Snowboards FW15/16 trend report

The way snowboards are designed and sold has changed more in the last three years than in the last twenty. Brands large and small are selling direct, consumers are more and more clued-up and demanding, and the commoditisation of some parts of the market has led to off-price sales being the rule rather than the exception. In short, you’ve not got an atmosphere conducive to big orders and strong sell-throughs. Report by Tom Wilson-North.

Nitro

But forget the hate and look closer into this sport of ours. Snowboarding still prevails and is thriving in certain categories. The passion, energy and thick soul of a snowboard still pulls at strings of hearts and wallets; the edits still get watched and the best riders attain the same hero-status as before, albeit through Vimeo and Mpora rather than Absinthe and Mack Dawg. The bottom line is that snowboarding is fun as hell, here to stay, and of course – snowboards still sell.

2015/16 sees some eyebrow-raising changes. There’s a huge leap forward in shaping, leaving behind the classic, bluntish, roundish snowboard shape for striking new noses, tails and even bases. There’s new tech in cores, lots of movement in the affordable splitboards market and a surprisingly buoyant all mountain freestyle scene. Read on, and let’s see what the future holds.

KEY NEW MODELS

De Marchi, Solberg and DCP’s YES brand have two new boards that are set to somewhat revolutionise modern snowboarding; the true twin 20/20 Powderfoil, which we’ll talk about later and the new Pick Your Line. The PYL has trick new multi-radius sidecut technology called Tapered Underbite, which creates an aggressive freeride board that doesn’t wash out as the turn ends. Over at Burton, the Custom celebrates its 20-year anniversary, spawning a split version and superlight Mystery Custom.

The all-mountain-freestyle trend is strong, and we’ll look at it in greater detail shortly.  From K2 the big news is their hard-charging JoyDriver, developed with Lucas Debari. Similarly, Ride have a brand new Berzerker that’s the culmination of a three-year project with Jake Blauvelt. Slash have a premium directional zero-camber rocker made with Manuel Diaz’s input called the Nahual, and Never Summer have added a pair of all-American guns called the Funslinger and the West. Salomon’s new AMF board is the Super8, with directional camber, a bit of extra width and a penchant for powder and cruising.  Volkl’s AFC ticks the all-mountain powder box and Bataleon’s gorgeous Magic Carpet is a true twin do-it-all powder stick built off the WhiteGold PROTO XIV/V chassis.

Big mountain boards are still trending thanks to several media releases and the fact they tend to be great fun to ride fast on the piste. The Mountain Division from Rome is a return to freeride form with camber, a big floaty nose and a grippy tail. Likewise, Borealis have a remixed high-tech Arcane, and Robin Van Gyn’s Roxy Banana Smoothie gets a pointy overhaul to become something of an all-terrain bullet. Palmer have a new premium Platinum, and over at Light Boardcorp the all-new Trooper features a long blunt nose, camber and carbon for instantaneous acceleration.

Shapes have received a firm kick to the posterior, and it’s in powder boards that the envelope of plausibility has been pushed the hardest. Travis Rice’s new Firepower board is a sumptuous retro-funk platform with diagonal nose profile and a kicked-in v-tail – it’s ridden a lot in his new Brain Farm film project, out in the autumn. Nitro’s Quiver Series sees a 183 Cannon swallow and a brand new Mountain with a wide snubnose. There’s an addition to the Jones pow line too; the Storm Chaser is a short, wide swallow inspired by surfboards. Venture’s Euphoria gets an overhaul with a regular sidecut for better control in variable snow, and Ride’s Hanna Beaman-inspired OMG has an asym heelside sidecut.

Also on your ISPO shopping list should be West, who slam into their second year with a collaboration with Swiss fashion label Prism, and Verdad’s high-end Blaze Of Glory board which has a brand new fibre mix.

Ride

UTTERLY MENTAL NEW SHAPES

We’re confident that winter 2015/16 will be known as the one where all snowboards stopped looking alike, and brands started asserting their identity using unconventional nose, tail and base shapes. Early-adopter consumers will be keen to try out these weird-looking new decks.

We think this trend has legs. It was love at first sight for the new line of asym swallow and bat-tails developed by veteran riders Jerry Niedermeier & Stephan Maurer under the watchful eye of brand manager Nicholas Wolken. Their brand is called Korua, and they are making them at GST. “We aim to make our boards easy to ride in every terrain, with the focus on freeriding in powder and on groomers”, explains Wolken. They’ve got white tops, pointy noses and red bases, and we can’t wait to try them.

