Big Wig Burton’s Benedikt Pelikan Staying True to the Roots While Navigating New Challenges
Burton has long been a driving force in the progression of snowboarding, building its European foundation in Innsbruck and continuing to innovate for riders today. In this interview, Benedikt Pelikan European Managing Director discusses how the brand is evolving its structure, streamlining its product strategy and increasing its community focus. His insights show how Burton aims to stay true to its roots while navigating new challenges and opportunities in the snowboard market.
Please give us some background detail on the European set up.
Burton Sportartikel GmbH in Innsbruck has been the European Headquarters for Burton Snowboards since 1986. Jake and Donna had decided very early on, when they started the business in the US in 1977, that Europe was a huge winter sports market in which they could explore and develop snowboarding. Together with our first European General Manager, Hermann Kapferer, they founded the Burton office and warehouse in Innsbruck to serve the European market. I was lucky to turn my passion for snowboarding into a career when I started working at Burton in 1990, and over the years I’ve held various roles in service, sales, and merchandising as the business has expanded. Today, our regional office supports the European marketplace with a dedicated team of more than 100 people, depending on the season.
Recently you have been reorganising your product offering into 3 focused categories, Hardgoods, Softgoods and Anon, what was the thinking behind this?
This shift is all about simplifying the way we work, strengthening our consumer focus, and positioning Burton for long-term success. The new structure brings greater clarity, alignment, and impact across the business. Our regional merchandising, marketing, and sales teams are now vertically integrated into global teams by category, to streamline communication and execution. Meanwhile, our backbone functions such as Operations, Finance, and HR continue to support all needs on operational level.
What do you consider Burton’s most defining brand values today?
Our most defining brand values are centered around people, planet, sport, and innovation. People and community are at the heart of everything we do. We place strong emphasis on inclusion and on empowering individuals both within and beyond the brand. For example, we support youth development in board sports through initiatives like the Chill Foundation, founded by Jake and Donna. Equally important is our commitment to the planet. Sustainability is a key value for us — we’re constantly working to reduce our environmental impact and operate responsibly. We’re proud to be a B Lab’s certified B Corporation, which reflects our dedication to high social and environmental standards. Then of course since its inception, Burton has been rooted in authentic snowboarding culture and has been striving to push the boundaries of the sport itself. Finally, innovation and quality drive us forward. We stay closely connected with our riders, consumers, and dealers to continuously improve and develop the products we make.
What benefits does being a family-owned brand bring to Burton?
Being a privately held, family-owned company gives us the freedom to invest in the sport, fund innovation, and take risks that may not pay off immediately, but that build long-term brand equity and loyalty. It also means we never have to compromise our values and can always stay true to the culture and community we love. Together, we can grow and protect the soul of snowboarding. Having Donna and the Carpenter family actively involved in global and regional meetings is inspiring and highly motivating for all of us, not many brands have this!
What are the biggest challenges Burton is tackling right now, and where do you see opportunity?
The global sporting goods industry is expected to grow by around 6% per year from 2024 to 2029, slightly down from previous projections of about 7%. At the same time, global sourcing challenges, trade tariffs, geopolitical risks, and shipping cost volatility continue to put pressure on brands trying to meet consumer demand. Many consumers today are also more cost-conscious, and since sporting goods are often discretionary spending, inflation, wage pressures, and economic uncertainty weigh more heavily on their spending behavior. Resilience from our brand and employees toward external factors, and constant evolution of our brand message and product range through innovation, provides the opportunity to overcome these challenges. We have a strong global senior leadership team that sets the strategic direction and we put a very strong emphasis one internal communication to keep everyone aligned and informed about what’s happening.
Burton is offering multiple graphic options on several of its 2026 boards, not just colour variants, but fully different designs for the same board model. What led to that decision?
Offering multiple graphics on key models allows us to diversify both the appeal and expression across the line, providing customers with the freedom of choice to align board performance and riding style with the individual selection of graphics. For some designs, the split in sales between graphics is fairly even; for others, it may be more like 70/30. All this data helps us refine the options each year, and better selling graphics can stay in the line for another season if required.
Can you talk us through Burton’s strategy behind moving toward more unisex boards?
Similar to the board graphics optionality, we see that consumers want to have a choice. Our market research showed that many women are interested in riding a variety of board shapes, and introducing unisex sizing on some of our models helps us meet those consumer wishes.
How are you strengthening your relationships with retailers?
The strongest argument for any brand is ultimately sustained high demand and long-term profitability. For decades, Burton has delivered product innovation and strong visibility among snowboard consumers to support our retail partners. We continue to work intensively on customer satisfaction once products arrive at our partners. State-of-the-art campaign execution, excellent warranty service across all product categories, and numerous on-snow demos in every European country, help our partners sell the Burton brand successfully. And finally, strengthening the bond with the right partners is super important to us. We believe that controlled distribution and focusing on the right retail partnerships delivers higher brand value for both the authorised dealer and the brand. While Burton has successfully grown its direct-to- consumer business over the past few years, we continue to highly value our diversified, selective network of authorised dealers in Europe. And we will increase efforts to strengthen partnerships with everyone who commits to the same long-term goal of growing our sport and our community.
Community is at the heart of snowboarding. How does Burton engage with local communities, riders, and resorts?
Community has always been at the heart of Burton. Snowboarding was built on shared passion, fun and creativity, and that same energy continues to guide us today. We must “listen to the rider”, as Jake used to say. And to do so, we collaborate with local communities, riders, and resorts to bring people together and to progress the snowboarding culture. In and around Innsbruck, we partner with multiple resorts and local organizations for grassroots events and regional support, and we have similar networks that are active across Europe, through our country managers. We already talked about Chill, another example is this October we kicked off the new season with the release of PAVED – a two-year co-production movie with the Red Bull Media House. The European snowboarding community came together to watch and celebrate at more than 30 premieres, from major happenings in Milan and Innsbruck to smaller, truly local screenings in places like LAAX. From big events like the LAAX Open to partner resorts such as Avoriaz, Madonna di Campiglio, and Ruka, we stay connected to the mountains through the creation of these experiences, that celebrate snowboarding and its people. Our athletes embody this spirit, acting not just as competitors, but as true community leaders who inspire others and give back to the scene that shaped them. No matter whether it’s the US, Europe or Asia, we do our best to show up for the community, stay true to our edge, support riders and resorts, and most importantly, ride together.
What are your thoughts on the easy entry binding market, how far can it go?
We introduced the Step On system nine years ago and from the start we’ve been pushing for performance combined with simplicity. We are seeing the consumer adoption of Step On continuing to grow. Ultimately, it’s the rider who decides what works best for them, and the market will evolve based on those choices. But as long as innovation keeps coming, consumers will always be curious and explore new options.
What’s your personal vision for where Burton should be in five years?
Our category focus has helped the company grow, and our commitment to riders and the sport continues to lead our purpose. And of course, over the next five years, together as an industry we hope to inspire even more people to embrace the sport and expand the community we love.
