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Mike Olson: Creative, Funny, and Unique Part of Snowboarding History

Mervin Manufacturing is considered the corporation that doesn't really comes across like a corporation, making it a favorite among the snowboarding community. Mike Olsen, founder of GNU Snowboards (part of Mervin Manufacturing), and a main hand in Lib Factory and Mervin Manufacturing, is known for an innovative and creative mind that continues to help bring fresh life into the snowboarding scene.

Mike Olson's love of snowboarding came at an early age, and he didn't even own a company when he made his first snowboard. In fact, he made his first snowboard when he was a middle school student in 1977, and he dropped out of college in 1984 to found the company that became Mervin Manufacturing. An article in Powder magazine a scant one year later would bring this new company and its entrepreneurial founder a huge publicity boost and national attention.

Mike Olson talked friend Pete Saari into joining him, and the two would make history in the snowboarding biz while building Mervin Manufacturing into a profitable business that now makes nearly 55,000 snowboards by hand each and every year. Keeping in the right mindset of loyalty to the snowboarders and loyal customers who made them successful, Mervin Manufacturing is one of the few major snowboard makers who still make all their snowboards in the United States.

Mike Olson's loyalty and unconventional thinking help keep Mervin as one of the top companies in the snowboarding industry. The company's boards are sold under the GNU and Lib Technologies brand names, and the workers there, almost all of whom snowboard, appreciate Olson's efforts to take care of his workers.

The company offers all its employees free lunch every Thursday, $200 towards a season pass at a local slope, and a variety of other bonuses to show that they are appreciated. The result is a group of passionate workers who follow Mike Olson's lead to make some of the best snowboards around.

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