
Rome |
Rome SDS was founded by Josh Reed and Paul Maravetz. Reed and Maravetz worked together in marketing and product development at Burton. They felt the need to start their own company when they began to feel that the snowboard industry was putting out too many mediocre products that sold only because they were used by an Olympic snowboarder and marketed heavily. The two felt that companies had stopped caring about snowboarding. Thus, in late 2001, the two launched Rome SDS. Rome SDS has been geared to be a brand that ties into the "cultural foundation" of snowboarding. Unlike most other snowboard makers, Rome SDS is not a spin off of a ski company and does not see snowboarding as a subculture of skiing. Both co-founders believe that snowboarding continues to be rooted not necessarilly in the "counterculture," but rather the pursuit of fun on snow, which has been over shadowed in recent years. It's the believe that the "philosophical aspects of snowboarding brands are more important than in other industries."