It evolved into a company as a grassroots type of thing.
I did a double take when I saw Jim Stevens at his BackYard BoxRails booth during Boston’s Ski and Snowboard Expo. I immediately approached him and asked “what’s good?”
A week later I had a phone interview with Jim where he revealed that the true inspiration for BackYard BoxRails “really came from being up at the mountains, and wanting to learn how to ride rails and boxes and stuff. You know some of ‘em you weren’t quite sure how to ride them. And once you did ride them you’d come home and the kids would always want to practice and slide when they weren’t on the mountain.”
Last year he and his family wanted the ability to hit rails and boxes when they weren’t in the park, so they hit the interwebs. Unfortunately, they discovered that the only viable option was to spend a lot of money to get quality prefab boxes or rails, and also that there were really no resources providing instructions to create something high-grade on your own. This is where Jim recognized an opportunity. Once he made some for his own backyard his family’s friends and neighbors wanted to have their own fun, so it evolved into a company “as a grassroots type of thing.” If you check out the promo vids and photos on the BackYard BoxRails website, the subjects of them are all family and neighbors. Maybe that says something about how it all started.
The process of research and development came to: “how do we take this to market and keeping in mind that, when people want to put something in their backyard, they’re not looking to spend a lot of money on it. We tried to keep the economics of it in mind while still giving the customer something that’s quality, that is durable, and is going to last and give them a clean ride when they get up on it.”
They considered pre-building the boxes for people, but then realized that the shipping of the large structures would inflate the price point drastically. Included in the kits are a material list of items to purchase at your local lumber yard, step by step instructions with illustrations, and most importantly the top sheet of plastic. It’s crucial to have the right quality of top sheet plastic, otherwise you won’t slide well and you’ll catch edges, and if you use poor quality plastic it’ll get brittle, crack, and break when too cold. As an added service, BackYard BoxRails counter-sinks all the holes in the plastic. This allows for the screws attaching the top sheet to the wooden frame to sink below the surface of the plastic. Then you don’t have to worry about your board catching an edge or getting gouged by the screws.
What they deem to be their product I consider more of a service, as they offer lego kits without some of the parts. “You take out all of the guesswork of how do you build it? Is it solid enough? That type of thing, you know? Is it going to withstand people jumping up and down on it? As well as the whole question of what do we use for the top sheet? Is it going to last? Is it going to ruin my board or skis? It’s a one stop shop where you know when it’s all said and done you’re going to have something that is solid, and gonna be a clean ride that’ll last for years.”
When I asked Jim to describe himself in a few words he offered “adventurous and cautious risk-taker.” Since those definitely tie into entrepreneurship and opportunity recognition, I then inquired about BackYard BoxRail’s collaboration with other companies, and Jim proceeded to inform me that they have an agreement with Ragged Mountain to outfit a new terrain park with BYBR rails.
- Get On The Scene -
You may require something pre-made for you because you’re a sloth and/or wealthy, well then you probably aren’t part of Jim’s target market. If you want to have a box or rail in your back yard without having to sacrifice your firstborn, and you’re excitedly willing to build it, BackYard BoxRails provides the guidance through painless methods to avoid painful trial and error of attempting it on your own.
Would you like to build your own boxes and rails, my snowboarder amigo?
