Doubling production is no small ask for any company, let alone one of Spark’s stature. Such expansion often requires outsourcing, a significant injection of capital, cutting corners, or a combination of the above. But Spark proudly manufactures bindings in Bozeman, and binding quality has been a hallmark of the brand since its conception a decade and a half ago. Instead, Spark’s reaction to skyrocketing demand has been two-fold: pare back retailer orders and expand Bozeman operations expediently yet judiciously.

“We had to cut dealer orders back because there was just no feasible way for us to make that amount of product,” says Will. “We’re trying to scale by 20, 25 percent, which is a lot when you’re already at a big scale and running 24 hours a day.”

To answer this COVID-catalyzed demand, Spark sought to add more binding-building machines to the fleet and hire more manpower. Easier said than done. Will jokes, “We identified a few positions we’d like to fill and then we were like, ‘Oh, there’s nowhere for that person to sit.’ We needed more room.”

At first, Spark used shipping containers for extra storage and a job site trailer as a mobile office. New construction was considered and summarily rejected, as COVID spiked prices of building materials, too, to the point that a two-by-four in 2019 cost nearly the same as a toothpick in 2021. Eventually, Will took matters into his own hands. “I reached out directly to owner of the building across the street, who wasn’t thinking about selling,” he says. “We signed papers in October and then we’ve been doing some remodeling projects on that space and just got our warehouse moved over there the week before last.”

“The last couple of years have been a little more reminiscent of the 2010s, just because it’s a big jump and big growth and change”

Now that space is sorted, Spark is simultaneously ordering new machines and schooling new employees on the art of binding building. Pre-COVID, Spark had 65 employees on payroll. The number dipped at the beginning of COVID and has since rebounded into the high 70s. “We’re going to be in the 80s and 90s pretty quick,” forecasts Will.

“If diehard splitboarders of today had to tour exclusively on split setups of the past, they’d likely say “fuck it,” retreat to the resort”

Will started Spark while couchsurfing. At first, Spark R&D took on other engineering projects—Will worked on a ski bob (like a bike with skis), a disposable trashcan, a Ziploc-style ice pack for athletes, etc.—but always with the intent of funding his passion project: split-specific bindings. “I was just working on both at the same time. But it was really hard to get excited about someone else’s stuff compared to working on our stuff,” explains Will.

One day, Will randomly typed “splitboard.com” into his web browser, and stumbled upon a forum of line-slaying splitters. From the jump, this core community voiced interest in Will’s bindings. “I started posting my prototypes there as I was cruising along with the development. And that was a huge motivator because I could get feedback from all the users there. From the very beginning, they were just like, ‘When can I buy this stuff?’”

Historically, interest in Will’s designs makes total sense. The modern splitboarder is accustomed to a veritable binding buffet at their local board shop, as several brands make high-quality splitboard bindings these days. However, back then, options were few, far between, and remarkably shitty. So shitty, in fact, that if diehard splitboarders of today had to tour exclusively on split setups of the past, they’d likely say “fuck it,” retreat to the resort, convert to tele-skiing, or heaven forbid, strap on snowshoes.

Fanatic and Nitro brought hardboot systems to market in Europe in the 90s, but they were short-lived. Voilé pioneered the revolutionary DIY Split Kit, which allowed snowboarders to slice solid boards in half, install pucks, and attach regular snowboard bindings via an adaptor plate, but the adaptor sat unreliably high off the board. Burton tried and failed at the turn of the millennium. And that was about it. Long story short, Spark was met with demand from the outset, as any skintrack regular saw potential in Will’s prototypes. Still, it took time to pick up steam.

“For Spark to mature from backyard operation to respectable small business, Becca’s influence was critical”

“The first year, we sold 100 pairs,” remembers Will. “We just knew from the revenue at that point that that wasn’t going to be a whole company. But then after that, it was 200, then the year after that, it was 400. And then once we were getting into 400, 800 pairs, it was like, ‘Okay, this is enough to put a small operation around it.’ It was certainly four or five years in before we were able to drop doing outside consulting and work on bindings full time.”

