The story of United Shapes is a an interesting study of cosmic synchronicity, a certain rhythmic timing with the universe. When Pete Sieper, Steve Kimura, and Gray Thompson decided to launch their new brand snowboarding was in the midst of a significant transition. Though as big brands were suffering from economic downturns and declining participation numbers, small brands began finding their footing amongst the giants.
Not only was the industry rapidly changing, but so was board design. A need for something different was nagging at snowboarding like a persistent child. For decades board shapes had been a bit stagnant, year after year snowboard companies seemed paralyzed by fear, afraid to think outside of the box.
Out of this stagnation came a number of small brands willing to take risks. Brands like PowderJet and Spring Break began creating unique, hand-shaped customs, with the movement reaching critical relevance as Transworld Snowboarding released the acclaimed docuseries Snow Craft, produced by the Huffman brothers. For the first time in almost 20 years boards design evolved out of the twin-tip frame of mind it had been stuck in. The irony of this evolution was that in order to move forward snowboarding needed to look back to its storied past.