Thursday, March 22

This Is How We Do It

By Dave Finger

Mervin Manufacturing, makers of GNU and Lib Technologies snowboards, is the embodiment of what I would consider the true American entrepreneurial spirit: men and women banding together to create what they love, on their terms. The company is like a fresh line down an untracked piste - exhilarating, free and unique. Making their own industry standards, Mervin has a certain irreverence for its competition that drives the tremendous innovation hidden behind the nondescript walls of their Seattle factory. Nobody told them how to build boards; they told themselves.

Snowboards built by snowboarders, engineering developed by true riders, designs refined through experience, 24 years of development and innovation from the ground up, made by hand right here in the good ol' US of A. I caught up with the Mervin crew for an in-depth look at what makes them tick and what sets them apart from their competitors. Lucky me.

Mike Olson shows off his genetically engineered tree.

In the conference room at Mervin's Seattle facility, I had the privilege of chatting with company founder Mike Olson about how he got started and what drives his passion for creating, refining and developing innovations in rider-driven snow technology.

He saw his first snowboard in the back of Skateboarder magazine in 1977. Called a "ski-board," it was an unidentifiable twin-tip design ridden without bindings, but still able to make an epic frontside powder carve. That's what started it; Mike had to build one. From that day forward, he dedicated himself to making the best snowboards he could, experimenting with different materials and building techniques.

"Because I didn't have money," Olson says, "I could never buy anything, so I had to make everything."

He runs down the partial list of things Mervin has pioneered for snowboard construction: the use of knitted fiberglass; unbalanced glass lay ups; industry-standard T-nuts for binding inserts; vertically laminated true sandwich construction in '84; capped construction boards with the GNU Hypercarve in '86; development of genetically engineered wood for their cores for the past six years; end-grained wood construction (using wood like mini I-beams for strength); air core construction (six companies are now using this technology); building all their own board molds; cutting all their cores from rough lumber; creating 100% of their advertising and board graphics in house; and using a special dye sublimation process that produces the most vibrant colors for board graphics.

Or as Mike puts it, "we're probably the only company that's truly invented a lot of things for the industry." Materials, research, and development are what drive his passion, and his passion is contagious to all that work for Mervin.

On a tour of the Mervin facility led by Paul Ferrel, Mervin's Market Development Manager (hired as the third employee in 1989), I see a marketing brochure for GNU Slopetools, featuring Mike and Pete Saari (Mike's original partner in Mervin, currently the Marketing Director) ripping up the powder, circa 1984. I see Jeannine James (Mervin Team & Promotions Coordinator) working through a trip to Japan with Lib pros Mark Landvik and Jesse Burtner.

Peeking inside the graphics department, original works of art are stacked everywhere and Annette Veihelmann is dutifully creating some of next year's logos. Attached to the studio is Mervin's product showroom where the full line of gear is displayed. Incredible! I see an original painted canvass right next to the board it was created for. Just another day at work.

Continuing on, we visit the design lab where board geometries are developed and temporary molds are executed. Next to the lab is the purchasing department, where Stephanie and "El Barto" order up and purchase the raw materials that are converted into snowboards - polyethylene bases, PBT and Nylon topsheets, lumber for wood cores, fiberglass, steel edges, epoxy resins, graphic sublimation materials, inserts, toilet paper and paper plates.

"I know Mervin is special," says Mike "El Barto" Barton, "My mom keeps asking me if I'm going to change jobs, but I'm still having fun and that's what its all about."

Look at the history on those walls.

Now Paul and I get down to business: the factory floor. These huge machines look right at home in this enormous warehouse. Workers appear to be in perpetual motion operating these industrial marvels, using levers, die-cutters, glue-dispensers, and the board press. I can hear the hiss of compressed air. The atmosphere is like Santa's workshop right before a big dump.

As we pass by a huge wall of wood cores that come over from Mervin's Port Angeles facility, Paul explains they make them exclusively from rough lumber on their own machines. He also speaks of the board molds being handmade in Mervin's machine shop by Apostolos Karabostos. Like all their products, these molds are developed, designed, manufactured, and tested internally by Mervin.

I see Jeff Kempf, Mervin's Production Manager, using the drill press to demonstrate how insert guides are drilled into the wood cores. I see the base production bench where Jaimie Dusden is tacking steel edges onto the polyethylene base material that will be stacked into the board's sandwiched construction. There's the lay up bench where Jeane Cavenaugh is putting together the sandwich of materials that will become a Mervin snowboard.

She explains the process to me. Lay down the materials - base material, rubber composite shock absorber strips along the edges, a layer of fiberglass, the wooden core with P-tex tip and tail attached, another thicker layer of fiberglass, the Nylon composite topsheet material, all held together by thin resin layers - in one side of the custom aluminum mold. Top it off with the other side of the mold and place the whole thing in a hydraulic press. This heats the sandwich of materials and applies an even pressure that shapes the tip and tail kick of the board. The board is now sealed and strong but the excess material creates a bonded rectangular casket around the board's edges.

Jeane adds with a proud smile, "We'll make a board and finish it out and somebody will be riding it that night, checking it out - the person who built it in most cases." Very cool.

Paul, the studly hunk genius child he is, shows me the finishers, hard at work putting final touches on each and every board. They cut off the excess material from each pressed board and take it to the grinders. These alternating grit belt grinders let the craftsmen of Mervin assure a flat, smooth base on every board. The tip and tail finishing process takes careful skill because the material thickness and rigidity is much different than the center of the board, so different pressure must be applied in order for the grinder not to eat right through the P-tex. It is a lost art that only can be mastered through years of board finishing practice.

The board is scrapped for any excess hairs, inserts are drilled out of the topsheet, and boards are cleaned to shinny perfection. Wax is applied to the base and the board goes through an extensive quality control process, the last check of each board before they go to shipping. Things QC looks for are precise camber, inserts that are properly drilled and finished, dimples on the topsheet and base, and general cosmetic defects in the manufacturing. Passing this test, the boards go to the shipping department where they are inventoried, assigned a SKU, purchased ordered, invoiced, packed, boxed and shipped to their appropriate specialty retailers. See our Lib Tour photo gallery.

Check out the Lib Tech Tour Gallery