To keep its edge on the industry's crowded and slippery slopes, Never Summer has also been at the forefront with other innovations, including its Vario Powergrip Sidecut, which gives the boards a more effective edge through aggressive turns. Tim came up with the unorthodox idea — a straight edge between the bindings, a shallow sidecut radius near each binding, and a deeper sidecut radius out toward the board's tips — while tinkering in his factory's in-house carpentry shop. Although the cut looks a bit strange, it works as advertised — and it's the kind of detail most companies outsourcing their manufacturing wouldn't even bother with.
To float on top of the latest trends and technologies, the Canaday brothers must also strike the perfect balance between flexibility and rigidity, crafting boards to fit different rider profiles — size, age, riding style, riding conditions — and building them to weather the abuse of riders. "We're offering a three-year warranty in a business where our ideal customer is, by nature, a guy who beats the shit out of these things," Tim says. They splurge for high-tech and high-cost materials, such as custom-made Structural Top Surface (STS) Pretensioned Fiberglass sourced from Gordon Composites in Montrose, the same Colorado company that made the Gordon Royal archery bows they hunted with as kids.
Tony Gallagher
Jose Doton works on boards for the 2011 line at Never Summer's north Denver factory.
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"Tracey and I still do a lot of bow hunting together, and Gordon fiberglass is in the limb of every bow I've ever owned," Tim says. "They were one of our first suppliers, and once you have something that works, you don't get away from it. Fiberglass is a key component, one of the most important materials that goes into a snowboard, and we're using the most high-performance glass money can buy. It's why we're known for our durability and for our Cadillac ride, and it's what gives the board just the right amount of spring and pop for freestyle riding. The new boards stand up to anything else on the market."
The editors at Snowboard Magazine agreed, awarding Never Summer boards their top Excellence in Design honor this year. The magazine gave Platinum Pick status to Never Summer's Evo park/pipe freestyle board in its 2010 Buyers Guide, calling it a "precise powerhouse," an accolade that set the tone for the season.
Never Summer is our bestseller, and has been for the last three or four years," reports Bill Wright, owner of Wright Life in Fort Collins. His shop also carries snowboards made by Lib Tech, Arbor, Gnu, Bataleon, Stepchild and Burton, the brand that had been his strongest seller since he opened his shop in 1981. "In the end, it always comes down to 'Who makes the best product?' Nobody's going to buy from a local company just because it's a local company if they're not making the best thing, the most fun thing to ride. The bottom line is these guys make the best product out there. Each year we sell out, and that leaves people wanting more and knowing that they have to get on it as soon as the new product comes out. People aren't waiting until the end of the season to try to get a discount on overstock Never Summer boards like they do with other brands, so the boards hold their value."
Wright has been attending SIA since before snowboard vendors were added to the mix in the late '80s. He competed in some of the world's first snowboarding competitions, hosted by Ike Garst at the now-defunct Berthoud Pass ski area, and he prides himself on being one of the sport's earliest supporters as a specialty-shop retailer.
"We carried snowboards that very first winter we were open, back when you could ring Burton up and Jake Burton would answer the phone, get the order together and pack it and ship it out himself. Same thing with Tom Sims, from Sims Snowboards," Wright recalls. "Jake and Tom were inspiring guys, people you could justify taking a chance on. They built the entire sport and the entire industry. It's been phenomenal to see it all grow and to have some perspective on it — and to be able to take chances on some of the other new players."
Wright took a chance on two other entrepreneurs early on, selling some of the Canaday brothers' first Swift Snowboards on consignment. When Tim and Tracey set up shop as Never Summer, Wright's store was their first retail account. Now, he says, the brothers are taking the lead in the industry.
"When you go to a show like SIA as a shop owner, you walk the floor trying to get a sense of where the new energy is. You're always kind of looking for the new thing, the new technology or new company or new idea that's going to shake things up, and right now that company is Never Summer," Wright says. "As bad as the economy is, I think there's really a sense that there's opportunity in it, especially for the little guys. The big guys are more stressed than anybody right now, but for smaller shops and smaller companies, this is a chance to invent, to be creative and come in and build some new relationships. You have to go in with your expectations set appropriately, and you have to buy accordingly so you don't sink yourself, but I think a lot of buyers now are looking to companies like Never Summer for what's next."
