Obituary: Burton founder brought snowboarding to the masses
Jake Burton Carpenter, the founder of the snowboard company that bears his name and a pioneer of the sport, died Wednesday night after a recurring battle with cancer. He was 65.
“It is with a very heavy heart that we share that Burton founder Jake Burton Carpenter passed away peacefully last night surrounded by his family and loved ones as a result of complications from recurring cancer,” the company wrote in an Instagram post.
“He was our founder, the soul of snowboarding, the one who gave us the sport we all love so much.”
The most famous snowboarders in the world are routinely sponsored by Burton, as Olympic medallists Red Gerard and
Ayumu Hirano currently are. Olympic snowboarding champions Shaun White and Kelly Clark also have used Burton boards throughout their careers.
Burton has long been a sponsor of the U.S. snowboarding team, providing team uniforms for the past four Olympics. Those uniforms have had an Americana influence, with a blue jeans and flannel look in Vancouver and a quilted theme in Sochi. In Pyeongchang, South Korea, three years ago, the Americans wore high-tech white uniforms inspired by NASA.
Carpenter was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2011 but was given a clean bill of health months later.
This month, Carpenter emailed staff, “You will not believe this, but my cancer has come back.”
Carpenter started Burton in 1977 after he quit his job in New York and began the company in his Vermont garage, with the goal of bringing snowboarding into the mainstream. He accomplished that in his lifetime.