
The question "where are snowboards made" is a pretty broad one - there are a large number of different snowboard manufacturers, and the factories where they produce their boards are spread across different locations across the world.
A comment on another post sparked my interest in wanting to discover where all the major snowboarding brands produce their snowboards.
I already knew a lot of them off hand, from talking with reps and generally researching for this website, but I hadn't done a more comprehensive summary of where the major brands operate from.

So below is what I discovered with regards to the following different brands.
- Arbor
- Burton
- Capita
- Endeavor
- K2/Ride
- Jones
- Mervin Manufacturing (GNU/Lib Tech/Roxy)
- Never Summer
- Niche
- Nidecker
- Rossignol
- Salomon
- Slash
- YES
Below will highlight both the headquarters and the factory for each snowboard brand - for most these are different locations.
ARBOR
Founded: 1995
Headquarters: Venice, CA, United States
Factory: Dubai, UAE - SWS (Sideways Sports)
Though Arbor are just as known for their Skateboards, they launched the brand with snowboards - in 1995, 3 years before starting to produce skateboards.
Manufacturing of Arbor Snowboards moved to SWS in Dubai in 2013. Previously they were manufactured in Furnitz, Austria at the Elan OEM factory - which used to manufacturer for a number of brands before going bankrupt.
BATALEON
Founded: 2001
Headquarters: Low Pressure Studio, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Factory: Titan Factory, China.
Bataleon have been around longer than you'd think and are most well known for their 3BT bases.
Bataleon board's are designed at the Low Pressure Studio in Amsterdam.
In terms of manufacturing, Bataleon used to have their boards produced at the Elan factory in Austria but when that closed they had to move production. Production was temporarily moved to Asia, but then returned to Austria, when Capita bought the Mothership. They are, at the time of writing, pressing their boards in the Titan Factory in China (thanks to Jay in the comment section, who spoke with Bataleon's online chat). Some production may take place at SWS in Dubai, but it's not verified that this is still the case for their latest models.
BURTON
Founded: 1977
Headquarters: Burlington, Vermont, United States
Factory: Uttendorf, Austria (KEIL) & Various locations in China
Essentially the founders of snowboarding, Burton still manufactured their snowboards in Vermont up until 2010. At that point a lot of production had already moved to Asia and Europe but higher end boards were still produced in Vermont. The production of those boards moved to Austria in 2010.
Burton still run their prototyping facility in Vermont, but production takes place mostly in China and Austria.
CAPITA
Founded: 2000
Headquarters: Gail, Austria (The Mothership) - founded in Seattle, WA, United States
Factory: Feistritz a.d. Gail, Austria (The Mothership)
When the ELAN factory disbanded in 2013, there were a number of snowboard brands without a factory, including Capita. Each of those brands sought new places to manufacture their snowboards.
Capita took perhaps the most interesting (and arguably best) new approach - creating their own factory - The Mothership - and new, environmentally sound production techniques. The brand was founded in Seattle, USA, but the Mothership appears to now be the heart and soul of the brand.
ENDEAVOR
Founded: 2002
Headquarters: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Factory: Ningbo, China (Maosen Sports)
Founded and based in Vancouver, BC, Canada, actual manufacturing takes place in China.
JONES
Founded: 2010
Headquarters: Truckee, CA, United States
Factory: Dubai, UAE - SWS (Sideways Sports)
Jones is part of the Nidecker group (see also YES, Slash and Nidecker).
Jones started out production in the GST factory. After the GST factory closed it moved to fellow Nideckerites YES's production home - SWS - in Dubai in 2016.
K2/RIDE
Founded: 1987/1992
Headquarters: Seattle, WA, United States
Factory: Guangzhou Province, China
K2 Sports LLC (which is in turn owned by Kohlberg & Company, and a few different owners before that), produce K2 snowboards and Ride snowboards. K2 snowboards, a subsidiary, was founded in 1987 and Ride Snowboards founded in 1992.
MERVIN MANUFACTURING
Founded: 1977
Headquarters: Seattle, WA, United States
Factory: Carlsborg, Washington, United States
Mervin Manufacturing operates the snowboarding brands Lib Tech, GNU, Roxy and Bent Metal.
They have their own factory and testing grounds in Washington, USA, and are highly focused on eco-friendly manufacturing processes.
NEVER SUMMER
Founded: 1991
Headquarters: Denver, Colorado, United States
Factory: Denver, Colorado, United States
One of the few companies that operates their factory in the same location as their headquarters. Academy Snowboards are also made in Never Summer's factory.
NICHE
Founded: 2010
Headquarters: Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
Factory: Small Mediterranean Town (according to their website)
Niche have bounced around a bit between factories. It was in the GST factory originally, before moving to the Mothership (Capita) and then the KIEL factory and now it seems like they've moved again, but only state on their website a "small Mediterranean town".
NIDECKER
Founded: 1984
Headquarters: Rolle, Vaud, Switzerland
Factory: Rolle, Vaud, Switzerland (Swiss Lab Factory) / Meditec, Tunisia / Titan, China
The Nidecker group encompasses a few different snowboard & binding brands. But they also have their own named brand snowboards (and bindings and boots), built in Rolle (Switzerland), Meditec (Tunisia) and Titan (China).
ROME
Founded: 2001
Headquarters: Waterbury, Vermont
Factory: Dubai, UAE - SWS (Sideways Sports)
Rome began in 2001 and produce bindings and boots as well as snowboards. They were acquired by Nidecker Group in 2018 and joined Low Pressure Studios in Amsterdam, Netherlands, where their boards are now designed.
Some of the Production process may also still take place in Utopie (Canada) and Playmaker (Taiwan) but this isn't verified for the latest models.
ROSSIGNOL
Founded: 1987
Headquarters: Isère, France
Factory: Somewhere in China
Rossignol is a French brand but has been owned by various different companies over the years. They are more known for making skis - and that seems to be where their focus is these days. Their snowboards haven't had much attention in recent times and risk falling behind.
SALOMON
Founded: 1995
Headquarters: Annecy, France (marketing based out of Portland, OR, US)
Factory: China. Manufactured in China with design and development undertaken in France.
Like Rossignol (and K2 and others not on this list), Salomon was originally a ski brand. And they now make a number of other products for running and hiking as well. They started making snowboards in 1995.
SLASH
Founded: 2012
Headquarters: Vorarlberg, Austria
Factory: Meditec, Tunisia and NBL Poland
YES
Founded: 2009
Headquarters: Switzerland - but designed in BC, Canada, I believe
Factory: Dubai, UAE - SWS (Sideways Sports)
YES is part of the Nidecker group (see also Jones, Slash and Nidecker).
Manufacturing started out briefly in Tunisia, then shifted to the now defunct GST factory in Austria. Production then moved to the SWS factory in Dubai in 2014.
So there you have all the current headquarters and factories for some of the major snowboard brands. Of course there are many other brands that haven't been included here but hopefully this helps to answer the question "where are snowboards made".
It's likely that some of the above will change over the years, but for now, these are the current locations as far as I can tell. Due to some brands not being that forthcoming about where their snowboards are made (and this also made this post take 3 times as long to write as I expected!), there could be some errors in the information above, despite a lot of research having gone into it.
For a more comprehensive list of brands check out the following (just note that the following hasn't been updated since 2014 so some of it is out of date - e.g. they still have the GST factory listed for a number of brands):
>>Where Are Snowboards Really Made
If you know of any errors in the info above or become aware of certain companies changing location, feel free to leave a comment below and I will update accordingly.
Image Credits
Photo by Ruth Hartnup [CC BY 2.0], via Flikr
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