[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 34 (Wednesday, March 10, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1355-S1356]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO JAKE BURTON

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I am pleased to have the opportunity to 
honor a dear friend and true entrepreneur, Jake Burton. As founder and 
owner of Burton Snowboards, a company whose name has become synonymous 
with the successes of this popular winter sport, Jake Burton has built 
an empire from the ground up starting, first in his Londonderry, VT, 
garage. His is a true tale of perseverance and triumph over obstacles 
great and small; where others saw only insurmountable challenges, Jake 
saw possibility.
  As a young man starting out with a vision, Jake sought to set the 
world of winter sports on fire. He did so in true Vermont fashion, 
paying personal visits to ski areas hesitant to embrace snowboarding. 
To this day, Jake makes a point of personally testing each of his 
products on the slopes before putting them on the market. His 
commitment to quality and his investment in his employees continues to 
pay off. Jake recognizes the value of a homegrown company and takes 
nothing for granted. His competitive edge and style set him apart from 
the others in his line of work and serve him well as he continues to 
define the future of snowboarding. Marcelle and I have been fortunate 
to call Jake and his wife Donna our friends for many years. They are 
admirable Vermonters and examples of how the pursuit of a dream through 
honest hard work is still the cornerstone of American business.
  On February 15, 2010, the Burlington Free Press published an article 
entitled ``Jake Burton: Chairman of the (snow)Board'' about Jake's 
career. I ask unanimous consent that the text of this article be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

            [From the Burlington Free Press, Feb. 15, 2010]

                Jake Burton: Chairman of the (snow)Board

                     (By Bruce Horovitz, USA Today)

       His office has no desk. No inbox. Not even a wastebasket.
       But it does have a sprawling wooden table for mounting 
     bindings onto snowboards, a sofa the size of a small living 
     room and a golden retriever named Maia, who's made the couch 
     her bed.
       This is Jake Burton's life--a major cool one.
       As the founder, cultural guru and chief prankster of the 
     world's largest snowboard company--and the guy who almost 
     single-handedly turned snowboarding into a multibillion-
     dollar sport--he's got a lot to do. Like snowboard 100 days a 
     year. And surf for another 50, or so.
       His mountaintop home in Stowe has an a outdoor hockey rink, 
     an indoor soccer field and a two-story treehouse with 
     electricity.
       With the Winter Olympics under way in Vancouver, Burton 
     will soon join his team of Olympic snowboarders there and 
     probably cause a Burton-esque ruckus.
       For one thing, the competition uniform Burton's company 
     designed for the U.S. snowboard team is raising eyebrows 
     before the torch is even lit. It's made from high-tech, 
     waterproof Gore-Tex material--but looks like a pair of ripped 
     blue jeans and a loose flannel shirt. Not necessarily what 
     buttoned-up Olympic officials had in mind.
       ``That the outfit has created a controversy is fitting,'' 
     says Burton, 55, with a trademark smirk. ``If it's 
     unpatriotic, you should throw everyone wearing blue jeans and 
     flannel shirts out of the country.''
       Still, the ride has been bumpy lately in snowboard land. 
     The sport of free spirits is under greater scrutiny since 22-
     year-old Kevin Pearce, one of its stars and a Burton rider, 
     was almost killed in an accident while training for the 
     Olympics.
       Even as Pearce heals, other problems for Burton's company--
     and for all winter snow-sports businesses in this economy--
     are festering.
       Sales of winter sports equipment fell 8 percent last year, 
     and orders for 2010 are down 25 percent, reports the 
     SnowSports Industries America trade group. By one estimate, 
     nearly 10 small snowboard shops went belly-up every week in 
     2009. Although ski resort visits were up slightly overall for 
     the 2008-2009 season, several regions suffered steep 
     declines, and many resorts built visits with specials and 
     discounted lift tickets.


                               tough year

       Burton Snowboards, the industry kingpin, saw sales fall by 
     double-digits last year and had to take the unusual step of 
     laying off nearly 20 of its roughly 1,000 employees last 
     March. The company announced last week it was laying off 15 
     more from its Burlington facility.
       ``Nothing like a tough year to make you forget how far 
     Burton has come,'' Burton said.
       But even in a tough year, Burton Snowboards' success is 
     impressive. The privately held company holds 40 percent of 
     the world's snowboard market. Sales are not reported, but are 
     believed to reach almost $700 million.
       Thanks to diversification into surfing and skateboarding 
     and the opening of several brand stores, Burton could be a $1 
     billion company within five years. ``I'm not hung up on that 
     number,'' said Burton, whose tousled salt-and-pepper hair 
     and red cheeks are evidence of the morning snowboard run 
     from which he's just returned. ``I'm not the kind of guy 
     who gets up every morning and says, `We have to get to $1 
     billion.' ''
       Even non-snowboarders are becoming familiar with the brand. 
     The uber-presence of Burton boards and clothing in the 2006 
     Winter Games earned it an estimated $33 million in free 
     exposure. The company now makes more money selling apparel, 
     often to folks who've never been on a board, than it makes 
     from snowboard equipment.
       But the Olympic participation is more about image than 
     sales, because the Games come at the tail of the season. 
     ``The timing of the Olympics from a business perspective is 
     awkward,'' he says. ``You're not affecting consumer buying in 
     mid-February.''
       Viewers who go gaga over the team's tattered-blue-jean look 
     won't be able to buy it. ``It would not be our style to sell 
     Olympic uniforms,'' Burton said. ``We, as a company, are not 
     about uniforms.''
       What Burton, the company, is about is ``cool.'' While the 
     company is as synonymous

