SnowBoarding in a free fall....

And it was pretty accurate, wasn't it?

ScottyJ- you hit the nail on the head, at least in my situation

Noah John wrote

Well it all started....Then I surfed a little more internet porn and...a greasy, cheese and powdered-egg gut bomb.  My camera froze or I would have posted a picture.   Part II to follow......

I hope you washed all that down with one of them hops are growin' on your teeth IPA's

Well, kids are just too busy looking at their iphones these days to do much snowboarding. The ski kids have no choice, they were dragged along and forced to ski by their skier parents who will not tolerate snowboards in a ski family. Just wait till the next generation has kids, snowboards will make a resurgence.

FEURA BUSH, N.Y. — Burton Snowboards is closing its plant in upstate New York.

According to a notice filed with the state Department of Labor, the world's largest snowboard manufacturer will close its Feura Bush facility outside Albany sometime in mid-April.

Burton lists the economy as the reason for closing the plant, which employs 72 full-time warehouse workers, supervisors and seasonal workers who manufacture snowboarding equipment and accessories such as bindings, boots and outerwear.

In 2010, Burton announced it would cease manufacturing in Vermont and move production to Austria because of high manufacturing costs.

Burton was founded in 1977 in Vermont and its flagship store is in Burlington.

How is it possible that its more expensive to make things in VT then Austria?  Austria is not exactly a LCR mfr region.  Taexs and benefits are higher in Europe.

The only way that could work is if they are not actually making the boards themselves and just having them made for them.  It would also seem to indicate that snowboarding is stronger numbers wise in Europe than in the US.

I don't know for sure, but I suspect that the components are manufactured in China and then final assembly (parts glued together) is in Austria.  There is a lot of that going on.  There is a giant airport in Eastern Germany where planefuls of parts come in daily from China and are assembled there, to recieve "made in Germany" designation.  The not so funny part is that many of the workers that do this kind of work in Europe are not European, rather they are migrant workers from Africa and even China. Even a popular type of Italian Cheese is made by Indian migrants in Italy.  

evergreen wrote

 FEURA BUSH, N.Y. — Burton Snowboards is closing its plant in upstate New York.

WTH.

I'll bet there is a tax scheme going on here by the way of Switzerland, or some other Euro country. Apple hide billions off shore from US taxes by way of Ireland.

Companies are fleeing high tax states like New York and Vermont on a monthly basis.  No surprise here.

BenedictGomez wrote

Companies are fleeing high tax states like New York and Vermont on a monthly basis.  No surprise here.

A TV advertisement for this has been in heavy rotation downstate.