The $400 shoe will be available at Specialized retailers in late June.

How Will it Make My Transitions Faster?

“At Boa, we work hard to maintain a culture that encourages creative thinking and constant innovation,” Boa President Mark Soderberg said in a statement. “From our earliest tours of the TAXI development, we felt confident that the Zeppelin group could create a space that will complement the Boa culture, which is a crucial part of our success.”

Boa Technology will move into the new space in April 2013.

Read more about the TAXI development in this Denver Business Journal article: http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/blog/real_deals/2012/04/leasing-starts-soon-at-broomfields.html

Boa Technology's Brett Vladika, Director of Product Design, Chuck Mason, VP of Sales and Marketing and Garett Graubins, Director of Marketing, pose with a representative from the Denver Post at The Denver Post's Top Workplaces awards ceremony on Tuesday, April 10, 2012, at the History Colorado Center in Denver. (Photo by Daniel Petty)

The Denver Post named Boa Technology, makers of the patented, award-winning Boa Closure System, third on its list of Top Small Workplaces (companies with less than 150 employees). In the same report, Boa Technology President Mark Soderberg was honored as top business leader. The rankings were announced last Tuesday at a special event at the Colorado History Museum and in a special section of the Denver Post published yesterday (April 15).

“You can read all the management books but when it comes down to it, it’s just treating people humanely and with respect,” said Boa Technology President Mark Soderberg in a Denver Post interview about creating a positive workplace. The Boa Closure System first appeared on snowboard boots in 2001, and the company has since grown into a multi-national company without compromising its energetic, dog-, bike-, barbeque- and family-friendly atmosphere.

The Denver Post report is based on business-community nominations and 24-question surveys. In the surveys, employees were asked to score their employer on a variety of measures, from worker appreciation to company direction, values, ethics, career advancement opportunities, pay and benefits.

The recognition comes on the heels of Boa Technology’s fourth-place ranking in Outside magazine’s top 50 Places to Work 2011, which evaluated the work-life balance of many of America’s top outdoor brands.

Boa Technology proudly promotes workplace wellness and enthusiasm by offering a variety of lunchtime fitness and nutrition workshops, company outdoor and volunteer activities, profit-sharing benefits and an annual credit that can be used towards any fitness-related pursuit or goal. Employees are encouraged to take part in the company’s “Health & Wellness Challenge” by setting personal goals that support work-life balance. The company awards points for goal achievement that are redeemable for gifts that further support health, such as Whole Foods gift cards or outdoor gear.

Going beyond offering perks and encouraging balance, Boa employees are constantly encouraged to think like business owners and to not fear making a mistake. “If I’m riding my bike and I never fall off, I don’t know how fast I can go,” says Soderberg, a past two-time mountain-bike national champion. “I love a really good, well-thought-out mistake because you learn from it and do things a better way next time.”

That is the culture of trust and balance that Boa employees referenced in survey responses and one of the reasons the Denver Post honored Boa Technology as one of the city’ best workplaces.

Elizabeth Moore, Marketing Manager.
Moore will manage daily marketing goals and tactics, brings to her new post considerable experience in negotiating, planning and executing digital and emerging media, having recently worked for Boulder-based marketing agency Sterling-Rice Group as a senior digital planner. Prior to Sterling-Rice Group, Moore worked for Chicago-based Starcom Worldwide, where she supervised national brand strategy and digital activation for Sara Lee, with a special focus on action-sports marketing campaigns.

Claire Sprague, Senior Graphic Designer.
Claire Sprague brings an impressive depth of design and agency experience to the Boa team. She joins Boa after six years with Denver-based Juice Communications, working on brands like Western Union, NBC Universal, Globus, and Hewes Marine Company. In addition to providing art direction, Claire led the creative staff and worked with external vendors. Most recently, Claire was honored to be a judge at the ADDY awards competition in Houston. Earlier in her career, Claire honed her design skills at Mark Russell and Associates Advertising Agency in Syracuse, New York. Among other projects, she worked on the concept and design of the award-winning 2005/06 campaign for Syracuse Stage.