For Spark to mature from backyard operation to respectable small business, Becca’s influence was critical. At first, says Will, “She’d come by once in a while to see what I was up to and be terrified at how long it took me to put a binding together. And then she helped me out with our trade shows, because I was trying to get sample bindings put together. There was nothing left in me to reach out to prospective dealers and book appointments or, you know, take out the trash.”

“I was working up at the university as a research scientist, and I was doing some land management like sustainable grazing, planning type work,” says Becca. “So I would do it as I could. After a while, I was like,’ Oh my gosh, what are you doing? What is going on here? You need some help.’ He was working insane 15-hour days, every day.”

“Yeah,” says Will. “We had a couple of summers where we didn’t go camping once.”

For Becca, helping Spark wasn’t just about helping Will. “I’ve been backcountry skiing longer then Will, and backcountry is really a big passion of mine from the start. And so being involved in that it was really cool for me,” she says. Furthermore, Spark’s then dire finances and slapdash systems spoke to her self-prescribed “type A personality,” she jokes. “Trying to organize the chaos was sort of my specialty.”

“The growth has always been there and the interest and the passion from the backcountry community has always been there”

At year four or five, Will says, Spark was the closest it ever came to closing down. “I definitely could have run the place out of business and it would have been just classic cash flow issues. If you can’t make payroll, people don’t stick around, right? Thankfully, that never happened, but it was pretty close.” With Becca taking the lead on accounting, the Ritters righted the ship. The sketchy finances got straightened out. Spark started working with local banks, who helped it grow from a ten-person company to a 30-person company, not to mention supply the droves of backcountry newbies spurred by screenings of Deeper.

Both Will and Becca emphasize that they aren’t alone in this endeavor, and attribute much of their success over the years to their employees. “It’s a close family,” says Becca, acknowledging that it sounds a bit cliché. “And I really enjoy that. We really need them. It’s a really nice collaboration, and I feel the people who are working for us now are keeping the vision for Spark moving forward. It’s that synergy—the sum is more than the parts.”

“We’ve got one employee over ten years right now and a bunch of them at six, seven, eight. People stick around,” says Will. “So that’s a big badge of pride for us. We must be doing something right. People are staying for long periods of time, buying houses, getting married, having babies.”

Making Time For What Matters Most

Hard work is clearly valued by the Ritters. And prior to the arrival of Sylvia and her brother Luca two years later, it might have been acceptable for Will to put in 80-hour weeks or Becca to juggle two jobs plus her growing duties at Spark. But kids shifted their perspective. There would be no more summers without camping.

“When the kids came along, that was really the focus: work-life balance, and that is pretty non-negotiable for us,” emphasizes Will. “We certainly weren’t going to swap out the kids’ childhoods to keep Spark going. I would gladly let that sink and then go have a day job somewhere. We put a lot of miles on the camper this year. It’s at the RV shop right now, getting the roof resealed.”

“It’s scary to watch, but it’s super rewarding on that front, just seeing how much trust people have in what we make”

At this, Becca turns to Will and laughs. Even if he had to get a day job, she points out, he’d never let the binding project go. “Spark is in your blood,” she says simply.

There’s no hyperbole here. Will clearly loves his days mocking up prototypes on the computer and seeing them come to life in the machine shop. He loves working with his team, from the longtime marketers to the engineering students from his alma mater. He loves watching the world’s best riders push his creations in unforgiving terrain. “Mark Carter came through town last week and was picking up some stuff. And, he’s like, ‘Man, these things, they ride so great.’ and I’m just like, “Mark Carter is geeking out on our stuff and what we do?’ That’s huge and that’s really part of why we do it. You know, watching Ryland [Bell] and these other guys go berserk on our stuff. It’s scary to watch, but it’s super rewarding on that front, just seeing how much trust people have in what we make.”

But for Will, what he loves most are the field days, when he has an excuse to poke out Bridger’s sidecountry gates and put his products to the test in blower pow. “Field testing is why I do this,” he chuckles. You don’t need to be an engineer or an entrepreneur to understand that. All you need to be is a splitboarder.

So thank you Will, Becca, and the Spark R&D family. And congratulations on 15 years in the game. Without your bold contributions, neither this current splitboard boom, nor the last one, would be possible.