Hello friends, riders, distributors, brand people and anyone reading this.

We’re writing this as a shop that has spent the last 8 years talking about snowboarding with riders, not just selling it. We spend our winters helping people pick their first setup, get the right stance, learn how to wax a board, pick the right binding flex, understand edges, and find the right boot fit. We do it because we care about riding. Most shops like us do. The culture is where the sport lives.

But lately, something feels rotten in the industry. Not because snowboarding is less exciting, or brands are making bad products. Quite the opposite: there are so many good things happening, so many cool brands and riders out there pushing boards, bindings, and boots forward. The problem is not the product. The product is great. The problem is how it’s being sold.

Right now, the same products that core shops are building demand for are being sold next to us online, discounted, and turned into bargains. The boards we spent hours explaining and fitting to customers also appear on a big webshop for 20% off before the season even really begins. And when that happens, we don’t just lose a sale. The brand loses value. The rider learns to shop by price instead of performance. The culture becomes something cheap.

And we get to hear: “That’s just the market.” Or “Retailers shouldn’t discount then." But independent shops aren’t discounting because they love discounts. They discount because once the same product is everywhere, sold like a commodity, the only remaining tool is price. Shops aren’t causing the problem, they’re reacting to it. When everyone sells the exact same thing, value becomes invisible. It becomes a race to the bottom that nobody wins. Not shops, not brands, not distributors, and definitely not the sport.

Core shops do something that can’t be measured on an invoice: we create riders. We take beginners and help them find the right gear that they will love. We sponsor local events, push young riders, film content, create the hype that makes someone want a certain board. We help people fall in love with snowboarding before they even strap in.

The big online stores? They’re great at volume. They’re great at convenience. They ship fast. They move products. They are necessary. But they don’t grow the sport. They move existing demand, they don’t create it.

And if the shops that grow the sport disappear like is happening all over Europe last couple years, there won’t be enough passion left to sell anything. Just boxes moving to addresses, discounts following discounts until margins collapse, brand identity dissolves, and snowboards are sold like microwaves on Black Friday.

What we truly believe, and what we’re asking the industry to consider is simple:

Not every product should be sold everywhere.

That doesn’t mean cutting out big online retailers. It means giving them the lines where volume makes sense, entry models, big sellers, price-point boards, maybe even specific online-only collections. And it means giving core shops something to build around: limited drops, core shop only collection, artist collaborations, early releases, special colorways, high-end or more experimental lines. The stuff that needs storytelling. The stuff that benefits from expertise. The stuff that deserves the hype.

This is not protectionism. This is ecosystem management. This is making sure every part of the industry plays to its strengths. Big retailers can do what they do best. Core shops can do what we do best. Brands can protect value. Distributors can build a stable business that isn’t held hostage by a handful of IT nerds with massive online stores.

When distribution rewards culture, culture creates demand. When culture creates demand, everyone grows. The shop, the brand, the distributor, the online retailer, and most importantly, the rider, who doesn’t just buy a board, but becomes part of snowboarding.

Snowboarding shouldn’t be a thing you find in a discount section. It should be something you discover through the people who live it.

Anyways, make snowboarding great again.

Behind the Pines

For Riders, not algorithms.