We’ve been in the business of selling snowboards for over a decade now and we know all too well that the best manufactured board in the world will still not sell if it has a horrendous graphic on it. That’s why manufacturers spend a lot of time researching and hunting down graphic designers and artists who they feel will create an image that they are proud to display on their snowboards and ultimately of course increase sales.
The Burton Custom is one of the most iconic snowboards of all time and has been a huge success for Burton since it’s original launch in 1996. There have been a diverse range of graphics over the years and the board even featured The Muppets a few years back (my preferred size would have been Miss Piggy so I wasn’t too stoked on that).
This years Custom features the art from UK artist Niki Hare. Her work uses a large range of mediums from paint and collage through to photography and video.
The project took a while to get off the ground but was created at the end of 2014…
So not only is Niki a rad artist, she snowboards too. Burton have now sent her a Custom and a set of bindings too and it’s refreshing to hear that Niki is going to go shred rather than hang her board on the wall!
But perhaps the coolest part of this story is the email we got from Niki earlier in the week…
“Just had a thought, when I did the original work I made 2, it was a tight time frame and chances were I’d tip my coffee over one. I still have the other kicking around (tea free), if you want it to stick in the shop somewhere you are more than welcome…”
Needless to say, we gave Niki a “HELL YEAH” and we are now the very proud owners of the original artwork for the 2017 Burton Custom!
