Stay connected with the Zappos Family happenings by subscribing to the blog.
Signal Snowboards - Revolutionizing the Business One Board at a Time
02/16/2012
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting the Signal Snowboard team when they came for a tour of Zappos. I was truly amazed by their laid back but professional attitude. Signal Snowboards started up in 2004 over a bottle of wine and an idea to recreate the traditional snowboard company. Dave Lee and Marc Wierenga co-founded the company with the idea that it would be more about art and passion, rather than just cranking out boards to turn a profit.
Similar to the way that we give tours at the Zappos offices, Signal has come up with a creative way to connect with their fans and the public to give insight on what happens at their office. Back in June of 2010 Signal launched a web show called Every Third Thursday. The webesiodes showcase the team’s creativity when it comes to snowboard manufacturing. Try to picture American Chopper, but with snowboards. The crew comes up with collaborative ideas to incorporate their passion for snowboarding with their other life passions. Everything from the idea for the design, to testing the board on the snow is filmed to show people every part of the process. To give you an idea how gnarly some of the snowboards they have created are, take a look at this fully operational Duff McKagan signature Fender Bass Board:
The team took one of Duff’s bass guitars and blended it into a snowboard. The board is fully operational on the snow, as well as plugged into an amp. It is the only snowboard that can truly be shredded with your hands as well as your feet.
So why is creating awesome collaborative snowboards important to business? The answer is all about connecting people with the company. Signal could very well be successful just stamping out product line boards, but they have taken it a step further. They have created an environment where people want to know what they are doing because what they are doing is so cool. Signal has proven that they can reach huge audiences by creating something that was not only fun for them, but so engaging for the people that are watching that it keeps them coming back. When the team designed a tribute board for Steve Jobs dubbed the “iShred”, the Every Third Thursday episode received close to a quarter million views. That’s a pretty good R.O.I when you consider that the investment is the guys having fun, especially when they were going to do it anyway.
Signal has proven that social engagement can help your company grow, but there is another lesson that can be learned. That lesson is the importance of having a vision. There was a vision at the bottom of that bottle of wine, and they have been bringing that vision to life by doing things that they felt would not only make their employees happy to work for them, but create happiness for the people that follow what they are doing. Not bad for a couple of shredders with a crazy idea, and the motivation to do it.
To keep up with the latest and greatest from Signal, check them out on your favorite media channels:
Website - www.signalsnowboards.com
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/signalsnow
Twitter - http://twitter.com/SignalSnowboard
Finally, always know when a new episode of Every Third Thursday is up by subscribing to our YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/SignalSnowboard
Author: Corey Schreiber
Corey has been with the Zappos Family for 4 years, and began his journey with Zappos CLT, Inc. He was one of the founders of the TLC team, then moved on as a Sr. Representative to cultivate the culture while providing great coaching and feedback. He brings a wealth of knowledge about company culture, and Core Value #7 "Building a Positive Team and Family Spirit." Now as a part of Zappos Insights, Inc. he is known simply as the "Content Dude."
6 Comments
"In AllPopArt's corporate culture there has been a before and after since we discovered Zappos. Lack of culture is the problem, but it is sometimes covered by smaller symptoms such as fear of change and problematic employees... and you can keep on fixing these little problems but new ones will arise because there are no values or culture for the company to grow solid on. Zappos provided us with the medicine. Now we are proud to grow healthy and strong, with a clear mission and a group of people that believe in it."
Ana Sanchez
AllPopArt.com
Appreciating the time and effort you put into your blog and in depth point of view you offer here. It's awesome to discover a blog every once in a while that is not all the same old rehashed information. Wonderful job! I've saved your site and I'm adding your RSS feed to my Favorites now. On top of that, I adore your site so much that I want to advertise my own site www.emt.co.il on yours. I will be glad if you contact me at: everythingrainbowhk (AT) gmail.com specifying your quarterly banner prices. Much appreciated!
Delicious snippets of information!!!
It's exciting !
I got this board, used for one day at the VERY small ski hill where I live. Then took my board to fernie. I rode it on the big hills (steep,black ddinomas and blue squares), after 3 and a half days of riding I noticed that the bottom of the board along the edge that some of the Graphics are Fading (starting to get white patches). Is this a bad sign? Although this board amazed me soo much. this is a dream board.
Fantastic article--and it inspired another! http://www.fittingroup.com/blog/brand-vision/build-brand-love-with-an-awesome-corporate-culture
It's a wonderful thing when customers can use the same adjectives to describe your workplace that they use to describe your brand.
You made some decent points there. I did a thorough research on the subject earlier and think most will agree with what you brought up here. Definitely +1 to the Author!