Burton (Snowsports)
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Burton Snowboards, founded by Jake Burton Carpenter in 1977, is a snowboard manufacturer that has grown to become one of the leaders in its market. Burton, arguably, manufactures the best, and most technically sophisticated, snowboarding gear on the planet. With a product line that encompasses all the essential elements of snowboarding (hardgoods, outerwear, accessories), Jake Burton has created a definition of what it is to be a snowboarder. Besides selling goods under its own brand name, Burton also own several sub-brands which tend to focus on a specific line of products or aspect of the snowboard market. These sub-brands include Anon Optics (retailing snowboard goggles and other eyewear), Red Protection (helmets and body armor), Analog Outerwear (high-end outerwear), and Gravis Footwear. In 2005, Four Star Distribution sold 4 of its snowboard brands to Burton, including Forum Snowboards, Jeenyus Snowboards, Four Square Outerwear, and Special Blend Outerwear. Burton is often referred to as the 'Nike' of snowboarding, due to its influence within the sport and its prevalence as a global brand. Nonetheless, it must be noted that Burton is still rider-owned and independent. Due to its significant influence over the snowboard market and renown with snowboarders world wide, Burton has been courted for takeover by many large corporations many times over, yet Mr. Burton has resisted. Burton's professional snowboard team is also one of the largest and most well rounded in snowboarding. Their team includes some of the most influential and successful riders in snowboarding such as Shaun White, Jeremy Jones, and Terje Haakonsen.
Instead of the conventional "4 hole" binding mounting system that is used on most snowboards, Burton snowboards use a 3-hole system known to Burton as the 3-D System, which means that many times, adaptor plates are needed when used with 3rd-party bindings. A step further is the UnInc series of snowboards, which uses a 2-hole mounting system called the 2X System. The 3D system has been licensed to other binding manufacturers, but as of April 2006, Burton has taken information about the licensees of the 3D System off their website.
The 2-hole mounting system was not a Burton innovation however. It was pioneered by Forum Snowboards who promoted the system as being infinitely customizable. It consists of a slider system, where the binding is screwed into separate slides which are on tracks. The slides can then be positioned along the track where ever the rider feels comfortable. Burton acquired this system when they acquired Forum. Burton modified the system to instead have fixed inserts in the snowboard, and then integrated a sliding plate into the baseplate. Besides the 2-hole system, Burton bindings also feature a 3-hole base plate on the bindings in order to utilize Burton's "3-D" screw pattern design. The 3-D pattern allows for a greater number of binding positioning options compared to that of the 4-hole system.
As far as customization goes the ranking is 4-hole, 3-hole, 2-hole (or slide) from low to high. A common problem with the 2-hole design is that the binding has the capability to severely damage (even destroy in some cases) the core and topsheet of the board due to the thin amount of core and topsheet holding the sliders in. After numerous issues and complaints from riders, Burton has replaced the sliding plate with 3 fixed positions for the 2007 UnInc lineup, and this will hopefully eradicate these problems.
Burton's higher end bindings offer a "cap strap". Unlike traditional toe straps that go over the top of the snowboard boot, the cap strap cups the toes and forces the boot down into the binding as well as back into the binding. It is claimed that this design helps relieve pressure points, thus being more comfortable. The cap system was initially introduced in the Winter of 2003, when Burton included the cap strap on its Mission Greed and Mission OLS binding models. After the wild success of both models, Burton decided to include the cap strap on a wider variety of binding models. As a result, Burton has slowly integrated the cap strap with the rest of their line. For the 2006/2007 season, Burton has added the capstrap to all their binding models except for the Freestyle and Freestyle Jr. models.
Burton is also known as a pioneer in the field of outerwear design, integrating some of the most high tech equipment into all of its product areas. The most recent of these innovations is a Bluetooth enabled jacket with built in speakers in the collar and a microphone in the chest. The system wirelessly connects your MP3 player and cell phone and is operated via Soft Touch controls on the sleeve. This jacket was developed in partnership with Motorola. Burton is also known for being a pioneer in snowboard design. From utilizing an aluminum honey comb core to building a snowboard that detaches at the middle to form skis, Burton has lead the way in snowboard design and technology.