Merle McCreery, Chief Financial Officer.
McCreery previously worked at Deloitte & Touche and StorageTek and served as CFO for multiple venture-capital and private-equity corporations, including International Language Engineering, Network Photonics and ProStor Systems. He also served as Controller at Exabyte Corporation, where he helped guide the company through an initial public offering.

Doug Starkey, Regional Account Manager.
Doug Starkey is charged with establishing Boa as an ingredient brand within several medical product categories that are emerging over the next two years. Starkey’s experience in high-level software development, sales and product management align with Boa Technology’s high standards for partner-brand collaboration and commitment to innovation. Starkey comes to Boa from N-R-G Foods, makers of Honey Stinger, where he served as sales manager, a post that equipped him with an excellent understanding of mass retail distribution channels, which will be an asset for Boa’s direct-to-consumer medical market segment.

Madison Proper, Accounts Payable Specialist.
Proper comes to Boa from SmartWool where she was an accounts receivable coordinator.

Elyse Caldwell, Administrative Specialist.
Elyse Caldwell, an All-American snowboarder who competed at a national level, is Boa Technology’s new administrative specialist.

To better serve its 110 partner brands worldwide in product development, Boa Technology has expanded its engineering team by naming Chris Converse as project engineer and Zach Jensen as prototype technician. Joel Donahue also joins Boa as IT generalist. ]]> http://blog.boatechnology.com/2012/04/12/new-hires-several-departments/feed/ 0 http://blog.boatechnology.com/2012/04/06/boa-snowboard-team-gathers-in-keystone-for-annual-summit/ http://blog.boatechnology.com/2012/04/06/boa-snowboard-team-gathers-in-keystone-for-annual-summit/#comments Fri, 06 Apr 2012 23:01:09 +0000 daxkelm http://blog.boatechnology.com/?p=4378

Members of Boa’s Snowboard team including Brandon Reis, Ashley Thornton, Scott See, Fredrik Evensen, Megan Ginter, Sachi Tanaka and Shunta Akagawa gathered in Keystone, Colorado, March 19-23 for Boa’s annual Snowboard Summit. Photographers and videographers were on hand to gather stills and video clips that will be used in next winter’s advertising and promotional assets.

Transworld Business editor Mike Lewis was on the scene and posted a story and photo gallery on the magazine’s website. He wrote: “While many companies had a rough year due to meager snowfalls, Boa’s diversity allowed it to have a very strong season with growth in other categories, and it’s investing more of its earnings back into snowboarding through event sponsorships.”

Boa Technology’s H3 High Power Platform was named an ISPO Award Nominee in the Action Ingredients category today by the ISPO Award committee. The ISPO AWARD is a seal of approval for innovative new sporting goods and is a respected global industry trend indicator. Award nominees and winners will be on display at the ISPO Munich tradeshow taking place January 29 to February 1, 2012.

The H3 system, featured on the new Vans Infuse and Salomon Synapse snowboard boots and others, is Boa’s seventh-generation snowboard reel platform. It delivers high-precision, watch-like resolution for achieving a truly customized fit.

“Our engineers and designers have been rethinking snowboard boot closure systems for over 10 years,” says Vin Connelly, Global Category Manager at Boa Technology, maker of the award-winning, patented Boa Closure System. “The result is the Boa H3, which is part of a high-power closure system that provides riders with unparalleled security and micro-adjustability to improve performance and comfort. Partner brands appreciate the H3 system’s improved design, smaller size, no special tools required for maintainence and our exclusive Coiler option that quickly takes up excess lace.

