# how much does it cost to make a snowboard?



## HoboMaster (May 16, 2010)

BA Should have ballpark knowledge of this. It's going to really depend on the type of snowboard and manufacturer,(AKA Burton is probably able to have less of a profit margin because they have the ability to sell in bulk, that doesn't necessarily mean they do that though). Personally I have no idea.


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## linvillegorge (Jul 6, 2009)

Have you seen the prices on Burtons compared to other comparable boards? With the volume they pump out, the definitely have quite the leverage when buying bulk supplies. If they don't have ridiculous profit margins, they're doing something wrong. Given their commercial success, I don't see that being the case.


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## Snowfox (Dec 26, 2009)

SnowboardMaterials.com

Here's some of the materials for the do it yourselfer. 

A huge company obviously would get much better deals. I can't see many of them actually giving you an exact figure though, gotta keep the image up.


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## john doe (Nov 6, 2009)

From the giant sierra vs burton thread I got the impression that a board's MSRP is roughly double the shop's cost. I wouldn't be surprised if the pure manufacturing cost is only half of the shop's cost. If those assumetions are correct a $500 Burton board would be $125 from the factory.


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## dksmith17 (Oct 13, 2010)

I doubt you'll ever get a definitive answer because costs are kept secretive for legit reasons. But I happen to work in the wholesale industry and buy from China. I would venture to guess that those that have manufacturers in China are selling a $400 board they paid about $50 for. I think it could possibly be as low as $20. Just a guess.


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## Qball (Jun 22, 2010)

If it costs $20 dollars to make a $400 board im going to shit myself.


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## Irish2685 (Dec 27, 2009)

For just the materials, it probably does cost less than $50, but you guys are looking at purely from a manufacturing standpoint, which is not at all accurate. You have to look at the marketing, sponsorships, labor, machine upkeep, building upkeep, taxes, etc... and I'm sure it will become much more than that. Of course, these numbers vary greatly with different companies, but nonetheless, this all goes in to figuring the price of a board.


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## Donutz (May 12, 2010)

What Irish said is very true. If nothing else, the employees would like to be paid 

Every penny that a company spends is part of the cost of manufacturing.

What _*I'd*_ like to know is the process of making a board. Especially the edges, which seem to me to be the most technically challenging part.


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## dksmith17 (Oct 13, 2010)

I think in a perfect world overhead based pricing doesn't exist. And I think in the future you will see the businesses that steer away from it will survive.
Look at the medical industry for example, just because a 3rd party doesn't pay their bill, that means I have to pay triple the amount for my insurance? Is that fair? Or lets say I have a really popular model snowboard that I have been making and selling forever. And then I make an awful model and produce a ton and it doesn't sell. Do I charge my long time loyal customer more for the old good board? Is that fair? Or lets say I dont pay my worker enough and he leaves to another company and I have increased training costs, do I pass on those costs to my loyal customer? Is it fair for my customer to pay for my mistake?

I think market trends drive costs more than anything. Just because most boards are $400 new, it doesnt mean thats what they should be priced at. WHOLE markets routinely are clueless and I see it all the time in my line of work. Why do you think Rossi can afford to throw away thousands of snowboards every year and stay in business? I think the markup (and overhead included markup) is a lot bigger than most realize.


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## Irish2685 (Dec 27, 2009)

There was actually an episode of "How it's Made" where they went to Burton to see how snowboards were made. Pretty interesting.


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## Zee (Feb 21, 2008)

dksmith17 said:


> I think in a perfect world overhead based pricing doesn't exist. And I think in the future you will see the businesses that steer away from it will survive.
> Look at the medical industry for example, just because a 3rd party doesn't pay their bill, that means I have to pay triple the amount for my insurance? Is that fair? Or lets say I have a really popular model snowboard that I have been making and selling forever. And then I make an awful model and produce a ton and it doesn't sell. Do I charge my long time loyal customer more for the old good board? Is that fair? Or lets say I dont pay my worker enough and he leaves to another company and I have increased training costs, do I pass on those costs to my loyal customer? Is it fair for my customer to pay for my mistake?
> 
> I think market trends drive costs more than anything. Just because most boards are $400 new, it doesnt mean thats what they should be priced at. WHOLE markets routinely are clueless and I see it all the time in my line of work. Why do you think Rossi can afford to throw away thousands of snowboards every year and stay in business? I think the markup (and overhead included markup) is a lot bigger than most realize.


