With abundant experience and excellent technology,
Producing high-quality snowboards
YONEX was founded in 1946, about 80 years ago.
Today, the company has received high praise around the world and continues to evolve as one of Japan's leading sports brands, producing a wide range of sports gear, including badminton, tennis, golf, snowboarding, road bikes, and running shoes, but it was originally founded as a company that manufactured wooden floats.
About 10 years after its founding, the company began producing badminton rackets, transitioning into the sports industry. 20 years later, the company moved from manufacturing rackets using carbon to developing products using unique manufacturing methods, to the point that YONEX is now known as carbon sports gear.
By applying this technology to snowboarding, the company continues to provide users with products that are unique and attractive, and is attracting attention from around the world as a high-quality, Japanese-made snowboard brand.
This time, we visited the Yonex factory in Nagaoka City, Niigata Prefecture.
What stories lie behind the development and manufacturing of YONEX snowboards?
FREERUN REPORT: Watch the video! "YONEX snowboard development and manufacturing site. Visit to the Niigata factory."
★Developing snowboards using a unique approach using carbon fiber
Even today, most snowboards use wood as the core material.
The flex and torsion required for snowboarding are achieved by combining and gluing together pieces of wood. However, YONEX has not used wood since the beginning (except for some current products).
"When YONEX started manufacturing snowboards, there were already many snowboard brands, so we started by wondering if we could take a different approach from the others. Our company was originally good at carbon technology, so we applied that technology and started manufacturing snowboards using carbon material."
"The properties of carbon make it ideal for snowboarding and all sports equipment.The biggest advantage is that we can manufacture stable products with little variation in quality."
★Why choose carbon snowboards?
Carbon fiber is known for its strengths of being "lightweight and strong." However, its properties can be greatly altered depending on how the fibers are combined and designed. By changing the angle at which it becomes harder or more resistant to twisting, or by molding it into various shapes, unique properties can be brought out.
Carbon fibers stacked in a straight line are stiff and resilient, but stacking them at an angle makes them flexible, resistant to twisting, and increases their rebound strength.
"Wood itself is a natural product, so the quality is unstable and it is very difficult to manage. Carbon, on the other hand, is lightweight and highly resilient, and we believe these characteristics make it ideal for snowboards and other sporting goods in general. Depending on the design, it is possible to bring out a variety of different performance features, and above all, we believe that its greatest advantage is that it allows us to manufacture stable products with little variation in quality."
This technology controls the performance of various parts of badminton and tennis rackets, which have a simple shape. This experience is also put to good use in snowboarding.
The performance of carbon fiber can change dramatically with slight differences in the angle at the design stage. Furthermore, the rigidity and resilience of the carbon sheet can be changed by changing the resin material that is combined with the carbon fiber. If the rigidity and resilience are increased, it is possible to further reduce the weight by making the carbon sheet thinner.
The reason why YONEX snowboards are light is because they make full use of this technology to achieve significant weight reduction.
"In order to get 100% out of the carbon's performance, the whole process from design to manufacturing must be done perfectly. That's why manufacturing management is so important."
★The Difficulties of Snowboard Development
Research and development was not easy when they set out on the path to making their own snowboards. At the start, some snowboarders had negative opinions about YONEX snowboards, but now YONEX has earned an unshakable reputation in the snowboarding world worldwide.
"At the start of development, we had no data on snowboards at all, so even when we made boards based on our predictions, we ended up with boards that were completely different from what we had imagined they would be, and were extremely hard. We had to repeatedly make prototypes, test them, revise the design, and accumulate sufficient data, otherwise we would not be able to achieve what we were aiming for, and that was the most difficult part. Even with that sufficient data, the designers still need to have a thorough understanding of the properties of carbon in order to create a design. They need to accurately determine where and how to place the snowboard in order to achieve the optimal performance required."
To get 100% of the performance out of carbon, everything from design to manufacturing must be done perfectly. Manufacturing management is extremely important, and at Yonex factories, each part is meticulously designed and assembled, with the work process carefully devised to ensure that it is assembled in the correct position and angle. If there is even the slightest disturbance in the manufacturing process, quality cannot be maintained. They employ highly skilled engineers in manufacturing management, and manufacture their products in their own factories while thoroughly controlling quality.
"We incorporate new technologies from other divisions into our snowboards, and vice versa. We conduct repeated testing, compile a database, and continue our research and development to create new snowboards."
★How do you make carbon fit the characteristics of your snowboard?
"Even now, new materials are constantly coming onto the market, so we're researching how they can fit into modern snowboards, while also conducting research to create new snowboards. In the past, there was a strong trend for boards to be highly resilient and hard, but in recent years, there has been an increase in boards that require flexibility. Finding the right balance between flexibility and resilience is the most difficult part. We have many contracted riders, including top pros, test our boards, receive feedback, and incorporate it into our next measures, repeating this process to aim for uncompromising performance."
At Yonex's Niigata factory, where development of sports gear for other departments is also carried out simultaneously, new technologies emerging from the development of rackets are being introduced into snowboarding, and vice versa.The ability to apply each other's technologies is what allows YONEX to develop snowboards at such a fast pace.It can be said that.
YONEX Snowboards started in 1995, at a time when many snowboard brands were already competing in the Japanese market.
YONEX created a carbon whirlwind in the snowboarding world and has rapidly evolved to become one of Japan's leading snowboarding brands.
And, encouraged by the fact that YONEX boards are used by top riders who continue to perform at the pinnacle of world class competition, the usage rate of YONEX boards in competitive scenes such as half-pipe and slopestyle is becoming increasingly noticeable.
There is no other brand in the world that makes snowboards that fully incorporate such cutting-edge carbon technology.
Why doesn't it exist? It's because YONEX's passion for development and manufacturing, commitment to quality, and other manufacturing spirits have overcome obstacles that other companies cannot easily imitate, and they are striving for even greater heights with all their might.
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