In 1994, the market
dominating Burton Snowboards Company realized that they had
a major problem with ‘gray market’. They had strict
guidelines in place for all products to go through their Japanese
division. Due to a combination of high import tariffs and
market structure (lower cost boards available in the USA)
, a number of enterprising US agents began to circumvent the
supply chain.
Burton realized that they needed to differentiate the Japanese
boards (which were in all respects the same as the American
product) to be able to ‘pull’ product from shelves
in Japan or close distribution points if non-Japanese product
was found.
Burton contracted A D 2000 Inc. to produce one of the world’s
first commercial computer generated holograms and hand applied
labels one to each of over 40,000 boards. The hologram, coupled
with active and diligent monitoring of the Japanese distributorships,
virtually eliminated the problem within one season!
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The
initial image created was an 11 level 2D3D hologram, one
of the world’s first mass production fully computer
generated images. The program met with great success and
in succeeding years, Burton continued the contract from
A D 2000 Inc. for the creation of new and unique holograms
for their Japanese boards. In order to stay ahead of the
possible counterfeiters, and moreover to continue the ‘cool
factor’, A D 2000 Inc. pushed the state of the art
for origination techniques, creating truly deep image pseudo
true color embossed holograms with many special effects
including ‘lens readable covert imagery’.
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By
the 3rd year, the hologram became synonymous with quality
and innovation, and Burton Japan ordered large versions
of the images to be used on the doors and windows of all
authorized Burton Japan distributors. In the late 1990s
as Dupont’s hologram division (then Krystal Holographics
International) become truly commercially viable, A D 2000
Inc. shifted the Burton images from embossed to photopolymer.
Each year the image was changed as well as the shape, sometimes
opaque and sometimes clear.
Due to
the successes in Japan, Burton US began toying with the
product, using small photopolymer holograms on bindings
and promotional products. The product really hit well in
the market and in the year 2000 work began on embedding
a hologram into the board. After more than 18 months of
trials testing scores of product variants, Burton decided
they were ready and launched the first ever 4” round
photopolymer hologram embedded
into a snowboard!
Through a monumental effort of the Burton production departments,
JDK Design team, A D 2000 Inc., and Dupont’s Salt
Lake lab, the cream of the crop 2003 Burton Custom Board
is a powerful product on sale now in stores across the USA!
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