Gnu take the prize for creativity with their trapeze-shaped Zoid board. “It’s an unreal directional asymmetric model with a trapezoidal contact footprint that comes in regular and goofy foot options”, slobbers Mervin’s Pete Saari. “The board rides great in both directions, looks cool and pushes easy riding asymmetric snowboard design concepts to a new level”. It is a thing of beauty and was a clear early favourite in the tests. Meanwhile, stablemates Lib Tech have a new tech called DUH! that’s been doing the Insta-rounds over the last few months. It stands for Deeper Understanding Hypothesis, and consists of a central lowered platform in the middle of the base with a detuned, straight-ish sidecut which provides more leverage for the turn.

Next year design cues abound from surfboard shaping. Lib have a collab with surf shapers Lost called the Mayhem, and Jones build on their partnership with Chris Christenson on the Storm Chaser pow board.  And as for Yes’s 20/20 Powderfoil, well… “it just has to be seen to be believed”, says Brand Director Alex Warburton. “It’s a true twin with two distinct rocker lines that blend together, creating a pronounced base concave in the nose and tail. At the leading end, the concave draws air under the board, causing lift and floatation. As the snow moves across the base it releases off the tail, making the tail drop downward. This twin rides through deep snow with the same planing angle that we get with directional shapes and set-back. On hard-pack it’s just short, wide, and super fun.”

Conventional boards are also becoming wider and shorter. Amplid have got a name for it – Jekyll and Hyde Geometry – and the best example of it is on their Pillow Talk. Salomon’s Rocket Science achieves a similar goal, and Drake’s Guerriglia powder board is blunt, agile and extra wide. Extra width also helps us shop guys to fit bigger feet onto boards, and we all know consumer’s feet just keep getting bigger.

Finally, you’d have to be living under a rock to have missed the cut-it-yourself trend; Lib Tech’s MC Blank, Lobsters Nose Job, Yes’s Clark and DWD’s Genovese offer amateur shapers the chance to get busy and come up with their own shapes themselves.

BACK TO THE OLD SCHOOL

Head

There is also a vintage reissue trend going on. Reissues appeal to late-30s riders with a bit of disposable cash who want to show their roots, on the wall or on the snow. The reissue market has worked brilliantly in skate, and we’re expecting the trend to stick here. It might take some pressure off those vintage snowboard collector guys, if nothing else. Gnu’s Swallow Tail is a reworking of their original early-80’s ground-breaking swallow. It’s an old design that doesn’t look old, and will work all over. Likewise, Arbor’s Zygote Twin is a high-five to their Venice, CA roots, offering twin performance, an asym shape and a soft flex. Technine’s Bradshaw Snakebite is a modern interpretation of the Burt Lamar Trick Stick shape, Santa Cruz have a hammerhead snubnose retro board called the SRX and the Lib Tech Pool Skater reissue is sure to please, featured on next year’s MC Kink.  Now, if they’d only reissue some Wintersticks…

MATERIALS & INTERNALS

The core of the board is the very essence of its personality, and we’re finding that end users are starting to look more closely at what’s under the hood. So instead of simply being satisfied that a snowboard has a wood core, people are equally interested in what kind of wood, how it’s laid up, and what else there is in there.

“We are currently focussing on some issues that are less sexy, but equally as important, say Nitro. “All our boards have received an upgrade in base material quality, and we have been working with a leading composite supplier to develop a high-strength fibreglass. The result is simple – ALL our snowboards are 20% stronger and more responsive than ever before”. Fighting talk.  Next up, Head are using Graphene, borrowed from the boffins in their tennis and alpine divisions. It’s strong and extremely lightweight and has the ability to transfer energy with little debit. The 2D Graphene in their Libra women’s board is one of the thinnest, lightest and strongest materials ever made. Although only an atom thick, it is tougher than a diamond and up to 300 times stronger than steel.

Traditional carbon isn’t going anywhere. But it’s being used in some different ways that piqued our interest. Yes wrap bamboo stringers in carbon and slot them into milled channels in their core running parallel to the sidecut. Salomon’s Slingshot Sidewalls see the material inserted directly into the sidewall underfoot, and Jones upgrade the carbon line to Textreme carbon fibre, which has seen success in Formula One and on Felt Tour de France bikes. Light Boardcorp have sourced a new carbon supplier with thinner rovings, letting them have greater adjustability to fine-tune torsion more effectively. There’s forged carbon diamond packs in Capita’s Spring Break boards, and Slash use non-crimping NCF carbon biax in the Aurora, which has an enviable load capacity and feather-like weight.