[[Page S1356]]

     with snowboarding as Kleenex is with tissue, the hard part is 
     staying cool. It helps, Burton said, that Burton Snowboards' 
     decisions aren't dictated by Wall Street, ``but are made by a 
     guy and his family who snowboard 100 days a year.''
       His leadership style includes traits such as:
       He can't stand losing. Terje Haakonsen, a Burton athlete 
     widely regarded as the world's top snowboarder, says Burton 
     constantly challenges him at everything from snowboarding to 
     swimming. ``Jake just doesn't want to lose,'' he says.
       He can't stand shoddy quality. During his 100 days of 
     snowboarding, Burton isn't goofing off. He tests most of the 
     company's equipment--from boards to gloves--before it goes to 
     market, and he makes detailed notes on index cards. Designers 
     wince when they receive one of the cards, Burton's CEO 
     Laurent Potdevin said. ``He has no patience for anything that 
     jeopardizes the riding experience.''
       He can't stand boredom. One morning five years ago at a 
     sales meeting in New Zealand, Burton asked Dave Downing, who 
     does outside marketing for Burton, if he was up for surfing 
     and boarding--the same day. The two sneaked out of the 
     meeting and took a chartered helicopter to a beach to surf 
     then to a mountain to snowboard.
       He can't stand leaving things alone. Burton will test any 
     product the design team sends him, says Chris Doyle, who 
     oversees product development. He was the first--and last--to 
     test pants with an internal fan ventilation system controlled 
     by a pocket switch. He gave the all-clear to a glove, a hot 
     seller this year, that comes with a beer-can holder. Even 
     after designers work months on new products, Burton has 
     turned them upside-down--or even nixed them--based on a 
     suggestion from a teenage boarder on a ski lift.
       He can't stand serious. At a recent roundtable with top 
     executives and team riders, Burton broke it into ``a no-
     holds-barred wrestling match,'' said Greg Dacyshyn, company 
     creative director. ``Jake will take on anyone at anything.''
       He can't stand still. Shaun White, the Burton rider who is 
     an Olympic gold medalist and one of the U.S. team's great 
     hopes in Vancouver, says there's no stopping Burton on a 
     slope. ``When he's in the trees, he does ripping turns. He's 
     a wild man.''
       He can't stand combs. Jake's wife, Donna, who helps run the 
     company and has been married to Jake for 22 years since 
     meeting him at a ski resort bar, remembers her mother's 
     comment after first meeting him: ``I don't think he combs his 
     hair.''


                         Inauspicious beginning

       That he got this far in business surprises no one more than 
     the guy who was born Jake Burton Carpenter, but goes by just 
     Jake Burton. ``I was a punk. I got kicked out of boarding 
     school at 15.''
       For one thing, he was a self-described ``loser'' in shop 
     class. But wanting to improve the design of ``Snuffer'' 
     snowboards that were briefly popular when he was a kid, he 
     made a new kind of board in his Londonderry, Vt., garage.
       He created his first business plan to sell snowboards on an 
     index card. He figured if he could make and sell 50 boards a 
     day, he'd be rich. He sold just 350 the entire first year and 
     ran up debt that nearly wiped him out.
       But when he sold 700 boards the next year, he decided he 
     was onto something. Until the next setback, that is. His bank 
     cut off financing in 1984 when its executives decided 
     snowboarding was a passing fad.
       He persevered, becoming a one-man cheerleading squad. He 
     visited hundreds of ski hills that had banned snowboarding, 
     trying to coax reluctant resort owners into allowing it. Many 
     equated snowboarding with rowdiness, or worse. But one by 
     one, they relented.
       ``He took on all the ski resorts,'' said John Horan, 
     publisher of Sporting Goods Intelligence newsletter. ``He's 
     absolutely the father of the sport.''
       The sport has become so big that Burton Snowboards has 
     attracted acquisition interest from the sportswear giants. 
     Burton won't say who and insists, ``Everybody knows that 
     Burton is not for sale.''
       The headquarters is in an industrial area here, a funky 
     building that looks more like a winter playground than a 
     workplace. There's a snowboarding park out front--with jumps. 
     Employees are free to use it at any time. Many workers are 
     accompanied by their dogs--they are encouraged to bring them 
     to work. Employees can warm up with company-supplied coffee 
     or hot chocolate at a giant, wood-burning fireplace in the 
     lobby.
       Each also gets a free season lift pass to a nearby resort. 
     Anytime it snows more than 2 feet, the place shuts down and 
     everyone gets to go boarding.
       There are worse things than to work for Jake Burton, but 
     there may not be many better.

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