Alkasquawlik

I wasn't aware that SBF was an "invite only" forum.

Give me a fucking break. The website's banner says it is for "snowboard enthusiasts". I'm pretty sure that everyone who has posted here, even you with your tiny head, are snowboard enthusiasts who enjoy talking about the different aspects of the industry.

And "giving ridiculous advice beyond your scope of knowledge"? Really? Pot, meet Kettle.

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www.heckler.com
"I'm only here for the apres"

phony_stark

I'm not asking why are you on SBF in general (although, any thread I have been on regarding gear, I have had to ask you to contribute to the thread instead of just walking behind people shaking your fist.). I'm asking why are you on this thread in particular if you have no advice for the original poster.

Have you ridden the Atlas? He's having reservations about them.
If not, maybe you shouldn't be on this thread.

BurtonAvenger

So who is this then besides anonymous C3 employee? Is it George Kleckner, Martino Fumagalli, John Malkoski, or someone else? Or is this the new account better associated with all of the above and rotating through the employees? Little transparency never hurts vs Internet anonymity.

Travis might be a great guy (haven't met him) but the whole using him as an example is kind of a bad one. Nothing against you or him, but if you remember when he rode "exclusively" for Bent Metal, he was riding Cartels.

My .02 cents on your EVA. Nothing wrong with having it in the heel it does help, but aesthetically I probably would have just made it solid so that there wasn't that gap in there so questions like this didn't happen. Once again not hating just pointing out my opinion on it.

Can we all just get it out there that Johan is the Global Sales Guy and technically as an employee/owner/Internet Warlock or whatever is a representative of your brand.

His actions regardless of pure or for his personal agenda effect you guys as a whole. While it's great to have company people answering questions it does nothing when they get into a penis-measuring-shit-flinging-fanboy-rallying-troll-fest. And yes that's exactly what happened regardless of what anyone says. Bottom line it obviously had some impact on you as a brand because you are here now under this name addressing these points.

Sacrifices happen to everyone in life and no one can say who has sacrificed more or less than anyone else unless they've literally walked in their shoes. We've all sacrificed something for snowboarding and honestly we'll probably all continue to make more. Just because a person has more invested in a brand than others whether it's the fan boys or the haters or the realists it shouldn't have any effect on how they interact with potential customers or how to get the information out there. You have to keep it neutral regardless if you think/know you are right because at the end of the day you're representing a brand not an individual.

For what it's worth I think you guys do have a great thing going with how you do the online product clinics, I think you've done well with aligning yourself with die hard brand enthusiasts, and I think your marketing just about destroys everyone else on the market. I'm talking C3 as a whole not just Union here. The level of hype you have is amazing but I think can be a bit blinding as well.

Now before I give my .02 cents on where I think you're dropping the ball I just want to preface this by saying I'm not here to instigate with Phony, Matty, Alka, or any of your other loyalists/EL guys and I'm definitely not defending anyone from over here like Shred Life. I have too little time for shit like that anymore and since we're all trying to be civil or at least some of us are I figured I could put it out there. If anyone has a problem with me just email me directly avran@angrysnowboarder.com.

I think you're missing the point of the people that are saying they're noticing issues with your bindings. It's great feedback for you that there's more than one or two people saying "hey this sucks", they're legitimately saying, "hey we have this issue and have had it for a few years why aren't you addressing this?" Criticism no matter how negative or blunt should be one of your driving forces to going forward and making a better product. Even if you don't like the person you should say "fuck yeah lets fix this and then shove it back down their throat at a demo or on their website or wherever because we believe in our product." What I gather and once again this is just my .02 cents based on opinions and observations is that you guys as a whole can't take criticism. Case in point a few years ago I posted a review on one of your products, I actually really liked it all but one thing (think it was the sidecut) and suddenly that made me a pure blown fucking hater. Not the case I liked everything about it but one thing. You guys got so hung up on that one thing you failed to see that there was a laundry list of things that I thought were great. I've seen this happen with other people. Now if you want to surround yourself with yes men then hey go for it but from my experiences that's when stagnation happens and that just fucking sucks.

If anything can be learned from Johan's little quest for knowledge is that everyone has their brand preferences, people need to be educated, you guys could have handled that better as a company, this site could have handled it differently, the Internet is full of Warlocks, there just isn't enough male boards with Unicorns, and that going forward snowboarders should work together to make snowboarding better for people coming in.

Also it's a public forum if people want to join regardless of their motives and answer questions, I say go for it. It sucks when you're on a public forum and there's 2 people that are the only ones educated enough to answer the questions. The more people giving more options the better. Hell it's the reason I said fuck it and started my site, got sick of answering questions daily and decided to take control of the content. Keep up the work fellas you might like this place. As for you old fucks that are getting all angry about these guys sticking around don't fear change.

On a sidenote is this going to be the year I can finally get some Capita decks and Union bindings on my site for review or am I still blacklisted?

Flame on guys I'm about to go get my inner nerd on and play call of duty, then plot how to use this chainsaw on some snowboard equipment and make an amusing video.

__________________
Angry Snowboarder Because someone has to call it how they see it!

phony_stark

Well said.

I don't think anyone is trying to flame or catch feelings, I think, like you said, the people that have ridden the gear are trying to offer their opinions/advice on the the gear that people are asking about without a lot of hassle from the people who haven't ridden it (or rode it for a day).

I know you noticed all the shit going on, and, wisely, decided to keep on doing what you were doing. In fact, I think you even took time out to help a dude set his 390s up.

OP, now that you know that the heel is the way it is, and may make your decision based on that, how grey are those stone atlases? I want a pair to be matchy matchy with my Yes board and Arbor del Rey.

addi61

The grey is pretty close to the grey Malavitas from last year if my memory serves me. They are a lot lighter than this years Cartels in the cement colorway. I would say the stock photos on the union site are a good match for the actual color.

phony_stark

YAY! Just what I wanted to know. Thanks.

addi61

No problem. I'll get off my own topic for a second and ask if you have ridden the team bindings with the atlas base and team highback at all? If so, how do they compare to the regular atlas? Thanks.

Alkasquawlik

I rode the Teams all last year, the only difference being that this year's are gray compared to last year's black/orange color scheme.

I'm riding the stone Atlas' this season.

They're really comparable, the Team highback is a tiny, tiny bit stiffer IMO, due to it being a solid piece (compared to the Atlas' cored out highback), but the difference between the two are negligible. Ride almost exactly the same.

__________________
www.heckler.com
"I'm only here for the apres"

addi61

So probably not worth trying to track down a pair of teams or superpros.

phony_stark

You'll be able to track them down, but it'll be hard/expensive to do so until the end of the season.

If you're talking ride-ability, I believe Alka, in that there's not enough of a difference in the highback to change the way you ride. Sure do look cool though.

If you want more a feeling in the heel AND a team highback, see if you can still find some Union Holdens. They'd fit the bill.