A petri dish containing colonies of microscopic algae cells. In a fermentation tank, these little microorganisms can grow at tremendous scale to produce oil. Photo: Xan Marshland (@xanmarshland)

What Makes These Microbes So Great?

Simply put, they're the best source of renewable oil available to us.

• Our microalgae grow in a fermentation tank, much like beer. After only 5-7 days, they produce biobased oil, ready for refinement. Petroleum, on the other hand, takes 65 million years to produce, and requires an enormous amount of energy to extract, ship, and refine. 
• There are many biobased sources of oil in the world that can be used for food, fuel, and materials. But even compared to other biobased sources of oil, microalgae can offer a lower carbon footprint, and use less land, water, and energy. That's because growing via fermentation makes them massively resource efficient, growing to about 80% oil by body mass with minimal external inputs.

Based on a life cycle assessment (LCA) of carbon emissions of our algae oil, compared to published LCA results for U.S. extracted canola oil and globally sourced olive, avocado and soy oils, among others.  Both LCAs included the life cycle phases from field to bulk packaging.

HO Sports recently released the Sabre water ski - featuring core materials initially pioneered in our own skis that we reformulated for watersports applications. Photo: HO Skis (@hoskis)

We Created These Materials for Sharing.

Our society's reliance on petroleum goes far beyond the fuel we put in our vehicles. If we truly want to divest our society from petroleum, we need to assess all of the ways we rely on it - namely, materials.

As Checkerspot's first consumer brand, we're on the leading edge. By pioneering these materials in the mountains - where performance is critical - we're able to develop and refine advanced materials made with a renewable resource.

The materials we're pioneering are already being adopted into other brands' supply chains, from wintersports to watersports.

Measured Excellence, Made by Nature

Creating the best product we possibly can is our North Star - the guiding light in our design process.

All data that you see on our website is derived from real lab testing - either conducted in our Design Lab in Salt Lake City, or by third parties.

Salt Lake City, UT. Photo: Pep Fujas (@pepfujas)

Recent Milestones

We create and select materials that measure up against - or outperform - the incumbents, prioritizing using biobased and recycled inputs wherever possible. And as time goes on, we constantly work to improve on performance and impact.

Salt Lake City, UT. FOW: Chris Hatch // Photo: Pep Fujas (@pepfujas)

Business as a Force for Good

We're proud to be the world's first ski producer to achieve B Corp status.

Much like our innovation, being a B Corp is iterative. We are constantly striving to improve our overall B Corp score - an all-encapsulating metric that measures us against stringent global standards on Governance, Workers, Community, Environment, and Customers.

Salt Lake City, UT. FOW: Dane Weister & Alex Andrews // Photo: Pep Fujas (@pepfujas)

Powered by Renewables

We strive to keep our emissions as low as possible at our facilities through the use of renewable energy.

Our Design Lab in Salt Lake City utilizes 100% solar electricity, generated by solar panels in Millard County, Utah and provided by Rocky Mountain Power's Solar Subscriber Program. The gas utilized by our facility comes from renewable natural gas [RNG] sourced from waste methane outputs from farms, organic matter, and landfills.

Our hardgoods production partners at SWS also run on 100% solar power - eliminating approximately 596 metric tons of atmospheric CO2 per year. In addition to producing the Intention 108 on renewable energy, SWS is actively qualifying our materials for use in partner brands' skis, snowboards, and watersports equipment with the goal of accelerating the global adoption of biomaterials.

Salt Lake City, UT. FOW: Chris Melendez // Photo: Pep Fujas (@pepfujas)

We proudly pay all employees at our Salt Lake City Design Lab above a living wage, in accordance with MIT's Living Wage Calculator.

We select partner facilities in accordance with our own values. Our hardgoods production partner SWS is a Fair Trade Certified factory, adhering to stringent global standards of wages, social and environmental responsibility, and economic development. Our softgoods production partners at United Apparel Solutions use the HIGG™ Index Facility Social & Labor Module and meet the OEKO-TEX® Made in Green standard for socially responsible workplaces.

Salt Lake City, UT. FOW: Jeremy Handly // Photo: Pep Fujas (@pepfujas)

Low Impact Packaging & Carbon Neutral Shipping

All products are shipped from our facility using post consumer recycled and recyclable or repulpable materials.

Skis and snowboards are wrapped in 100% recyclable craft paper for protection and are packaged snugly in locally sourced custom shaped boxes made from primarily recycled material that are custom shaped to reduce overall material use and increase space efficiency during shipment. They are taped with recyclable and repulpable craft tape and shipped via UPS Carbon Neutral at no additional cost to the customer.

Wasatch Range, UT. Photo: Mack Lambert (@mountainsforbreakfastt)

Our products are designed and engineered to provide an immersive and enriching mountain experience.

Therefore, we feel the intrinsic need to support and create a responsible community of backcountry users. We do this through our support of local and international organizations, and via our own educational initiatives.

Organizations We Support

• Utah Avalanche Center
• Wasatch Backcountry Rescue
• Wasatch Backcountry Alliance
• American Mountain Guides Association
• Association of Canadian Mountain Guides

WNDR Rendezvous

The WNDR Rendezvous is an education-centric speaker series, hosted by WNDR Alpine and featuring workshops led by accredited avalanche educators, guides, mountain safety professionals, wilderness medicine instructors, and professional athletes. Future Rendezvous workshops will be announced here.