There are a couple of new approaches we’ve seen for next year we like too. Loaded’s Algernon uses an edge-to-edge, sidewall-free bamboo core, which they’ve built themselves with skate pioneer Ernie DeLost in California. You’ll also see a new vulcan material layer from Goodboards. Meanwhile, Roxy have a new bio fibre called Silky Smooth for dampening; Rome are using Zylon as a laminate enhancer, Bataleon have a four-way Kevlar fleece that’s being dropped in under the insert packs, and on the weight side, things just keep getting lighter. Burton have just finished an internal project called Core Weight Reduction to lighten every board in their line by at least 10%.

ALL MOUNTAIN FREESTYLE

Ride

Whilst the easiest selling boards for the last few years have undoubtedly been stiff freeride decks, many brands we spoke to indicate a revival in demand for medium-flex, twin directional all mountain boards. The quiver of one makes economic sense. Either that or people are feeling silly cruising blue runs on Carbon Flagships.

Nitro’s Good Times is an easy going new freestyle twin, and Vimana have a stiff Motherbrain with forgiving rocker profile. From Voelkl there’s a new directional, easy-turning and floaty all-mountatin freestyle board inspired by Michi Stanschitz and Mario Kaeppeli, and Rome have a Mountain Collection focussed on piste, park and powder versatility; it’s headed up by the redesigned Agent. “We have definitely seen the market trending towards more freestyle boards that are soft but not noodles”, confirms Academy’s Jason Martin.

SPLITBOARD STUFF

There’s been plenty of movement in the crowded splitboard market; the segment remains active, with a growing participation base. Riders seem to have finally understood that skinning performance (ie grip) is really of vital importance, so all the splitboards that work best feature a variation of classic camber and s-rocker for maximum skin-to-snow contact.

Things are finally becoming more affordable this year in splitboards. Bataleon’s Fun.Kink Split promises to be the cheapest on the market, Nitro’s Nomad offers sensational bang for buck and Amplid’s price point model lifts from the all-new Creamer shape. Burton have identified this sub-trend too. “Next year we are offering a Custom Split that builds from 20 years of board development and offers a unique split ride at an affordable price”, says Category Manager Chris Fidler.

Despite the affordable split thing, the premium part of the market is still the biggest chunk. Gnu’s Beauty and Beast C3 splits have splendid Pendleton Blankets collaborations, and Voelkl’s new Xsight Split gets a powergun shape drawn from their Alright solid. Nitro have a new premium split called the Doppleganger with Hiking Pods for extra skintrack traction, and Jones have at last produced the long-awaited Aviator Split.

GRAPHICS

No surprises in aesthetics; there’s minimalism and visible tech at one end, a wide spectrum of inoffensive and fairly neutral boards in the middle, and screaming techno-barf at the other end. A mix of each will be in your buy, although beware of filling your shop with wood-topsheet boards and making the place look like some kind of sauna.

Light Boardcorp have a tight line of high-gloss and mixed-finish detailing. Meanwhile, Norweigan rippers Vimana have a super tidy range curated by artist du jour Peter-John de Villiers aka The Shallowtree. He’s the high-detail guy who is also responsible for Yes’ Greats series. Lib’s Travis Rice graphic is mellower than usual, a Parillo-designed Supercreature animal mélange, and Drake use clean lines of Italian street artists like Aloha Project and Thunderbeard to create their prettiest series in years.

On the flipside, Eiki Helgason’s new Lobster pro model features a trippy graphic with glow-in-the-dark topsheet, which ought to look fairly eye-catching, particularly when mounted with Switchback’s glow-in-the-dark bindings. In collabs, Endeavor partner with Kurt Cobain and Wu-Tang – which look awesome – and Capita soldier on with their Volcom co-creations.

CONCLUSION

So despite the naysayers, the boards of 2015/16 are staying fresh and the brands are trying their hardest. Trickled-down tech is getting more accessible, and real genuine camber is trending hard again. Then there’s freeride, which is still showing growth – partly because it’s a segment of snowboarding that is aspirational but not completely unattainable. After all, even the chubbiest mid-forties dude on his annual holiday can fancy himself a bit of a Jeremy when he’s just off of the side of the piste.

So what about you and next year’s board buy? Well, why not make 2015/16 the year for an overhaul? Dump the boards and brands that are mediocre and lacklustre. Replace them with product sold by people who are ready to go further than just filling in the order form; who are ready to listen to what you need and help you out with your sell through. Buy at least a few boards that’ll blow your clients’ minds and get them drooling in the shop. Embrace the new shapes, buy a few vintage reissues and go hard into that all mountain freestyle segment. And cross your fingers that it snows earlier next year.

HIGHLIGHTS

Weird New Shapes

Freeride Still Strong

The Return of All Mountain Freestyle

Affordable Splitboards

Vintage Reissues

Both this image and page top image: Burton