Originally Posted by Flick Montana

Thank goodness someone finally asked the tough question.

Ok, people are ALWAYS talking about this whole Burton-hating thing. People who hate Burton are just people who hate the mainstream. Burton is the Wal-Mart of the snowboarding world. Almost everyone has had something from them. They are the biggest and most common company so some people refuse to buy them. Being a snowboarder is partially about being against the mainstream. Otherwise, we'd all be skiers.

I personally don't buy Burton because I'm not interested in their style. It's a little boring to me. I buy Rome. But I certainly don't hate on people who buy them. Still, there are fanbois out there who won't even look at other brands and they are just as bad as the haters.

The bottom line is that snowboarding wouldn't be what it is without Burton. There is no reason to hate on them just because they are corporate in my opinion. But I understand why people don't like them.

Originally Posted by 13rian

i know that the custom and freestyle bindings r absltly garbage.. bt i love my cartels&custom..

Originally Posted by sockhead

I upgraded to my custom from a low-end salomon board (pulse), so the difference was night and day for me. I don't have any experience with any other boards though, so it's hard for me to really say whether the custom is that much better than any other similarly priced board. I definitely wouldn't spend the money on the softgoods though.

Warranty is really good though.!

Originally Posted by Mpagano9

They a good snowsports company. None of the burton models appealed to me this season when shopping for my ride with the exception of the custom. Like any sport, there will always be a manufacturer which is touted by a majority consumer base. Like any bandwagon, there are good and bad reasons for the hype. And like any issue with more than one side, there's never a right answer.

My distant perspective on this hot button is that a lot of people feel secure in decisions they made in an absence of information by standing amongst others who firmly assert that burton is a quality company. When someone seeks to counter that in any capacity, the "fanbois" get up in arms- to say burton is bad is to say they made a poor investment.

Some of Burton's merchandise is of very high quality and deserves to be compared with top-of-the-line equipment. Other times, the Burton name could sell tennis shoes to a mermaid. It's the nature of these industries for certain brand names to filter to the top thanks to the frantic head nodding of the masses.

Anyone who buys Burton because it's Burton is doing precisely what I described at the start of my post- making ill-informed decisions. This can be said for Nike, Underarmor, And1, etc.

Personally, I feel that Burton's quality has dropped in many product lines over the past 5 years or so, but my jacket is Burton and I think it's a great purchase. I wouldn't be surprised if they were more focused on creating an image than creating an item at this point in the company's development. They have a frenzied horde willing to buy poo on a stick if that cool arrow symbol is smeared into the side.