Nov 21, 2019 · 36m · how-i-built-this
Remembering Jake Burton Carpenter
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this commemorative tribute episode of NPR's 'How I Built This,' host Guy Raz and the late Jake Burton Carpenter chronicle how Jake transformed a novelty backyard toy into the multi-billion-dollar global sport and culture of Burton Snowboards.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Guy holds 31% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Guy as informed peer 2.8 Guest teaching 2.1 Guest disagreement 1.3 Guy pushing back 1.3
speaking balance: gold is Guy, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 25:32 Flat rejection of the Olympic milestone premise
Jake immediately cuts through Guy's celebratory framing of snowboarding's Olympic debut to state plainly that it was not a cool moment at all.
Hardest push from Guy ▶ 31:48 Probing accountability for internal company cultureGuy refuses to accept vague euphemisms around company culture problems, directly asking Jake if he was responsible for fear-based management.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 25:44 Exposing Olympic ski federation mismanagementJake educates Guy on how the Swiss-led ski federation excluded snowboard pioneers, misspelled the sport at venues, and forced athletes into dangerous rain conditions.
Guy holds their own ▶ 20:21 Synthesizing the brand transformation via athlete endorsementGuy demonstrates strong marketing intuition by breaking down exactly why sponsoring Craig Kelly legitimized Burton over its competitors.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Guy as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Guy pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Childhood Attachment to Snow and the Snurfer Craze | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Jake recounts his early love for snow, experimenting with the Snurfer toy, and navigating personal loss during his youth. Guy Raz facilitates the biographical narrative with collaborative framing. | |
| Early Prototypes in Manhattan and Moving to Vermont | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Jake explains moving from Manhattan to Vermont using his inheritance to develop early prototypes. Guy asks straightforward logistical questions about tooling and company naming. | |
| Prototyping Wood Boards and Solitary Field Testing | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Jake shares the isolation of testing hundred-prototype iterations and the breakthrough moment on Mount Washington. Guy offers color with analogies illustrating how strange snowboarding seemed at the time. | |
| Commercial Struggles, Rejections, and Downsizing | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Jake describes commercial rejection by retailers and downsizing his staff before finding traction through mail-order brochures. Guy probes into the emotional difficulty of facing non-stop rejection. | |
| Overcoming Resort Bans and Mainstream Media Dismissal | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Jake explains how liability fears kept resorts from allowing snowboards and details signing influential rider Craig Kelly. Guy actively builds the narrative on how sponsoring Kelly established brand cool. | |
| Mid-Show Break and Market Competition Teaser | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Jake discusses ski manufacturers being late to the market and explains why he rejected investment bankers and stayed private. Guy questions Jake on competitive threats and IPO considerations. | |
| The 1998 Nagano Olympic Debut and Governance Frustrations | 3 | 4 | 4 | 1 | Guy expects the 1998 Nagano Olympics to be celebrated as a crowning milestone, but Jake sharply rejects the premise, detailing the disrespectful governance and mistreatment by ski authorities. | |
| Burton's Unique Workplace Culture and the Snow Day Rule | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | Guy presses Jake on company culture issues, asking directly whether Jake was responsible for fear-based management or struggled with criticism. Jake responds candidly about learning to delegate and empowering his wife Donna. | |
| Battling Severe Illness, Finding Gratitude, and Looking Back | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | Jake discusses facing multiple life-threatening health battles and how surviving them left him deeply grateful and prepared for death. Guy leads a reflective exploration of perspective, wealth, and gratitude. | |
| Guy Raz's Final Remarks on Jake Burton Carpenter's Legacy | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Solo host closing monologue reflecting on Jake Burton Carpenter's life and passing. |
Statements from this episode (25)
Carpenter: Brunswick sold around 800,000 Snurfers
“And, ah, Brunswick made them. They sold 800,000 or something like that.”
Jake Burton: Early business target was 50 snowboards daily for $100K
“I didn't have a business plan, per se, but I did the math that if I could make 50 snowboards a day, I could make a 100,000 dollars a year, and that would be Awesome.”
Carpenter Funded Burton Snowboards Using $150,000 of an Inheritance
“And so I inherited almost 200,000 dollars, and I spent 150 of it developing Burton.”
