run as he watched an expert snowboarder hit a downed skier. Belt’s
engineering mind turned on. From
his skiing experience, Belt knew
he would have had no problem
avoiding that collision. The simple difference between skiing and
snowboarding is the benefit of two
edges for tighter turns and faster
stops. From his snowboarding
experience, he knew of its excite-
because it is made of two smaller
boards that are connected by a riding platform that fits standard
snowboard equipment.
A Trial Run
To support the detailed development and launch of the product,
3D CAD would be essential. PTC
CoCreate ( www.ptc.com) was a fit
with Belt’s innovation process,
“The response that I have received on the slopes is
much of what keeps me energized day by day.”
— TODD BELT, FOUNDER & CEO, DEUCE SNOWBOARDS
ment and popularity. Could the
best of both be combined?
What started as a mental exercise quickly led to something more.
Belt says, “I originally started out
playing with the idea for the multi-edge snowboard just to see if it
could be done. As the design
started to materialize, the concept
quickly turned from engineering
experiment to viable product.”
Belt went on to invent an entirely
new category of snowboard, termed
the multi-edge snowboard (MES)
which started with a first-generation of product that Deuce
Snowboards prototyped virtually
within the world of 3D CAD. A second generation of product was test
marketed on the slopes of Lake
Tahoe destination resorts.
“Just standing in line to buy a
lift ticket drew a crowd of high
school students anxious to know
what we had with us,” says Belt. “I
quickly learned that being ‘sick’ is
now a very good thing. The
response that I have received on
the slopes is much of what keeps
me energized day by day.”
Belt gathered market reaction
and design feedback on the slopes
by having different snowboarders
ride the prototype. Experienced
snowboarders adjusted to the differences by the end of one run.
As Belt worked through development, the design progressed
organically to new information
coming in. It evolved by simply
adding or subtracting material in
different locations based on engineering analysis or field testing.
PTC CoCreate delivers the full
power of 3D CAD design software
that evolves product designs in
response to unexpected changes
and new information throughout
the innovation process. Virtual prototypes of early designs cut the time
and expense of unneeded physical
prototypes.
“I would take a copy of an existing part that was close to what I
wanted and change it,” says Belt.
“Designer Modeling makes changes
easy for complex parts as the design
Deuce Snowboards Founder and CEO
Todd Belt invented an entirely new
category of snowboard, termed the
multi-edge snowboard (pictured left).
progresses from variation to variation, because you don’t have to deal
with trying to rebuild from some
point in a history tree.”
The most significant improvement is set to appear in the third
generation of product, which was
developed over the past off-season and currently scheduled for
early production runs. This patent
pending product will hit the slopes
in the coming months as multi-edge snowboarding steps into winter sports.
