Est. 2021
How it started
Two things got me here: exploded backpack beers, and the time I broke a rib falling on a beer in my jacket pocket. There had to be a better way to bring one along for the chair.
In 2021 I walked the aisles of Home Depot looking for a clamp, a bracket, anything that would hold a can to a binding. Nothing was right, so I made my own with a Voilé strap. It worked. Then a single velcro strap worked better. Then a double velcro strap with a collapsible can sleeve worked better still. Every version did the job, and each one got a little more refined.
I took it to the lifts that spring, and people started stopping me at the top of the lift, at the bottom, and halfway down a run, asking where they could get one. That's when Beer Binding became a real thing.
Handmade
The craft
The refining never really stopped. Thicker straps and a beefier sleeve became the PRO, and the straps have only gotten thicker since. Every one is still made by hand, by me, mostly in my van wherever I'm parked for the night.
Some people read a book in the evening. I make beer bindings. It's my craft.
The founder
The guy behind it
I grew up in Gig Harbor, WA, riding the ski bus to Snoqualmie at 12, then the Crystal ski bus every weekend with my older brother until we could drive. I taught lessons at the same ski school I learned at, chased faster riders around Mt. Baker in college, did a year of on-mountain ops at Whitefish, and these days I hold a pass at White Pass.
Off the snow, my background is in design, development and production. Turns out that's pretty much exactly what it takes to dream up a product, build it, and get it out the door. I didn't plan it that way. It just lined up.
This winter is Beer Binding's fifth season, and it's paid for my winters every one of them. It's taken me to mountains all over the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
The tribe
As seen in (somehow)
A snowboarder's beer holder, in a ski magazine
The Beer Binding PRO got featured in FREESKIER: The Annual (December 2023). I'm still not totally sure how a snowboarder's product ended up there, but I'll take it, and I'm grateful the skiers let us in.
“Turns out that inventing ski & snowboard beer holders is how I finally stuck it huge.”
Riders have also been kind enough to give it about 4.9 stars across 470+ reviews.