Tue, 01/26/2010 - 12:57pmBrand focus: Rome SDS

In Document Snowboard issue 59 we caught up with Josh Reid from Rome SDS to find out the insider info on this kick-ass brand from the States

Rome snowboards have become a key player in the UK. Offering a diverse range of shreds to suit everything from rails to freeriding and splattering a whole load of paint over the whole lot.

They made their first voyage across the Atlantic with the help of Scott Todd, who in the summer of 2001 managed to ship in 65 decks, on a tip off from Jeremy Sladen at The Snowboard Asylum. Since then his stock has flourished and now offers the whole shebang.

Plus, as we’ve profiled too many times to count in this magazine, Scott runs the most proactive grass-roots freestyle program in the UK: the Rome Flying Circus. Such esteemed riders as Dom Harington (now chasing the 2010 Winter Olympics), Angus Leith, Stu Horsham and Will Smith have all faced the whip-cracking wrath of Scott when they didn’t make a dryslope session.

As they are all now off to lay their skills on the world a new wave of riders in the shape of Pete Medows and Stew Gairns are coming up through the ranks and we felt it was about time for a re-cap. On the advice of Scott, we got in touch with Josh Reid, one of the original founders at Rome, to find out what they’re all about.

DCMT: How did the Rome story start out?

JR: The Rome SDS was started by me and Paul Maravetz in 2000-2001 in
Waterbury, Vermont, USA.  We spent the better part of a year figuring out
how to get it off the ground, while we worked out of a garage.  Lucky for
us, it was an epic winter with powder almost every day in February and
March.  So we'd spend the morning riding and the afternoon trying to get the
business going.  In the summer of 2001, we got serious and by the end of
October, we launched.  With a small wallet-full of money, we designed a line
of three board series (12 total lengths), fielded a pretty mellow team,
grabbed a crew of reps (most of whom are still with us), went to the
tradeshows and started advertising by putting up posters and stencils.
There were a few reasons for doing it.  We thought the snowboard world
needed a new brand that was focused on product innovation, everyday
snowboarders, and one that the was run by snowboarders.  2000 was a time
when non-snowboarders really ran the show in snowboarding and we felt that
we could be part of a wave of young brands to change that, much like what
happened in skateboarding in the early 90s.  We also just wanted to give it
a shot on our own and see if we could do it.

DCMT: How has the company changed from the early days to now?

JR: Staring at the same four other people every day is one of the major things
that has changed.  For the first few years, there were only five people
working here.  Now there are over 20, so that's different.  How we
communicate with other snowboarders is also different, while it stays the
same.  We make movies now, we have fairly big name riders now, and we
advertise in multiple magazines, among other things.  Where it is the same
is that we still put up a poster or two now and again and we still take time
to talk with riders through email.
 

DCMT: What have you added to the snowboard market place?

JR: I think the Agent and the Artifact are both pretty groundbreaking
snowboards.  We developed the Agent at a time when a lot of people were
still riding narrow, stiff, "pipe" boards.  So when the Agent came on the
scene, it ushered in a new era of softer-flexing boards that are somewhat
park-oriented, but can also get out and ride top-to-bottom at a place like
Tignes.  And then when the Artifact came along, it pretty much invented the
jib-board category.  It had, and has, a flex specific to riding rails, boxes
and ledges, and before we created it, that was there for riders.  And we
made it affordable for the riders who aren't sponsored.

DCMT: Recently you guys have produced some epic films and hooked up a new wave of killer rail riders. Does that signal a new era?

JR: We're focused on having a group of progressive riders to make videos with.
Video content, along with great photos, is what gets us stoked to snowboard.
When you watch someone having fun on a snowboard, it can't help but make you
want to do it, especially if it's July or August. And we're definitely not
focused just on rail riding, though LNP, Eiki Helgason and Will Lavigne obviously kill that side of things. Eiki and Will also jump with the best of them and Bjorn Leines and MFR (Marie-France Roy) are about as well-rounded as you can get.  What we're really trying to build is a crew of riders who love to shred all types of snowboarding and who can hold it at a pretty crazy level.

Read up on some other snowboard brands, first up Analog