DC Snowboards

After trusting DOE with the inaugural season of snowboards in 2008, this popular Vista, California based skate shoe company called upon our design services once again to assist with the 2010 product line.
 
While considering both style and function, the goal was to stay true to the roots of the DC brand while building upon the previous years direction to further establish them in the snow hardgoods category. Super clean and sophisticated was the name of the game for some of the line, while giving props to old school skate board art was the goal for other parts of the line, all while making sure to not condescend to the youth market or appear at odds with their anti-establishment views.

These boards feature subtle design influences drawing from the past and forward thinking conceptual that are in sync both with history and their reputation as being the worlds largest skate company.

In the 2008/09 winter season, DC Shoes will for the first time feature a complete hardgoods line to complement their world-renowned boots. Says DC co-founder Ken Block, “We don’t like to do things too fast. We want to make products that are innovative & really perform—ones that are well designed, considering both style & function.”

With a workforce that has over ten years experience in the snow industry at a well-established board brand (producing and designing every piece of product, as well as marketing and testing it), Dept of Energy considered handling DC’s inaugural season in the snowboard market a no-brainer. We are huge DC fans—from their products and amazing athletes to the founders, Ken Block and Damon Way. We were absolutely stoked to be a part of this history-making design approach.

“I feel like that young, anti-establishment flavor needs to be in snowboarding,” says Block. “It’s still very much a part of skateboarding, but snowboarding has become so mass market that it’s lost some of that flavor. For us to be able to come in and make a product that we think goes back to the roots of who we are as a brand and what snowboarding really is makes for a fun project.”