Now, Snowboards Designed For Girls

SALEM, Ore. - A new company is anticipating that girls will prefer to ride down the slopes on a snowboard designed for a girl, not a guy.

"They don't want to look down and see a gun or an ugly color," Missy Samiee said.

Her brother and business partner, Chris, added, "A lot of girls are kind of sick of buying snowboards designed for guys," turning over one snowboard with a race-car graphic on the bottom.

Missy and Chris Samiee, both of Salem, are the owners of Goddess Snowboards, quite possibly the only company designed solely for girls and women.

If their predictions are right, they may be carving a niche in an overlooked market.

Snowboarding has exploded in the last decade. It grew from 1.2 million participants in 1992 to 1.8 million in 1994, according to the National Sporting Goods Association.

While the majority of snowboarders are male, 79.1 percent, according to the National Ski Areas Association, the growth potential lies in female ridership.

About 400,000 female snowboarders are in the United States. That number is expected to increase 25 percent in 1996.

And Goddess Snowboards is ready, with snowboards designed with smaller people in mind.

"A snowboard doesn't know if a man or woman is standing on it," Missy said.

Goddess boards have a narrow waist for smaller feet and are a little more flexible than the average snowboard.

They come in two models:

Dream Girl - Pink and lavender, patterned after the tiny Valentine heart candies with Be Mine sayings on them. The board is 136 centimeters.

Snow Angels - Light blue with a classic angel graphic, inspired by the snow angels you make moving your arms and legs in the snow. The board is 145 centimeters.

Goddess boards have wood cores and capped edges, signs of high quality, and sell for about $440. Missy, in choosing the name Goddess, wanted to portray the strong yet feminine image of female snowboarders.

"It reflects feminine power," she said.

Missy, 26, and Chris, 31, are no strangers to snowboarding and the equipment it requires. Missy has been snowboarding for about five years and loves it, despite hating it at first and not returning to the sport for two years.

Chris started snowboarding about 14 years ago, when snowboarding was in its infancy and ski areas wouldn't let snowboarders on the lifts. He did it the hard way, hiking up the slopes near Hoodoo.

Missy opened Exit Real World, a snowboard and skateboard shop in downtown Salem, two years ago and was looking for another business venture.

She knew that girls already didn't want to look like guys, evidenced by the explosion of companies that make snow clothing just for girls, a handful of which she carries at Exit Real World.

Although snowboard giants Burton and Sims have boards named for female snowboarding champions, no company they know of specializes in snowboards just for girls.

"The market is just totally flooded with guy stuff. We decided on a niche," she said.

Backed by a loan from U.S. Bank, they searched out a company to manufacture their snowboards and found one in Washington.

So far, they've produced 1,000 snowboards and have sold 70 percent of them, before the peak buying months of November and December. Through full-page ads in snowboarding magazines and a catalog of postcards, they are targeting shops in the Northwest, Colorado and California and are working on getting a Japanese distributor.

The Samiees have plans for their company. They want to make bindings that are better suited for women's lower calf muscles. And even with the near saturation of snow clothing companies for girls, they still may give it a try.

"But our main focus will be snowboards," Missy said. "They need snowboards all the way."