This is true, there was the whole debate last season when Sierra and Burton got into their scrap because Sierra was discounting boards.

In my mind, most boards are overpriced, with some exceptions. I'll pay full price for a Never Summer, and maybe a Venture, but not for much else.


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## jegnorge (Feb 15, 2010)

Irish2685 said:


> There was actually an episode of "How it's Made" where they went to Burton to see how snowboards were made. Pretty interesting.


this is the video YouTube - How It's Made- Snowboards


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## jegnorge (Feb 15, 2010)

Zee said:


> In my mind, most boards are overpriced,


kinda like paintball. it's like 300-500% markup on some items.


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## ecks (Oct 6, 2010)

Zee said:


> This is true, there was the whole debate last season when Sierra and Burton got into their scrap because Sierra was discounting boards.
> 
> In my mind, most boards are overpriced, with some exceptions. I'll pay full price for a Never Summer, and maybe a Venture, but not for much else.


I agree, I paid full price for my NS board not only because its an awesome board, but because I know the markup they have is for their past innovations and to fund their future innovations.


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## BurtonAvenger (Aug 14, 2007)

Prices definitely fluctuate and it varies from brand to brand and factory to factory. Rough estimate you're looking at is about 150 to 200 bucks depending on materials, labor, shipping, marketing, and a few other things.


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## Donutz (May 12, 2010)

jegnorge said:


> this is the video YouTube - How It's Made- Snowboards


I saw the segment on TV. It was disappointing -- skipped right past the parts that weren't obvious (specifically edges).


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## Irish2685 (Dec 27, 2009)

Donutz said:


> I saw the segment on TV. It was disappointing -- skipped right past the parts that weren't obvious (specifically edges).


SkiBuilders.com: howto\layup

In that case, check out the link above. It's geared toward skis (used to have one about snowboards too...), but to my knowledge, it's all pretty much the same process.


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## Donutz (May 12, 2010)

dksmith17 said:


> I think in a perfect world overhead based pricing doesn't exist.


I may be completely misunderstanding you, but really what kind of perfect world are you talking about? In the real world, income has to exceed outgo, which means you have to take into account how much it costs to stay in business. To do that, you calculate COGS (cost of goods sold) by adding direct material costs, manufacturing-related costs (labour, machinery, waste, etc), and fixed overhead (rent/mortgate, utilities, admin, etc), dividing them by the number of units you expect to sell, and that's your cost. Hopefully you sell the units for MORE than that, otherwise you are arsed. How much profit margin you add depends on your competition -- if there's no competition you can charge an amount right up to the point where consumer resistance starts to kick in. If you are the 800-lb gorilla, you can charge a premium for the same quality of item. Otherwise, you have to fool with your prices to find the "sweet spot" -- the most you can charge without driving your customers to your competitors. Which varies based on what what your competitors are charging, because they're trying to do the same thing.

But in the end, you WANT your board manufacturer to make a decent profit, because otherwise they won't be there next year.


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## dksmith17 (Oct 13, 2010)

I guess I was touching on perfect world, meaning perfect/pure competition, the economic concept. Perfect competition is a market in which products are identical, no firm has a huge advantage, pricing is settled. Theoretically, all markets are slowly progressing towards that. Its reasonable to expect snowboarding to progress towards a more perfect market as it transitions from more of a service industry(because of tech advancements) towards a manufacturing industry. Why would it do that? Well tech can only advance so far (right?), companies are settling into roles, and quality across the market is being perfected as we speak. This same thing happened in the whitewater kayak industry recently as tech pretty much stopped advancing. The result? Most private companies were sold out to larger companies as they could not compete. Pricing stabilized. Kayaks became identical (depending on use obviously). Marketing/sponsorships dried up. Am I promoting this idea? Of course not I don't want to see it. But I think its gonna happen in the snowboarding market eventually. Its just the natural progression.


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