For the first time in history, we’re using biotechnology and innovative construction techniques to design materials specifically for backcountry skiing and snowboarding.
Instead of being forced to choose from a limited selection of existing materials, we design the performance characteristics we desire directly into the materials we produce. The result is better performing gear, built with renewably sourced materials and designed meticulously to heighten the alpine experience.
performance biobased MATERIALS
We use biotechnology to design our own materials—with performance characteristics that reach beyond what petroleum products can offer.
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Why Algae?
Petroleum has historically been a key ingredient in materials across the outdoor industry. But there are only so many types of material innovations and performance gains we can get from petroleum.
Our team of biologists, material scientists, product designers, and backcountry athletes at Checkerspot wanted to break the mold. As a result, WNDR Alpine was born.
Our AlgalTech® materials fuse biomanufacturing, chemistry, and material science with advanced fabrication to unlock better performance.
Algal Core
Algal Core is a vertically laminated composite of biobased high density polyurethane and domestically sourced aspen. This combination reduces weight and offers damping properties otherwise unattainable in solid wood core construction while remaining stable and intuitive.
Polyurethane biobased carbon content 41.58% by ASTM D6866-18 Method B.
Algal Wall
Algal Wall is a cast polyurethane sidewall that protects the Algal Core and delivers superior damping than traditional materials. See why it's better.
This material exhibits a significant increase in impact strength and increase from 58.41% to 67.89% biobased content over the original Algal Wall (ASTM D6866-18 Method B).
To implement this material, we pour it as a liquid into a channel on the outside of the core as well bump outs for splitboard latches creating a seamless and virtually unbreakable bond with the core as the materials cure.
AlgalTech®: HOW IT WORKS
The process begins with biologists and polymer chemists at Checkerspot’s labs in Alameda, CA, and then transitions to our Design Lab in SLC for materials and product development.
Molecular Foundry & Chemistry
Our oils act as molecular “building blocks,” which once chemically modified, we use to prototype and build our products at our Design Lab in Salt Lake City, UT. We then test them using state of the art technology in the lab and in the field by our athletes.
Material Science & Fabrication
Our platform begins with microalgae. We grow these algae in fermentation tanks in Alameda, CA to produce entirely new types of oils—oils that chemists have not had access to because the petroleum industry has no means to produce them.
RECLAIMED PERFORMANCE MATERIALS
Globally speaking, the recycling model isn’t working. With little visibility to where our production waste may end up, we’ve taken our facility's old waste materials and started building something new. With SpiralMade™, materials are given new life in new places.
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SPIRAL UPWARD
Rather than striving for the fabled endless circle, we’ve created materials that move from one form to another, while adding benefit to their new application. “Downcycling” bums us out. SpiralMade™ is here to highlight the valuable reprocessing of old waste into new materials that replace imcumbent materials and genuinely make products better.
SpiralMade™ materials utilize production waste from our own facility to improve performance and durability.
SPIRAL PLATE FOR SKIS
In addition to diverting landfill waste and reducing use of virgin material, Spiral Plate gives our skis ~35% better binding screw retention strength than the maple inserts used in previous years.
As an added benefit, this change shortens our supply chain relative to traditional inserts, and gives us greater visibility of where our source materials are coming from.
SPIRAL INSERT FOR SNOWBOARDS
In our snowboards, 5mm Spiral Plate insert packs enable ~5% better binding retention strength than inserts surrounded by traditional aspen wood.
These insert packs also allow us to avoid drilling individual holes for threaded inserts in the board’s core, enabling more efficient and consistent construction across all boards. They also provide a wider platform for power transfer, resulting in better energy transmission to the board’s core.
So why are we doing this?
Product designers in countless industries have historically been constrained to the performance limitations of petroleum products - not because they want to be, but because they have had no other option available.
Our story begins in the backcountry. But true impact comes with the widespread adoption of biomaterials across many industries. Believing in WNDR® Alpine is believing in a world that can be built with more responsibly sourced materials. Starting with WNDR Alpine, our industry partners, and a growing community of innovators, we seek to create paradigm shifting materials, available to everyone and built with a critical purpose. We invite you to join us.