Zen & the Art of Creating the World's Biggest Splitboard Binding Company: Will Ritter, Spark R&D

GEAR:30

BLISTER

Arts, Design, Skiing, Snow, Snowboarding, Sports, Outdoors, Bike, Technology, Gear

4.9 • 809 Ratings

🗓️ 2 November 2018

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Will Ritter is the founder of Spark R&D, the largest splitboard binding company in the world, and Spark R&D designs and manufactures all of their products in Bozeman, Montana. This turned into such an interesting conversation with Will that we are presenting it in two parts. Here in part 1, we talk about the history of Spark R&D, and whether or not you’ve ever ridden a snowboard, if you have ever thought about starting any company of any kind, listen closely, because I promise you that you will glean some very real insights into what actually goes into starting and running a company.

And then we will be posting later part 2 of our conversation, where Will and I went deeper into Spark R&D’s specific products, we discuss hard boots vs. soft boots, how much room Will thinks there is for splitboards to improve, and more.

But for now, let’s get the origin story of Spark R&D, and listen to Will kindly share some real words of wisdom for anyone thinking of starting anything.

TOPICS & TIMES:

Trick or Treating & the myth of the Sugar Sprite?? (1:44)
When, where, and why did Will start Spark R&D? (3:48)
The many products Will worked on as an engineering consultant (5:25)
Working on the MFD ALLTIME touring binding with Jason Prigge (7:27)
The move from consulting to factory production (10:06)
The backcountry touring scene back when Will started Spark R&D (14:05)
"Making One" - and other major milestones (23:35)
How to have Zen get beaten into you (35:35)
The state of Spark R&D today (46:35)

STAY TUNED FOR PART 2...

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everybody, welcome to Gear 30 on the Blister Podcast Network.
0:08.7	I'm Jonathan Ellsworth, the founder of Blister, and you can check out all the stuff we're
0:13.1	doing and reviewing over at blisterreview.com.
0:18.6	This week I'm talking with Will Ritter, the founder of the biggest splitboard binding
0:22.8	company in the world, Spark R&D. And not only is Spark R&D the biggest splitty binding
0:28.8	manufacturer in the world, they design it all and build it all in their factory in Bozeman,
0:34.6	Montana. This turned into such an interesting conversation with Will that we are cutting it up into two parts.
0:41.0	So here in part one, we're going to talk about the history of Spark R&D and the story of
0:46.3	what got Will to quit his job to start this company, how it then evolved, and why, as Will so
0:52.9	eloquently puts it, starting a company will beat
0:56.1	the Zen right into you.
0:58.5	And whether or not you've ever even ridden a snowboard, if you have ever even thought about starting
1:03.6	any company of any kind, then listen closely, because I promise you that you will glean
1:08.9	some very real insights into what actually goes
1:12.0	into running and building a company from day to day.
1:15.6	And we will then be posting later part two of this conversation where Will and I went
1:19.7	deeper into Spark R&D's specific products.
1:22.9	We discuss hard boots versus soft boots, how much room Will thinks there is for splitboards to improve,
1:29.9	and more. But for now, let's get to the origin story of Spark R&D, and listen to Will
1:35.8	kindly share some real words of wisdom for anyone thinking of starting anything.
1:46.0	Will, how are you today? I'm doing well.
1:48.0	I am coming down from all the sugar yesterday on Halloween, so.
	...

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