Sustainability

We are not sustainable.

And neither is any other snowboard company. There is an awful lot of greenwashing (and laborwashing) going on in snowboarding right now and we want no part of it. We are fully aware that what we and every other snowboard company do is not sustainable in any meaningful sense, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Anyone claiming to sell you a sustainable, eco-friendly, or climate neutral snowboard is being disingenuous, plain and simple. Sustainability is a goal we should all work toward, but to claim that we are anywhere near it is just silly. That being said, we are always looking for ways to lessen our impact on the environment without sacrificing performance or durability. In fact, Venture was founded on exactly that principle 25 years ago. Here are some of the things we are doing. 

Durability

The best thing any snowboard company can do for the environment is make snowboards that last. The longer they last, the longer we keep them out of the garbage dump (don’t get us started on the word “landfill” or other euphemistic language) and the fewer new ones need to be made. We have a longstanding reputation for building durable boards in Colorado. 

Made Here From Scratch

We don’t have a supply chain map, because we don’t need one. It’s very simple. Everything happens right here in Silverton. We source all our materials as close to home as possible. Most are made in the US. If we can get them here we do, even if it’s more expensive, because we want to support our local economy. As you might imagine, some snowboard components are simply not made in the US. When we don’t have a choice we go where we can get the best possible quality, which is usually Europe, but there is one component that we can only get from China. 

Timeless Shapes & Graphics

We don’t chase trends like a labrador chasing a tennis ball. Instead of filling the rack with new designs that make you feel like your old board is obsolete next season, we focus on improving and evolving our flagship line, and produce shapes and graphics that stand the test of time.  

Inlay Base Graphics

Inlay (a.k.a. die-cut) is the most durable way to do base graphics. For comparison, the other way to do graphics is by screen printing on the inside of clear base material and then adding a layer of white paint. Do you trust that paint to hold up? Do you think epoxy will stick to it in the long run? We don't. With inlay the epoxy bonds directly to the base material. 

Minimum Waste Bases

We have been doing this since we started in 1999 - long before any other snowboard company. Every base we have ever cut has had a twin with the opposite colors. We are stoked to see that this seems to be the standard these days. Why anyone ever did it the other way is a bit of a mystery. 

Dye Sublimated Topsheets

We print our own topsheets using dye sublimation with water-based ink. It’s the most durable and least toxic way to get graphics on the top of your snowboard. To minimize our use of ink, we don’t print a big rectangle. Instead we print the shape of your board plus a small amount around the perimeter.  

Bio-based Epoxy

We use Super Sap® epoxy from Entropy Resins. Through green chemistry, biobased and rapidly renewable raw materials, and efficient manufacturing, Super Sap® conserves energy, minimizes harmful byproducts, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions from processing. The biobased raw materials used to create the epoxy resins and hardeners are sourced as co-products or waste products of other industrially important processes. These materials don’t compete with food sources or displace food-based agriculture. Through this choice of raw materials and the use of green chemistry, they are able to reduce the environmental impact from processing.  

100% Plastic Free Packaging

Ever get a snowboard in a plastic bag with a zipper and a giant recycling symbol? How many of those things do you think ever got recycled? We have been putting our boards in heat sealed bags without zippers or printing for many years, hoping that people would recycle them. We now know that plastic recycling is pretty much bullshit. The best thing you can do for the environment when it comes to plastics is use less of them. Last year we stopped putting our boards in plastic. The only packaging we use for our boards now is cardboard boxes. This year we also stopped using plastic packing tape and switched to paper. Not only is it recyclable and biodegradable, it also works better. 

2-Year Fresh Guarantee

Going forward we will not be releasing an entirely new board lineup every season. All board models will be available for 2 years and every year we will be updating half of the boards we make. The idea of having to change everything every year never really made sense to us, but as the little guys we didn’t make the snow industry rules. We’re still little, but now we are also old, so we are going to start making our own rules. 

Designed To Be Repairable

There is no snowboard in the world that can withstand you repeatedly slamming into rocks on your heel edge at full speed with all your weight behind it - not even ours. The good news is that if that happens it can most likely be fixed, and that’s by design. Because we use sandwich construction (as opposed to cap) with p-tex sidewalls that don’t crack like ABS. As long as the edge isn’t bent too much, it’s usually a pretty straight forward repair. You can do it yourself, but do it right or it won’t work. Or, you can send it back to us and we will do it for a nominal fee using the same epoxy we pressed your board with.  

Making Useful Stuff From Scraps

A natural part of the manufacturing process is that we end up with pieces of material that are either too small or not high enough quality to make snowboards with. A piece of wood with a knot in the middle or a piece of base material that is too short, for example. This year we started a little side project to turn scrap into stuff you can use. We call it Goods For Mountain Living.

Powered By Renewable Energy

We would love to own our own windmill or bank of solar panels to make our own power some day, but making snowboards from scratch is hard enough, so instead we have been paying extra for power from our local co-op to make sure they are getting it from renewable sources. And we have been doing that since 2004. We are not big believers in offset credits and certification programs (a lot of it is frankly just greenwashing) so we want to acknowledge that this is not good enough and something we need to improve on.