Tupy, Jesse // Jake Carpenter "Burton" by Jesse Tupy

Early Life // Jake “Burton” Carpenter - 1954-1972

tupjes18 — 2024-02-25 20:55:56 UTC

The early life of Jake Carpenter was filled with many hardships, most notably the death of both his brother (George) in the Vietnam War when he was 12 and his mother (Katherine) a few years later at the age of 17 due to Leukemia. He lived in New York with his father and two sisters. These deaths caused him to be disobedient and get kicked out of his boarding school.

Just Starting Up // Burton’s Beginnings 1977

tupjes18 — 2024-02-25 21:19:08 UTC

In 1977, shortly after finishing his degree in economics at New York University. Jake started working as an investment banker in Manhattan. He regards this short run as uninteresting because he felt those 12-hour days drew him away from what he wanted to do: snurfing and riding the slopes. Driven by passion, he quit his job the same year and moved to a barn in Londonderry, Vermont. With an inheritance of 200,000 dollars from his grandma, Jake used over 150,000 of it to start Burton. This is where he began prototyping his first binded snowboards. Flourishing from this barn in Vermont, Burton was born. He went on to create snowboards and wanted to produce 50 a day. In his podcast with Guy Raz, he claimed he would go out with 38 snowboards to sell and return with 40, as people would give the snowboards back to him. Nonetheless, he stayed persistent.

The Rise // Burton’s growth

tupjes18 — 2024-02-25 21:31:57 UTC

Following the early hardships of producing snowboards, Jake continued to persist in his goal of making snowboards. He had the idea to spread the culture he formed with his employees to the rest of the world. He did this by putting his boards in advertisement magazines for surfers and skaters alike. He recalls that in his first winter, he sold 300 snowboards, and using the factor of captial and labor, in his second, over 700 snowboards. Jake said he remembers packaging that 700th board, knowing he had made his dreams come true. He continues advertising his boards as a cheaper and easy way to have fun. He wanted to expand the culture; this caused great strife in the skiing community as many of the first snowboarders were seen as rebellious. Also, due to safety risks, only 3% of resorts allowed snowboarders. Resorts were scared of being sued after a skier won millions of dollars, which resulted in a severe crash. Yet through all these hardships and struggles, Jake continued to push his boards out into the world.

Where Was The Competition? // Burton Becomes a Household Name

tupjes18 — 2024-02-25 21:43:40 UTC

The rise of these “rebellious teens” started a movement. A movement which spread across the country, which was first thought to be fleeting trend. But ended up changing the way we view winter sports as a whole. Burton grew, not just finically either. The company became a household name, one which invited all sorts of people to join. Most notably Doug Bouton which was one of the first burton sponsored riders who gave way into introducing young kids into seeing the sport as cool and along with it Burton. Ski companies began to see rise of snowboarding but disregarded it. In his podcast with Guy Raz, Jake said “they were oblivious to it”. Some though were not, companies like K2 and RIDE started up. Although what seemed as competitors at first, was later dismissed as no one could keep up with the popularity of Burton. Even with RIDE coming from a investor backed start up. It couldn’t compete, especially not after Jake Carpenter fired back with finding investors from Manhattan to fund the company. After the stock of K2 plummeted and Burton obtained funding that wasn’t purley from sales it seemed as though Burton was on top of the world.

Inspiration // Jake Finds Passion 1973-1977

tupjes18 — 2024-02-26 16:14:52 UTC

Jake grew up being an avid skier with hopes of becoming a professional. Sadly, a car crash that ended with a severe injury caused his dreams to be stunted early. In 1966, the Snurfer, a bindingless snowboard, was released—the first of its kind. Jake caught wind of this new toy and became obsessed. He began to ride constantly and wanted to create a new product around his newfound passion. This is where the Factor or entrepreneurship began to develop within Jake. Later, though, Jake went to finish school at New York University in 1977 with a degree in economics.

All Stages of Production // Jake Caprenter a Jack of All Factors

tupjes18 — 2024-02-26 23:26:33 UTC

Jake "Burton" Carpenter is an innovator in the industry and used all four stages of the production himself, particularly in the beginning stages of his career with Burton.

Land: Using natural resources like wood and metals to manufacture the snowboards and using actual land to help try out and improve the product as a whole.

Labor: Jake Carpenter initially used himself as a labor-producing board all alone. Until he hired some family members and local skater teens to help them become skilled laborers in the production of the boards; currently, hundreds of employees and engineers are perfecting what Jake had started in 1977.

Entrepreneurship: Jake used this factor by the very means of Burton's existence. He persisted in the newly found industry and continued to innovate the best boards possible. He found new ways to market the boards in magazines and skate shops during off-seasons.

Capital: The use of Capatial was vital for Jake initially because he started Burton out of a barn in Londonderry, Vermont. He also used capital in the sense of tools to craft the boards by hand. finally, Capital was used by Jake to sell the boards by driving around door to door sales in his car.