PROFILE: Kingswood Skis

Here's our profile of Kingswood Skis, from Christchurch, New Zealand. Read on if you like small companies with great stories that emphasize craftsmanship and doing things the right way. We're looking forward to getting time on some more Kingswoods in the very near future...

PROFILE: ENVE Composites

Conventional wisdom says that carbon wheels are a luxury for people with too much money and enough spare time to replace them. ENVE Composites founder, Jason Schiers, hates conventional wisdom.
PROFILE: Venture Snowboards, Blister Gear Review

PROFILE: Venture Snowboards

A Company Seeks to Make Their Mark Yet Leave No Trace

When riding in the backcountry, whatever is strapped to your feet needs to perform. Steep chutes, tight trees, or sweet, untracked pow fields are all lousy places to learn that your board is subpar, and the middle of nowhere is a dangerous place to experience equipment failures.

Venture Snowboards, a small company with four year-round employees based in Silverton, Colorado, aims to deliver burly boards that kill it on the mountain, all while maintaining strong business and environmental ethics.

Started in 1999 by husband and wife team Lisa and Klemens Branner, Venture claims to produce the most durable, sustainable, and high-performance big mountain boards around. Backed up by a two-year warranty on materials and workmanship, they stick by their work.

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PROFILE: Trew Gear, Blister Gear Review

PROFILE: TREW gear

Many great projects have been born in a garage: The White Stripes and The Black Keys, Apple and Google, and numerous Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins expeditions.

More recently, TREW gear, a Hood River, Oregon-based gear company, is continuing the garage start-up tradition as they attempt to bring function and fashion to the backcountry. But TREW now operates out of a three-car garage, and they are growing, slowly but surely.

The idea started with brothers John and Chris Pew, and their good friend Tripp Frey. (Tripp + Pew = TREW, get it?) The boys began exploring the backcountry during their high school days and continued the practice through college. Frey studied business, Chris comparative literature, and John got a degree in ever-useful Mandarin.

During their backcountry excursions, they knew something was missing: steeze.

“We noticed that you always ended up looking like your dad when you went into the backcountry,” John said. “That wasn’t capturing modern skiing.” What they dreamed of was high quality gear, dripping with style – a new school twist on traditional mountain gear outfitters like Patagonia or Arc’Teryx. “We all knew we wanted to do the same thing,” John said. “Fill the gap of technicality and style.”

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