On the outskirts of Burlington, Vermont sits a building with an old chair lift spanning the parking lot and a skate ramp out back. This is the current location of a company whose roots run deep into the history of snowboarding. This is Burton Snowboards - the world’s first snowboard factory, the home of thirty years of innovation and commitment to the sport. And this is how it all started. In the mid-60s, Jake Burton was one of the thousands of kids to start surfing on snow with Sherman Poppen’s Snurfer. It might have been only a department store toy, but it was also the earliest commercial form of theÚmodern snowboard. Jake was hooked, and over the years he modified Poppen’s Snurfer. Jake was convinced that surfing snow had potential to grow into something more. He bid the Manhattan business world goodbye and moved to Londonderry, Vermont to start shaping snowboards. The year was 1977, and Jake was about to launch the world’s first snowboard factory, making and riding his first boards. Burton’s early years were a true experiment in grassroots business. Four years later, Jake moves the factory from Londonderry to his home in Manchester, Vermont. In 1984, Jake begins development of a Burton outerwear line and moves the business from his home to a larger office in Manchester Center, Vermont. In 1992, Burton Snowboards moved from its Manchester location to its current location in Burlington, Vermont. The move was driven by the same motivation that took Jake from New York to Londonderry to Manchester: a commitment to making the world’s best snowboarding equipment and apparel and growing the sport. The same heart that beat years ago in a garage in Londonderry, Vermont still beats strong within the ever-expanding walls of Burton’s offices around the globe. Two things matter more than anything else: riders and riding. Just to let you know, Burton is a privately held company owned by Jake Burton Carpenter. Of course, Burton supports a team of many of the world’s best snowboarders including Shaun White, Nicolas Müller, Hannah Teter, and Kelly Clark. These riders are also involved in each step of the product development process at Burton to add lots of functionality to the high-end products.