouble filling its current orders and doesn’t need the 100 or so of us”. Wonderful, good for you, I hope FASE does great and makes you a killing. It doesn’t mean any of us have to agree with it or anything else you’re saying.
As someone who has sat on the sidelines and watched the discourse go down over the past week or so, just wanted to throw my two cents in.
Do I think current Step-On/fast entry trend is a bit silly? Yes. Do I think the majority of riders need a step in binding? No. Do I have any desire to switch from my Unions to a step in binding? No. Am I the target demographic? Fuck no and I don't think there's many of us that would be who post on this forum.
Fact of the matter is, that shit sells, especially to the 'non-core' market. Faster strap in time to keep up with their skier friends, response, whatever use case they want to tell themselves, they want it. I believe over 50% of Burton's overall sales last year were Step-On related product, which exceeded their target goal. When I help out at local sales here in the Bay Area during the fall, there is a very large percentage of people coming in specifically asking for Step-On/fast entry product. These people are definitely not what I'd consider 'core' riders, but core products don't make money (feel like Doc talking core v non-core lol).
It's not anything I would personally ride or recommend, but the demand is out there (from both a consumer and retailer standpoint) and snowboard companies are pivoting their product lines to meet that market demand. With Union now pumping out their own Step-On branded products and FASE bindings coming online as well, the whole fast entry trend is gaining acceptance and is here to stay, at least for the time being. Whether that dies out in a few years, like the whole reverse camber phase, who knows, but the products are night and day better than what the industry has previously produced. The consumer market dictates product innovation and it's obvious the market wants more fast entry bindings.
This forum has been pretty dead for multiple years, relative to the old BMB/EL days. Here comes a dude who's involved in the industry, who has a wealth of knowledge and clearly has a love for snowboarding and to basically shit on him and potentially drive him away, is goofy as fuck to me.
Riiiiiiiiiight. He was nothing but a super friendly dude that caught shit from multiple people for literally no reason and we should all just be thankful that he's saving our "dead" forum haha.
Last edited by eleveneightnate on Fri Jan 24, 2025 10:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
