Features

Inside Unity Snowboards

There are few snowboard brands built in the United States and even fewer that are built with the mountains just outside the factory.  Unity Snowboards based in Silverthorne, Colorado has been handcrafting snowboards since 1995 for high quality and high performance snowboarding.  What once was a freeride company is now making waves in the pipes, their boards are now ridden by Olympic bronze medalist JJ Thomas and upcoming riders Zach Black and Dylan Bidez.

Despite driving by Unity thousands of times, I knew I needed to visit the factory before I left Colorado.  So in the middle of packing I cruised down to Silverthorne, CO to watch the guys build the latest 10-11 snowboards that will be coming out this fall and showcase their factory to you.

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When you walk into Unity, it’s a full blown factory set up in a storage warehouse.  Straight ahead is two levels of factory stages and Pete’s office on the right.

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Unity stickers cover most surfaces inside the building

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That will soon become a snowboard but right now it’s many parts of the construction that matter inside of the snowboard

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Taylor building up a snowboard

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Pete Wurster is the owner/founder of Unity Snowboards, he is on hand at the demos and rides every snowboard they build.  He’s also a super nice guy and was hard at work when I came by the factory.

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Woodcores waiting to become snowboards

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Base die cuts in various colors

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A snowboard factory is always busy and full of machinery for each step of the process it takes to build a snowboard

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From the upstairs you could view the action going on down below, Unity has 4 employees right now helping with building each of the snowboards for the upcoming 10-11 season and Pete the owner is back there helping build the boards.

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Steel edges hanging up on the walls waiting to be used

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2 of the workers working hard to get the edges into place

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The guys were placing the edges into place and clamping them

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Each of the shapes for the boards

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Finished boards waiting to go to good homes

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A huge thanks to Pete for allowing me to come by and take photos during their production day!

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    May 31, 2010 at 9:26 am

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  • magicweed3
    June 3, 2010 at 4:02 pm

    Did you happen to get an idea of how many boards they produce a year? It looks like a really well thought out operation, and I know the boards are solid.

  • E
    June 4, 2010 at 8:45 am

    Pete’s a great guy & so are his boards. I think he does around a 1000 boards maybe, not sure. Most likely they’re doing 100’s not 1000’s.

  • Shay
    June 4, 2010 at 10:06 am

    Magic, I emailed with Pete to find out and he said 2,000 boards a year. Definitely a good thing going.

  • E
    June 4, 2010 at 10:59 am

    2000! That’s good amount for sure. Glad to hear that.

  • The end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011 – Shayboarder.com
    January 1, 2011 at 5:20 pm

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