TOP 5 SB BRANDS
1. BURTON
Founded by Jake Burton in 1977, Burton Snowboards was the first exclusive snowboarding factory in the world. Today, this brand has become synonymous with snowboarding. Burton is also biggest snowboarding brand is the world. They were the first ones to introduce equipment and instructions to help beginners learn this sport. Burton has extended its market reach in more than 30 countries, and owns several specialty shops and factories in Vermont, Austria, and Japan.
2. K2 SNOWBOARDING
This venture was established in 1987 by Bill Kirschner and is a subsidiary company of K2 Sports, which was founded in 1962. Based on snowboard sales volume, it still ranks among the top five brands in the US. The revolutionary 'Clicker', a step-in-binding system was introduced by K2 on their snowboards in 1995. Their recent line of snowboards come with Bambooyah core that are made of bamboo ply and have fiberglass construction.
3. LIB TECH
An American snowboarding company, it is one of the subsidiaries of Mervin Manufacturing. Their snowboards are known for their Magne-Traction Serrated edges (2002) and unique Banana Tech Rocker (2006). They are famous for their environmental sustainable methods of manufacturing, such as using bamboo cores and sustainable polymer top sheets since 1995.
4. GNU
The American snowboarding company, Mervin Manufacturing is the parent company of other snowboarding brands such as GNU, Lib Tech, Roxy, and Bent Metal. Mervin Manufacturing was bought in 1997 by Quiksilver. GNU was founded by Mike Olson during the early 1980s. Each of GNU's snowboards are handbuilt in the US and are equipped with Magne-Traction, which provides more edge control to the riders in all types of snow conditions.
5. ARBOR
Founded in 1995, The Arbor Collective has rapidly risen to become one of the most radical and groundbreaking snowboarding brands in the US. They were the winners of 2013 Snowboarder's 'Battle of the Brands 2', where Arbor won against Never Summer in the last and final round. Their snowboard Arbor Whiskey, done by artist Dave Sheets, was featured in Snowboard Magazine's Top 10 snowboard graphics of 2014. Their snowboards, Arbor Westmark and Arbor Cadence won the 2014 Transworld Snowboarding Magazine's 'Good Wood Awards'. For the third time in a row, the company also won the 'Angry Snowboarder's Legacy Award' for their Arbor Blacklist snowboard.