Burton Carpenter: Built 100 early prototypes while developing first snowboards
“So my first prototype was a piece of solid ash that was just put in this thing to curve the nose, and then I just start riding them on hills, and I'd literally made a hundred.”
Burton Carpenter: Feared ski companies would quickly put Burton out of business
“I always feared that, like, the minute ski companies caught wind of this, that they would just jump on it, and I'd be out of business in no time.”
Carpenter: Burton snowboard design was finalized on Mount Washington in June 1978
“I'm hiking up there, and Hillman's Highway was the trail, and I had the board, or I was testing the final test, and it was horizontally laminated rock maple, very much like a skateboard, but thinner and more flexible.
And I rode down, you know, just hiking up …”
Jake Burton: Early sales trip netted negative two snowboard sales
“I remember once going out with 38 snowboards, and I drove around New York State and visited dealers, and I went out with 38, and I came home with 40. Because one guy had given me two back that he'd bought and said, this is a joke.”
Jake Burton: Skateboard, surf, and ski shops initially rejected snowboards
“In the beginning, skateboard shops, surf shops, ski shops, nobody wanted any part of it.”
Jake Burton: Overproducing year-one inventory forced immediate layoffs
“So I had to let go of my two relatives and my friend very quickly, and it became back to me in year two, because we made enough boards in that first winter, I don't know whether we made, a thousand or 15, we made enough for three years.”
Carpenter: Burton sold 350 snowboards in year one, 700 in year two
“First year was 300 or three 50. Second year was 700.”
Burton: Time Magazine dismissed snowboarding as the 'worst new sport' in 1980s
“I think time was quoted as calling it the worst new sport. And part of that time thing, the worst new sport was they said it was more about raging hormones. And this was these rebellious young men that were making it happen.”
Burton: Early resort snowboard bans were driven by liability and lawsuit paranoia
“Well, it was there was actually a famous case at Stratton, which was a resort, one of the first resorts to let us on, where this guy had- It's in southern Vermont, and this guy had broken his leg because of some sign or something, skiing, and he sued the mount…”
Carpenter: Paid Craig Kelly $17,000 Annually to Ride for Burton
“And so we cut a deal, and he rode for me, and I paid him 17,000 bucks a year.”
Carpenter: Ski Companies Could Have Destroyed Burton Early On
“They could have destroyed us, and there were all these rumors that some ski companies were going to start making them.”
Carpenter: European Governments Subsidized Ski Makers Entering Snowboarding
“Some of those French and Austrian companies were subsidized by their governments to keep their factories going. So, from a cost perspective, they were lower cost producers for a minute there.”
Carpenter: Burton Doubled Snowboard Sales Annually for First 20 Years
“We've doubled the number of snowboards sold for the first 20 years, I think, of the company”
Carpenter: Burton Was Always the Number One Snowboard Manufacturer
“We've been the number one manufacturer of snowboards since the day”
Carpenter: Ride Snowboards Collapsed Due to Unrealistic Wall Street Expectations
“And then all of a sudden, Ride Stock, which was at 35 bucks at the time, went down to two bucks. Because they had these expectations that, like Wall Street, just, they take things and they project unrealistic expectations.”
Carpenter: FIS added Olympic snowboarding without consulting the sport's pioneers
“Well, FIS, which is a International Ski Federation, it's a Swiss, you know, whatever, governmental body, and they controlled the scene, and then they started having snowboard competitions when they just had, aside from their ski races, and we were wondering wh…”
Carpenter: Freestyle snowboarding venues at recent Olympics were dangerously sketchy
“The last two Olympics, the venues, for the freestyle stuff, which is what people care about, for the halfpipe and slopestyle, the venues have been really sketchy.”
Burton grants employees an automatic day off for two feet of snow
“If it snows over two feet, it's an automatic day off for the whole company.”
Burton: Bank charged Burton Snowboards $4M for loan covenant amendment
“The bank charged us four million dollars to change one paragraph in our loan agreement, which was called a covenant.”
Carpenter brought wife Donna to Burton leadership to promote female executives
“There were no women in our top management, and that just felt wrong to me, so I got in there, and I, and Donna came along with me, and at that level, we were running the company, and I brought her, and sort of specifically to,
Help with the culture and get mor…”