Assertion Partly supported
Carpenter: Burton Was Always the Number One Snowboard Manufacturer
“We've been the number one manufacturer of snowboards since the day”
Opinion
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.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
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…”
Opinion
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.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
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.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Burton paid a $4 million bank fee to amend a loan covenant
“Well, the bank charged us four million dollars to change one paragraph in our loan agreement, which was called a covenant. When you're borrowing money, your earnings had to represent a certain ratio compared to how much money you were borrowing, and we slipped…”
What-if
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.”
Assertion Partly supported
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.”
Assertion Contradicted
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”
Opinion
Incumbent ski companies were completely oblivious to the rise of snowboarding
“It's just so funny that the ski companies were so oblivious to what was going on in front of their eyes. I mean, talk about close-minded, you know.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Burton Snowboards doubled its annual unit sales for 20 straight years
“We've doubled the number of snowboards sold for the first 20 years, I think, of the company, so Sims was a threat at one point.”
Disclosure
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.”
Disclosure
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.”
Assertion Supported
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 …”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
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.”
Assertion Partly supported
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.”
Assertion Supported
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…”
Disclosure
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.”
Disclosure
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.”
Disclosure
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…”
Insight
Carpenter: True delegation requires letting employees make and learn from mistakes
“Beyond trusting, you have to let them screw up, and live with it, and live through mistakes, and if they repeat the mistakes, then that's not a good sign.”
Disclosure
Burton Carpenter: Refused Inbound Acquisition Calls for Burton Snowboards
“I just didn't take those phone calls.”
Disclosure
Jake Burton Carpenter spent $150,000 of his inheritance funding Burton Snowboards
“I inherited almost 200,000 dollars, and I spent 150 of it developing Burton.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Carpenter returned from a 38-board sales trip with 40 snowboards
“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.
Guy Raz: 40 snowboards?
Jake Burton Carpenter: Because one guy had given me two back that he'd bought and said…”
