This article first appeared in SNOWBOARD Magazine issue 18.1.

words: Tyler Davis

To say that snowboard boots and bindings have come a long way in the past thirty years would be a drastic understatement. How many of us started off by stuffing ski boot liners into Sorel boots and strapping our feet into rubber and plastic contraptions that were ill-fitting at best, and often downright dangerous at worst? Most of us have probably ridden a board that was too soft or too stiff and been able to make it through the day, but a bad pair of bindings or even worse—a pair of terrible boots—can ruin your day before you finish your first run. Creating boots and bindings that are comfortable, durable, and able to perform in all conditions is what every brand hopes to achieve. For Rome SDS, they can thank Justin Frappier, their boot and binding lead, for doing exactly this for the last ten years.

Justin, affectionately known around the office as FrapShow, or as Rome marketing manager Matt Stillman calls him, The Pride of Canada, studied industrial design and began working for CCM Hockey straight out of college, where he designed hockey skates. While transitioning from the world of hockey into snowboarding might seem strange, it was a natural progression for Frap, who started snowboarding when he was 12 years old. He was able to bring his knowledge of injection materials and construction from the hockey world into his work with boots and bindings, as well as combine his love for the outdoors with his passion for design. All of this made for a perfect fit at the SDS. “I was stoked on day one to be designing snowboard gear,” he says. “Ten years later, I am equally excited to be a part of this brand and the snowboard community. Rome is a small crew of like-minded people. We share the same love for snow, the gear, the beer, the mountains, riding—and with that, it is only natural that your co-workers become a tight group of friends. The snowboard industry on a whole is like this and has made the past ten years a super special thing to be a part of and one that keeps my stoke level high.”

What is unique about Justin is that he is an industrial designer first and foremost, a fact that is impossible to ignore when you have a conversation with him and a character trait that he is quick to point out about himself. His passion for the materials and processes in the creation of both boots and bindings is contagious, and after a conversation with him you begin to better understand the how and why of the tech behind Rome’s boots and bindings. This passion is clearly visible in the advancements that have been steadily coming out of Rome’s Waterbury, Vermont office over the past decade.

When Frap first started he was hired to work on the boots, and then after a year moved into the binding division. While his work on the boot line has transformed the company’s offerings and made them more than a bit-part player in the boot world, it’s his work with Rome’s bindings that Frap is most pumped about. He helped bring to market the game-changing Katana binding that dropped in 2015, and since then, he has continuously changed the way that we look at binding design, comfort, and performance.

Take a quick look at Rome’s website and you can see the list of Justin’s greatest hits. Technology like the all-new AysmWrap and FullWrap chassis, DuraCush, and the Black Label binding’s PowerGraft highback (to name a few) are all his designs. With a hit list that impressive I wondered what creation he was most proud of. Without hesitation he immediately mentions the new AuxTech straps, which use something called auxetic patterns (don’t worry, I had to look it up, too) to create comfort and a more direct connection from your binding to your boot. “The auxetic patterns in these straps allow for an insane amount of conformability without over-stressing the parts like no other straps on the market,” Frap explains. “Auxetic patterns are pretty wild, and it is materials science and structures like this that inspire a lot of the latest innovations in Rome bindings.”

AuxTech is Frap’s latest design development within in an overarching goal to save weight and reduce costs while improving performance, considering all aspects of the consumer experience, from retail to riding. “Innovations to better performance is always the end goal,” adds Frap, “but without considering the costs and efficiencies at the factory/production level, we won’t be able to provide the best bang for your buck to end-consumers. So how to improve our designs and binding assemblies? Constantly looking at how to design for manufacturing and efficiencies.” For example, how parts on Rome’s AsymWrap and FullWrap binding chassis are interchangeable.

Justin admits to obsessing over the design process and these small, yet complex details that made a big difference. He thinks and works in “a cycle of bringing ideas from the SDS from sketch to prototype, testing, refining, and repeating this process with the goal of bringing the best-looking and performing product to market with value at every price point,” he explains. “This iterative process is key in developing new innovations in an efficient and timely manner. And now, with a 3D printer in house”—the Rome crew calls it the FrapBot—”we will be able to dramatically speed up the time from initial sketch to manufactured parts.”

As a tech nerd, I could talk to Justin about injection materials, glass layup, and binding engineering all day, but for the average snowboarder, the tech behind their setup is something that they might not be aware of or even care about at all. Technology is useless if the customer can’t use it or understand why it’s there, which is a notion that Justin has worked hard to change. Customization is very important to him, and he describes it perfectly by using a car seat analogy. We all get into our cars and adjust the seat to fit perfectly. You might not know the finer points of how the system works, but you can see the adjustments happening and it’s a user- friendly system that is functional and simple to use. His modular binding designs make binding tech more intuitive and user-friendly for both the customer and the manufacturer; people can see the binding tech at work and get comfortable with utilizing it and the production process is simplified. For the average customer, rotating your highback angle or changing your strap placement becomes something that is easy, no matter what Rome binding you ride. For Justin and the production team, it means that every binding utilizes some of the same hardware, which not only saves production time but also keeps costs down and creates a more consistent and high- quality product.

Rome is a company that has not ever been afraid of doing things their own way, which in an industry that sells a lifestyle as much as it sells hardgoods, is a characteristic that sets the brand apart. Frap’s ability to blend his knowledge of industrial design and his passion for snowboarding shines through his work at Rome, where products that he creates are both tools for winter fun as well as precision engineered snowboard weaponry. For Justin, creating and using new technology is a way to enhance the snowboard experience for everyone, no matter if you’re a weekend warrior or a seasoned pro. Even if you’re a snowboard purist, it’s hard to argue against new technologies making our industry better. So, if you look down this winter and see the Rome logo on your boots or bindings and realize you’re having your best day ever, you’ll know exactly who to thank.