Burton Snowboards Protest

Protesters prepare to march to the Burton headquarters in
Burlington to show their anger with the company’s Love and
Primo snowboards. PHOTO BY WENDY HATOUM

150 protest Burton boards

Essex woman leads the charge

By WENDY HATOUM
The Essex Reporter (October 30, 2008)

About 150 demonstrators, as many as 20 percent of them children, gathered at the headquarters of Burton Snowboards in Burlington, chanting “Boycott Burton.”

The protest last Thursday was organized by Essex resident Lezlee Sprenger, who called for a general boycott of Burton products until the company withdraws two controversial lines of snowboards from the market: the “Love” line, which features vintage photos of Playboy models on the boards, and the “Primo” line, which includes graphic images of hand gestures depicted with severed fingers.

During the protest, Burton’s Burlington headquarters had uniformed police officers and squad cars posted at each of the property’s two driveway entrances. The company allowed protesters to gather on a narrow strip of land along the road fronting the property.

Reading from a written statement, Sprenger thanked the group for joining the protest and remarked on how the issue has grabbed the attention of people across the country.

“We, together, have led an enormously successful information campaign,” she said. “Tens of thousands of people have heard the message. This issue is being discussed in newsgroups and blogs across the country. People’s eyes are opening – they are seeing Burton for what they really are: a corporation driven by greed and self- interest; a company that shows no respect for women, no respect for children, and does not care about our families and community.”

In response to a statement released earlier by Burton CEO Laurent Potdevin, in which he stood by Burton’s board graphics, Sprenger said, “Burton continues in a long tradition of the debasement of women for profit. They hide behind their claim to freedom of artistic expression. Porn is not art. Porn is not love. And mutilation is not comical.”

Smugglers’ Notch Resort in Jeffersonville and Vail Resorts in Colorado have taken a stand on the snowboards, prohibiting their employees from using the Primo and Love boards. Vail Resorts owns Vail Mountain, Breckenridge Ski Resort, Keystone Resort, and Beaver Creek Resort.

Smugglers’ Notch issued this statement: “Smugglers’ is disappointed in the direction Burton is taking in this regard. None of the Love or Primo lines of products will be sold at Smugglers’ Notch Resort.

Employees will not be allowed to use these or other lines of products, which are likely to offend our guests, in the course of their interaction with guests at the Resort.”

At the protest, Sprenger was flanked by other community leaders, including Mark Redmond, director of Spectrum, Todd Centybear, executive director of the Howard Center, Tiffany Bluemle, executive director of Vermont Works for Women, David Ellenbogen, director of the Lake Champlain’s Men’s Resource Center, and Roddy O’Neil Cleary, a Unitarian minister and professor at the University of Vermont.

Ellenbogen questioned Burton’s naming one of the product lines “Love.” “What’s love got to do with it? Tina Turner got it right. It’s got nothing to do with love,” he said. Ellenbogen called for the company to stop producing the boards and pull the remaining ones from store shelves.

“They should melt them down and make a white ribbon board and donate the proceeds to prevent domestic violence,” said Ellenbogen. The white ribbon campaign was started by a group of men who formed to end men’s violence against women.

“This line of snowboards objectifies women,” said Spectrum’s Redmond. “Objectifying women leads to domestic violence.” He also decried the boards’ depictions of self-mutilation because of the problems that many young people have with cutting.

In response to the offensive boards, Redmond recently ended Spectrum’s participation in the popular “Chill” program, in which Burton supplied boards and apparel for the program’s youth. “There are some things you stand on principle. It means giving something up.”

Redmond announced that the Alpine Shop in South Burlington had recently donated four snowboards and that other individuals had donated resort passes to Spectrum. With recent community donations, Redmond said he was hopeful that the young people who rely on the services of Spectrum will be able to participate in snowboarding this winter.

“I predict that Spectrum kids will be on the slopes,” he said.

O’Neil Cleary was dismissive of Burton’s Love line: “It is stuck in the ‘70s,” she said. “They are not cutting edge, not pushing the boundaries. It’s really regression.”

One of the protesters, Kathleen Kemp of Winooski, carried a “Shame on Burton” placard and called Burton’s actions “shameful.”

“I think that the stand that they’ve (Burton) taken is shameful and reprehensible in this day and age, and in this place in the world,” said Kemp. “I hope they take the opportunity to question where they’re headed with this whole idea, which of course is tied to profits.”

The Essex Reporter contacted Burton, and according to a company spokesperson, there has been no further comment on the issue aside from Potdevin’s statement, which was issued Oct. 22, the day before the protest. (See box.)

In light of the snowboard controversy, Burton co- owner Donna Carpenter has withdrawn from a November conference of the Women Business Owners Network where she was to have been one of two keynote speakers.

Robin Grunland, executive director of WBON, sent a press release dated Oct. 15 explaining the change.

“Over the last several weeks, Burton Snowboards has received media attention, and community members have expressed concern, regarding several of the company’s board designs,” the release said. “Donna Carpenter has graciously expressed concern that she might be a diversion to the goal of our conference and with much apology has decided not to speak at our event in order to keep the focus on the economic issues at hand.”

In WBON’s original press release, Donna Carpenter was described as “the founder and director of Burton’s women’s initiatives that ensures that Burton is the employer and brand of choice for women … Through Carpenter’s leadership, Burton established the women’s product and creative departments and internal committees that focus on retaining and promoting women within their organization.”

At the end of the protest, Sprenger requested participants to turn toward the Burton building and respectfully call on the principals, Jake and Donna Carpenter. There was no response to the repeated queries from the crowd, chanting, “Please talk to us” and “Where is Jake? Where is Donna?”

The answer to at least one of the protesters’ questions could be found on the Burton website: According to a post by Jake Burton Carpenter, the day of the protest found him with his sons, getting in the season’s first snowboarding runs at Loveland Basin, Colorado.