The Start of a Renegade – Burton Boards

I am inspired by stories about how great people and companies got their starts. They are always less glamorous than people imagine. They usually involve hardships, failures and often ridicule. It’s the journey of how they overcame everything to succeed. That’s the story I love. And inevitably it involves a handful of qualities like passion, determination and a little bit of arrogance. (My journey with Crown was similar. arrogance and failures included!)
 
Burton Boards got its start in just that way. While now the brand is now synonymous with top of the line boards and hip, trendy sports gear, it didn’t start that way. Jake Burton Carpenter, Founder and CEO, of Burton tells of his first attempt to get the market to adopt his boards and snowboarding as a sport in a new interview with Inc. magazine.
 
As with many teenagers, it started with an interest in a hobby, snowboarding, and a challenge from his father that he never saw anything through. Determined to prove him wrong, he set out to build a better board. He worked a year on prototypes in a time when snowboarding was considered little more than a counter-culture hobby. Selling the boards was even harder. He was laughed at with his ‘skateboards for snow.’ In one sales attempt, he packed his station wagon with 35 boards and starting trying to sell them door-to-door. He came home with 37 when a store owner returned two he’d previously purchased.
 
Then there was the hurdle of hiring. Starting with a friend and a relative, he quickly learned that wasn’t the best route to go. They were too similar with matching, not complementary, skill sets to his. Instead, for Burton hiring part time high school kids allowed him to stay in touch with the exact market he was going after while bringing new perspectives to the table.
 
Burton’s dedication (or stubbornness depending on your point of view) paid off. He started a movement that led to an international sport competed at the Olympic level. He created a company that now has 845 employees and a dominant 35% share of the board market.  In fact, but my son and I sport our own Burton (the Nug).  Grant's Nug is in the picture on the left and mine is on the right.  They ROCK!
 
Rarely does a company launch and knock it out of the park from the beginning. If that’s what you’re waiting for, you might be spend your whole life looking for that a bluebird to fly in front of you. Like Burton, it takes heartache, dedication and failure to create the ultimate success you see.
 
Go fail forward.