Love them or hate them, Roxy snowboards are deeply ingrained in the women’s snowboard market

You may not have heard of Roxy snowboards unless you are a girl. And that is quite rare among snowboard companies. You see, Roxy is a snowboard line dedicated entirely to ladies. While all companies make women’s boards, they don’t dedicate a full brand line to it. Rome, Burton, K2, all these big companies offer boards for women. Roxy distinguishes herself by offering nothing else. But does this weird specialization mean a legitimate company for girls, or is it just an expensive gimmick trying to attract buyers with cheesy graphics?

To find out, you’ll have to dig a little deeper into Roxy’s history. As a Quiksilver fashion line, Roxy has definitely made a name for itself in sportswear. Two years after its launch, Roxy began manufacturing snow sports equipment. In 2003, they started releasing snowboards, all in a style very similar to their clothing line. It came as a surprise to many people in the industry to see a company fully dedicate itself to one genre, but their style and manufacturing credits – more on that in a bit – earned them enough buyers to move on. Now, they have established themselves in the market and offer a complete line from entrance panels to panels that professionals would throw away.

But first, let’s get back to manufacturing. Roxy is not a cheap brand produced by warehouse cargo. They are made by Mervin Manufacturing, the same guys who bring us some of the amazing technology behind hyper-popular boards like Lib Tech Banana and high-end GNU boards. And the Roxy snowboard is getting the full treatment with all the Magne Traction technology that other boards produced by Mervin are getting. Of course, Mervin Manufacturing is doing this because they are owned by Quiksilver, a deal made in the ’90s.

It doesn’t hurt Roxy that her pro riders aren’t too bad either. Torah Bright is the first name you might recognize. Their new Bright series is just one of the lines Roxy is expanding into. Joining Torah are cyclists Sarah Burke, a two-time X-Games gold medalist, and Kjersti Buaas, an Olympic snowboarder. These girls have trashed parks and pipes that would make most guys shake in their snowboard boots. Whether or not you still doubt whether Roxy is legit, you can’t argue that the girls who ride them certainly are. And it is always vital for a company to have good passengers, because the feedback they provide can help the company really take it to the next level.

But the bottom line with snowboards, any company or line, is that it is the rider who determines whether the board is good or not. You can argue that almost any snowboard company is good as long as they make boards that suit their niche. Roxy’s niche is that of women looking for a quality board, perhaps one with some attractive graphics. If you like the look, you have to put one on. That’s the only way to really know if the board works for you. A Roxy snowboard is like any other snowboard, you can fall or fall in love with it. Sometimes it is both.