DEVUN WALSH JOINS WIRED SNOWBOARDS
Wired Snowboards is making moves. Owner Rob Dow has taken his unwavering passion for snowboarding and design to create a unique brand and board buying experience. With boards crafted and pressed in East Vancouver, he's now working alongside long time friend and style G.O.A.T., Devun Walsh. We caught up with Rob to talk about their new partnership.
You and Devun have a long-standing friendship and history together, how did he start riding Wired boards?
Walsh and I have known each other for a long time. I don't remember exactly when we meet. Must have been during old contest days in the early '90s. We had the bright idea to get a 2-bedroom place in North Vancouver. The Chesterfield house, so many good stories from that place, but that's for another time. We rode a lot together back then and eventually went down different industry paths, but always stayed in touch. Fast forward 30 years, we've come full circle and are working together again. In late 2020 we made him a board, he was living super close to Wired HQ, it all fell into place, and we started to discuss him coming on board.
How did Devun go from riding the boards to creating a partnership with Wired?
To be honest there wasn't much of a plan, and it all happened fast. I was working on building a board for him to ride, with no plan of him joining Wired at the time. He just wanted something to ride, so I said, of course, no problem. After a few days riding and a few discussions later, we were chatting to see where his head was at with officially riding for Wired. He was keen, we hammered out the details and a deal was done. This all happened within a few weeks. Pretty crazy given how big of a deal it is for us at Wired, but as Walsh and I go back such a long time, there's a lot of trusts there, and we know we will work well together.
What the first steps you're taking now that Devun is part of the program?
For the 21/22 season, we are making a Walsh Pro Model board for him. This board will be made at the Wired factory in Vancouver over the summer for fall delivery. We are working on a new shape for him based on his feedback, which is amazing for us as board makers to be able to work closely in snowboard design with someone as experienced as Devun. He also gives our small brand a new level of credibility. We have established ourselves in the BC market, but thanks to Walsh, we'll have fresh eyes on the brand from all over the world, which will be a massive boost for us. Since the Walsh & Wired press release, we have already seen tremendous interest. People have already started to call and ask for his board. We haven't even made that public yet.
What can people look forward to from Devun Walsh and Wired boards?
Walsh has so much history in snowboarding that we have no shortage of ideas for things to do, fun ways to celebrate his career at the same time as pushing modern snowboard design. We do have some plans in the works, but I'm keeping them quiet for now. All I can say is its going to be a fun ride with Walsh & Wired, especially for anyone who's been around snowboarding for a while. Stay tuned.
