The Ledger
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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: Burton Was Always the Number One Snowboard Manufacturer
“We've been the number one manufacturer of snowboards since the day”
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…”
Zumiez was one of the first Burton retailers in US malls
“I always thought, or I know I was close, be the first Burton retailer to bring product into malls in the United States, and this would have been in the United States.”
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: 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.”
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.”
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: 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 …”
Burton Carpenter: Refused Inbound Acquisition Calls for Burton Snowboards
“I just didn't take those phone calls.”
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.”
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.”
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…”
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.”
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 gives the entire company a day off after two-foot snowfalls
“I mean, if it snows over two feet, it's an automatic day off for the whole company.”
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.”
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…”
Jake Burton Carpenter refused to entertain buyout offers for Burton Snowboards
“I just didn't take those phone calls.”
Burton Snowboards relied on working capital rather than long-term debt
“We've never needed long-term debt. But we've always had this need for working capital”
Burton Snowboards sold roughly 350 boards during its first year
“First year was 300 or three 50. Second year was 700.”
Burton signed professional snowboarder Craig Kelly for $17,000 a year
“And so we cut a deal, and he rode for me, and I paid him 17,000 bucks a year.”
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.”
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.”
Carpenter: Burton sold 350 snowboards in year one, 700 in year two
“First year was 300 or three 50. Second year was 700.”
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.”