Switch Manufacturing and boot manufacturer Northwave, along with its newly
purchased binding company Drake, announced that they will be working together to develop a new highback step-in binding as well as new step-in boot designs for the 1999/2000 season. The agreements come one year after entering into an initial partnership.
The new highback step-in binding will combine Switch's Autolock binding
technology with Drake's highback binding expertise. Driven by both companies' pro riders, the designers Martino Fumagalli from Drake and Jeff Sand from Switch promise the new binding will surpass those riders' demands and anything else on the market.
"Designing boots with internal support over the last six years has given us
incredible insight into what's important on an external system," says Sand. The two companies will introduce several models of the new binding for the '99/00 season.
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Northwave/Drake Marketing Director Dane Hjort
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Switch's President Erik Anderson adds, "Our view of the external highback
binding is simple. We regard it as one component of the developing binding market. We showed a highback design at the 1997 SIA show with positive response, so now we're excited to be working closely with Northwave on this project to build Switch-compatible market share. Our commitment to the original platform hasn't changed. In fact, we're developing several boot components for internal support simultaneously."
Dane Hjort, marketing director for both Northwave and Drake, says the
external highback step-in system is the wave of the future. "If you look at where the step-in systems are going, you'll see both the Clicker HB and the Burton step-in have external highbacks. Now we'll have it for the Switch system as well."
He points out that Drake is the first company to actually receive a license
for the technology to produce a Switch step-in binding system. Previously, Switch manufactured all the bindings, and only licensed the boot technology to partners.
Drake will only introduce a step-in binding with a highback and will not
develop one without a highback. That segment of the market will be covered by Switch's own binding, Hjort explains.
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Drake Designer Martino Fumagalli.
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With this step, Switch is continuing to attempt to standardize the step-in
binding arena by sharing its technology. In fact, Drake had introduced a side- mount step-in system of its own two years ago but has since discontinued that program. "The market doesn't want another step-in, it wants a standard," says Hjort.
In another effort to achieve that standard, Northwave has co-developed
state-of-the-art technology that injects the Switch binding interface directly into the sole of a snowboard boot, thus eliminating the need for shops or consumers to mount the metal shanks onto the boots themselves.
This technology pairs Northwave's boot-construction expertise with Switch's
vision of creating a stronger, lighter connection between a rider and their board. Both Switch and Northwave will introduce several models of boots featuring the new outsole for the '99/00 season.
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Northwave/Drake Sales Manager Steve Veytia.
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These new designs will propel Northwave directly into the step-in game,
Hjort believes: "The step-in boot we introduced this year will not be shipped and that has caused us to take a back seat for year one. That will put us behind. What we have in the works will move us ahead of everyone else in the next year."
Certainly, Switch hopes to leverage Northwave's strength in the European
market to gain market share in the step-in battle. According to Northwave/Drake Director of Sales Steve Veytia, that market is still split on step-ins. "In the United States, we're estimating that the step-in market is about 35 to 38 percent of the total binding market. Switzerland is leading Europe with about 25 percent, and France follows at about 20 percent."
But he says in the two other major markets, Germany and Austria, step-ins
make up almost no market share. That will change slowly as the markets continue to develop. For now, though, Northwave is either number one or number two in boot sales across Europe, and it will continue to offer conventional boots as well as step-ins for both Switch and Clicker systems.
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