Snowboarding has always been considered an edgy sport, and riders have been challenging the status quo for as long as the sport has existed. But Burlington-based Burton Snowboards has released new boards with controversial graphics, and many people think this time the company has gone too far.
Has Burton gone over the edge?
The specific product lines in question are the Love and Primo boards.
The Love boards, designed in collaboration with Playboy for professional snowboarders Mikkel Bang and Keegan Valaika, feature graphics depicting vintage photo spreads of nude or semi-nude Playboy models. The boards are a limited edition of 1000, and are wrapped up in shops. Customers must be 18 years old or older to buy them.
The Primo boards have graphics that contain a pair of cartoonish hands engaging in self-mutilation. The scenarios depicted include one hand strapping lit firecrackers to the other, and spreading peanut butter across fingers and feeding them to a dog.
About 150 people, including many parents who brought along their children, held a protest outside of Burton's global headquarters and flagship store on Oct. 23. The group hoped a representative from Burton would come out to speak to them, but no one did.
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Some protestors brought their children, who held signs that said "I Am A Child, Not A Playboy" and "I Ride Rossignol Now".
(Photo by Tyler Machado)
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Two local nonprofit organizations, Spectrum Youth and Family Services and The Howard Center for Human Services, responded to the controversy by withdrawing from Burton's Chill program. The Chill program provides snowboarding gear, lift tickets, and lessons to at-risk and homeless youth who wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to go riding.
HowardCenter decided to withdraw from the program because the organization felt that the Love boards were exploitive of women and the Primo boards were glorifying self-mutilation, says Catherine Simonson, director of child, youth, and family services at HowardCenter.
“We serve children and youth with issues around mental health,” she says. “These boards are in no way helpful in modeling the behaviors we would hope for them.”
“We do greatly appreciate what the Chill program offers, but we felt we were compromising what we stand for,” she adds. “We remain hopeful that there will be a reconsideration on Burton's part [regarding the boards].”
HowardCenter and Spectrum are also working with vendors to find other ways of getting youth involved in winter sports this year, Simonson says.
One of those vendors is The Alpine Shop in South Burlington, which is donating eight or nine sets of boots, bindings, and snowboards to Spectrum, Alpine Shop owner Scott Reiley says.
“If [the kids] can get out on the mountain and have a good time and learn something, great, we're glad,” Reiley says.
The Alpine Shop sells Burton boards, but not the Love or Primo lines, Reiley says. This is mainly because the boards are only available to “core” snowboard shops, and Burton never even showed The Alpine Shop these boards, he adds.
“They have different product lines for different types of stores,” Reiley says. “We're a family store, we're a ski shop and a snowboard store, we sell their mainline product.
“Those lines are very edgy and not something we would ever put in our store, whether it's from Burton or anyone else,” he adds. “Half of our clientèle are moms and pops and kids...we don't need to annoy our customers.”
Not on this mountain
Some ski areas have reacted to the controversy by prohibiting their employees from using snowboards with offensive graphics when interacting with guests.
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At one point during the demonstration, protestors directed their chants towards the Burton building in the hopes that a Burton representative would come out to speak with them. No one did.
(Photo by Tyler Machado) |
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In Vermont, Smugglers' Notch Resort, Killington Resort, Pico Mountain, Okemo Mountain Resort, and Stowe Mountain Resort have all banned the boards from use by their employees. Vail Resorts, which owns five ski areas in Colorado and California, have imposed the same policy.
At Smugglers' Notch, the new guideline was in reaction to the controversial lines, says Barbara Thomke, public relations director for the resort.
“These particular Love and Primo lines do not really fit in with our family focus,” Thomke says. “In this regard, we're disappointed with the direction Burton is taking.”
Though Smugglers' Notch won't sell the Love and Primo boards at on-mountain shops, the resort will continue to sell other Burton snowboards, Thomke says.
None of these resorts, however, have prohibited customers from using the Love and Primo snowboards.
At Smugglers' Notch, it isn't certain if such a policy would even be possible, because of the potential difficulty in enforcing such a rule and because the resort lies on state land, which is open to the public, Thomke says.
Should snowboards be considered artistic expression?
No representatives from Burton have publicly spoken to the media or the protesters about the controversy.
Burton CEO Laurent Potdevin issued a statement on Oct. 22, announcing that the company would continue to produce the boards and would not recall them.
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The protestors carried signs with messages like "Shred Burton" and "This is Disrespect, Not Innovation."
(Photo by Tyler Machado) |
“Burton supports freedom of artistic expression,” the statement read. “Board graphics are artwork, and art can be offensive to some and inspiring to others.”
In regards to the Love boards, the statement read, “We are not breaking any laws by creating these boards, and it is our sincere belief that these graphics do not condone or encourage violence towards women in any way. Burton’s support of women, from entry level employees here in Burlington to our team riders on Olympic podiums, is unparalleled.”
Sophomore Matt Stillman, who is a snowboarder in the Ski and Snowboard Club, thinks that the response to the Love and Primo boards has been overblown.
“I think people are overreacting,” Stillman says. “There are a lot bigger problems than a base of a snowboard.”
Stillman says he isn't especially concerned with children being influenced by the boards.
“There's all sorts of things like that on TV,” he says. |
