Burton Step On™ - Research & Development Process - YouTube

I had very high expectations and I did not want to make a product again that

represented a compromise and so there were some tough moments in the beginning

and we postponed it and I think in hindsight we’re for sure glad we did.

A big element of how we work is, “Hey what if?” It's the power of exploring and one

idea leads to the next idea and we used to make step-in bindings here but you

know we haven't sold them in a decade. It was never something that really stuck

there are a lot of flaws a lot of things that people didn't like. We always had

conversations didn't just say, “Man if we did it over, it’d be done so different.”

When you start rallying people in Burton around that concept you start to get a

level of engagement and excitement it just is like alright how are we doing

this? We definitely started this project a lot differently than any other project.

Everything else was taken away from us and we were allowed the ability to

really really focus on this one very difficult study project. This isn't the

first attempt at a mechanical strapless interface and the bigness of the past

with the industry and everybody has done a version of this is they really didn't

give performance enough attention. We really challenged them to look at it not

from, “Okay what should the product look like? But what is the need that we're

addressing?” We need comfort, we need convenience, and we need performance.

[Music] I made a little halo out of just scrap

aluminum pieces I had around my shop where we were able to mount three or

four GoPros at a time right onto the board screwed into the channel. We

watched how the foot rolls in step in binding in a strap binding trying to be

proactive with the research and the understanding and the empathy of how

does a snowboarder use a binding? I mean it was pretty clear you could see an old

system on camera you see they got to take a turn and nothing happens and then

you see our traditional strap binding and it takes a turn and it totally moves and

responds with them. So that was a big catalyst for setting up like the

critical requirements for an engineering standpoint. At one point we even tried

screwing a boot down into a snowboard, like no binding whatsoever, it’s physically

bolted on and Chris Cunningham went and rode it. We kind of had to have a talk with

a couple of people to be like hey you know if you see us doing something

that's really weird just don't look. We could not have done this project without

rapid prototyping and specifically without our selective laser centering

capabilities. Being able to have an idea put it together in CAD grow it play with

it the next day maybe put it on snow maybe not

and do that over and over and over again it allows us to try so many different

things and learn so much that we really couldn't do 10-15 years ago. We changed

mechanical elements in this binding several times through the whole process.

We had a four point connection, we had a three point connection, we had toe

connections, we had ankle connections, we had heel connections. The two systems

that sort of bubbled to the top were the four points of contact and then the

three point system those two systems were being developed in parallel.

The first three point system we had on snow was ridden out at Mount Hood and they

came back from that trip and they're like you guys, you know what? This rode really

great. Taking a cutoff part of an ankle strap ratchet tongue and bolting

it to the back of the boot and then trying to put the whole mechanism from a

buckle into a high back was a really brilliant part of the process. That trip

was definitely a turning point that we kind of shifted our focus to that at

that time. So this prototype right here is completely with the exception of the

foam out of the laser sintering machine here that I hand painted and we

assembled the whole thing it's fully functional ridden on snow it allowed

people for the first time in marketing and sales and other parts of the company

to see what the final system was going to look like. We always do a ton of

testing but this was like so far above and beyond anything else we've ever done.

An issue will come up on snow that we've never seen before because this is a new

product and so we'll have to go back and be like okay well how can we replicate

that indoors? We were having issues with snowpack getting into the system and we

were in a meeting saying okay well how we're gonna solve this? It's almost like

well we could build a snow gun and and see how much snow we can shoot at it

and have it still work and was like that's a crazy idea but then it's kind

of figured out how to do it. I realized that we needed a test where we could

cycle the binding in and out in and out over and over and over again so that

allowed us to really see where things were wearing that helped us to really

develop what the final shape of the cleats and the clips were going to be.

Throughout a lot of this validation you're doing everything you can to make

it fail and when it doesn't you're like cool we're good.

It's one of the toughest things about product development is that you fail a ton.

You have to be ready to fail a ton and we failed a ton in this project

but we just kept going and every failure it was just the more we learn to go and do

the next thing. Throughout the course this entire

project that's probably my favorite thing is watching somebody experience it

for the first time. I like this. It feels comfortable. It feel like I have an actual strap on, but I don’t.

I was thinking about the first time we showed it to Donna. She knew we were working on it but

she had never touched and seen and played around with it and I actually

have video footage of her stepping on for the first time and she just bent her

head up and was like, “Wow, thats easy.” It's like the events that we did to launch StepOn were some of the

coolest most progressive events I've seen. You’ve probably seen the instagrams of

people jumping into the system. I'm not recommending that unless you’re a professional.

Good morning everyone special day. Burton has been working on new technology for years

it's an exclusive event right now we're going in to learn more about Step On™. We

had one retail account come in like three separate times one of the guys was

like well and then and no and you guys nailed it man this is pretty good!

What are you thinking so far? It works. I don’t think about it at all. I just ride. After lunch not one person

was like, “Hey I need to get back on my regular bindings. Thanks so much but I need

to go back.” Everybody just couldn't wait to get out and go ride these things some

more. [Music]

The bindings are really good yeah really good like heel to toe feels it's a

revolution I mean it's so fast to get in and out again I more than hyped on it.

When all of a sudden you're seeing people doing one footers and landing them and going back

in… Just the creativity that people immediately bring to a a new toy if you

will it was incredibly gratifying after four years of work to see that it created

something that people were really having fun on. There was so much validation

around it we just wanted to use the US Open as a way to truly unveil it to the

public. I had no idea what we were walking into with this. The demo people come by

they want to try it. We had people with the tent just frothing. We had a family

from the Midwest we have three generations like grandma, mom, and

daughter all showed up with like I went to my local shop I heard about Step On™,

they told me I have to demo it here. Like you've got to get me on this. I was like, really?

So we took them up the next day and like the grandma was 70 plus years old and

she's ripping on Step On™ like watching her tumble get up she's cheering like I have a

video of her cheering. Like this is the greatest system I've ever ridden. For the first

time in our history I think we've really held back on a development and waited

until it was super ready. We knew that there was gonna be a lot of eyes on it

so it really had to be perfect. I have no desire to go back to straps,

you know? Strap bindings are great we make a lot of great strap binding so if

that's your jam that's your jam but you have to do a lot a lot of riders have to

sit on the ground kind of tightening it's a lot of bending

over and I don't think you realize how much you do that until you suddenly

don't have to do that. I think that the introduction of Step On™ technology will

change the sport and I think it'll facilitate more riders and women and

kids and I think the barriers of entry to the sport will be lowered. The future

of Step On™ the possibilities are really endless there definitely will be some

stuff that we do to make it available for youth in the future and the team

riders are really starting to gravitate toward it too which is something we

never really expected. This has been one of the greatest projects I've ever had

the good fortune to work on and it that's really pretty gratifying I look

forward to seeing a lot of people having fun with this

[Music]