Unity Snowboards, a Summit County original

This feature on Silverthorne, Colorado, based Unity Snowboards and company founder Pete Wurster was first published in the winter 2014 edition of Explore Summit magazine. It also appeared in a weekend edition of The Denver Post, as well as in the Summit Daily News and Explore Summit Weekender. Excerpt below. A link to the text for the full story can be found here.  Photos and story by Sebastian Foltz.

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In a world where snowboards and skis come off assembly lines in massive numbers, it’s hard to be the little guy. Almost every year new independent ski and snowboard companies enter the market, and almost every year others fall out of it.

But for nearly 20 years, one small company has held its own in the highly competitive world of snowboard production, and its building process from start to finish happens right here in Summit County.

Founded in 1995, Unity Snowboards is the brainchild of Pete Wurster and former partner and childhood friend Paul Krikava; the entire company runs out of a small section of a two-story warehouse in Silverthorne.

Wurster — now sole owner of the company since buying Krikava out in 2001 — recently took a break from base-grinding some new splitboards in his shop to chat about what it takes to stay relevant year after year.

“For me it’s just a labor-of-love thing,” he said. “I love working with my hands.”

But it’s also a meticulous process that didn’t come overnight. Wurster, now 42, said it took him and his five employees about six years to get truly dialed in to a point where they’re now at their most efficient, and cost effective. Continue reading Explore Summit: Unity Snowboards feature →