The Boa Closure System is found of one third of the world’s snowboard boots and provides performance benefits lauded by professional snowboarders worldwide. Since 2010, Boa has sponsored a team of eight pro riders, including X-Games slopestyle medalist Eric Willett of the U.S. (who wears the Vans Cirro Boa Boot) and freerider Fredrik Evensen, of Oslo, Norway (who wears the Head 5 Star Boa Instep Grasp).

While Boa is the most durable and reliable closure system on the market and backed by the Dialed In For Life Guarantee, the H3 dial requires no special tool for on-the-fly repair or maintenance in the backcountry or resort. Rather, it involves a simple twist-and-remove, twist-and-insert-replacement process.

The Zero includes 3 patents – The Boa Closure System, OutDry technology and the Knox Scaphoid Protection System

This award is hot on the heels of another win at the end of 2011 when the the Handroid was voted Best Innovation of the Year.

686® and Scion® are pleased to introduce the world’s first and only car solely dedicated to snowboarding, “Numeric”. Built for snowboarders by snowboarders, the car is the caveat in the 20th anniversary celebration for 686.

686 teamed up with Scion Racing® and Spin Imaging® to develop the one-of-a-kind custom winter masterpiece. The Numeric is based off of Scion’s xB model. Never before has a car been re-created, re-developed and re-invigorated in such a unique manner. Each aspect of the build was directly inspired from a product and brand that’s progressively pushed snowboarding to new levels.

Numeric: 686 and Scion Snowboarding Concept Car from 686 Technical Apparel on Vimeo.

Each involved brand brought a unique twist to Numeric’s look. The snow specific tires reflect NB686® snowboarding boots and are branded as New Balance® tires. The top of the car is designed like a Bern® protective carbon fiber helmet, complete with their patented brim technology. The windshield is designed from Dragon’s APX® frameless goggle and offers full peripheral view inside the car. The Sparco® modified seats are inspired from actual Union® team snowboard bindings and are constructed in a high-back cup shaped form. The sound system is engineered and designed by the Skullcandy® team, which used their premiere Aviator headphones as inspiration. GoPro® came in with their POV expertise in visual racing mirrors and interior mapping. Vestal® watches and their ZR-3 Chronograph inspired the custom built time gauges. The devil is in the details and Freewaters® sandals clearly did this in the first ever heated floor mats. BOA® Technology added their “dialed” in fit to the cars heating and cooling system. Recco® Avalanche Rescue systems supplied their sophisticated radar technology on the road and mountain terrain. Blind® skateboards legendary artist, Marc Mckee provided his custom touch to the interior panels. To finalize the winter shred story, 686’s technical textile background pushed manufacturing boundaries by successfully wrapping the world’s first and only fully functional waterproof and breathable snowboarding outerwear vehicle, complete with stitched panels, laser welded seams, waterproof zipper and mesh venting.

“The 686 Scion Numeric is a dream come true,” says Michael Akira West, president and creative director at 686. “What better way to celebrate our twentieth anniversary by doing something that’s never been done before? Every part of this build has a story and a separate product that it was inspired from. I’m psyched we were able to show it to the world, our way.”

“The 686 build is incredible,” says Steve Hatanaka, Scion auto show and special events manager, “The collaboration of the action sports lifestyle and automotive is a perfect fit for the Scion brand! The hard work of so many people and brands came together to make it happen, and we are very proud of the outcome. It is one of the most unique cars we’ve done to date and the synergy of the final product is amazing. We look forward to showcasing it during the auto show season, with tuner fans and at the action sports shows around the world.”

The action sports industry will get its first look at the vehicle in the 686 booth at SIA in Denver from January 26-29, 2012.

Sponsors and participants include: BOA Technology, 686 technical apparel, Scion Racing, Spin Imaging, MV Designz, Rokform,Roland Sands Designs, Light Force, Skullcandy, New Balance, Freewaters, Motegi Wheels, GoPro, Union Bindings, Cadence Apparel, Dragon Alliance, Bern Helmets, Vestal Watches, Blind Skateboards, and Recco Avalanche Rescue System.