Brand Focus YES Snowboards
The story of YES Snowboards was one that shook up the whole status quo in snowboarding. YES Snowboards was created from the ashes of the defunct Burton UNINC team which came to an abrupt end in 2009 and left DCP, Romain de Marchi and JP Solberg without a board sponsor.
Could there be life after being bumped by the Big B? For these three guys of course there could; this was the impetus that led the former UNINC gang to decide to go it alone. They no longer needed to ride for a big board brand, they were going to do it for themselves.
With input from the Nidecker family, they quickly turned around a tight range of boards with possibly the best press release of all time. They released some heavy hitting films parts and became leaders of the resurgence of rider owned brands like Slash from Gigi Rüf, Lobster from the Helgason brothers and Jones Snowboards from Jeremy Jones.
This brand wasn’t all about hype though. With some of the worlds best riders involved in the R&D, an awesome production facility, incredible imagination and a blank canvas they released some serious boards into the marketplace.
They’re also responsible for what must be one of the most iconic snowboard ranges in terms of graphics. ‘The Greats’ range from YES has included ‘The Great Beauties of History’, ‘The Great Dudes of History’ and ‘The Greats of Snowboarding’ which saw Terje Haakonsen and other greats of snowboarding plastered on the top sheets of their snowboards. This year they revisited the classic UNINC design on the Greats which will no doubt be a future classic.
YES Greats 2021
The Hel YES is another stand-out board from the range. After winning four consecutive Good Wood Awards, the Hel YES (brainchild of Whistler freeride legend Helen Schettini) has anchored itself as one of the industry’s top standards for women’s free-riding.
Hel YES 2021
We know that in this era of snowboarding people want to buy into brand stories, and if we are being honest, there isn’t a brand story that comes anywhere near the story of YES.
