On Friday October 17th The Cutting Edge crew was
lucky enough to receive a special invite to take a trip to Boston to get together with Mervin Manufacturing and other shops from the east coast! The Mervin Made Tour was a three-stop nation wide tour
that ended in the heart of Boston for the Down Town Throw Down! During the
event Friday evening, owners Mike Olson and Peter Saari took the stage and gave
us a complete history lesson from the start of Mervin Manufacturing. Mid-Day Saturday there was the Down Town Throw Down which was a snowboarding contest consisting of around 15 riders.
If you are unfamiliar with Mervin, they are the creators of Lib Tech, GNU, and Roxy!
If you are unfamiliar with Mervin, they are the creators of Lib Tech, GNU, and Roxy!
Nearly 30
years ago based in Burien, WA, Mike and Pete both quit college and began to work on their snowboard
company, Gnu, building some of the first snowboards ever! That year, they began
to test out their “deeper side cut design” bringing a snow-style board that had a surf and skate feel. Four years later in 1988, Liberace Technologies and
Mervin Manufacturing were being created. In 1990 Lib Tech’s boards were only being sold at core shops while Gnu was off the market. The next year Mike and Pete ended up re-buying the Gnu name. In April of 1995
Mervin opens the world’s most “environMENTAL” snowboard factory in Sequim, WA.
Fast-forward to today Mervin is holding strong and continues to make progression in the snowboard industry!
Fast-forward to today Mervin is holding strong and continues to make progression in the snowboard industry!
The
“environMENTAL” factory from the very beginning has always tried to be as
environmentally conscious as possible with both the work environment and the
materials and processes that they use!
Using non-petroleum based bio-plastics made from castor beans, no
cancer-causing toxic automotive lacquer clearcoats, low VOC epoxy resin
systems, basal fibers instead of the conventional fiberglass, renewable forest
products for their cores and wood sawdust is recycled as a soil additive and
scrap wood is donated as kindling! Also
Eco-sub printing is a water based ink sublimation graphics system to print all
of their snowboard graphics!
In conclusion, we would like to thank Mike Olson, Peter Saari and the entire Mervin Manufacturing crew for the great night filled with food, drinks, and fun! Also a special thanks to Jamie Lynn, Forest Bailey, Kaitlyn Farrington, Barrett Christy, and everyone else!
^Mike Olson Showing his first chairlift ride^
Cutting Edge Crew with Mike Olson and Jamie Lynn!
