SELINSGROVE, Pa. — A couple of years ago, many at Gilson Snow could only hope for this moment.
In 2022, a fire ravaged the old Gilson Snow Factory in New Berlin, where they would build and sell snowboards and skis.
"I was obviously in that moment devastated looking at something we poured ten years of our live building burned to the ground," said Nick Gilson, the CEO of Gilson Snow.
Now, almost two years ago to the day, they've finally finished rebuilding at their new location in Selinsgrove.
"We asked ourselves so many times what we could do with a blank slate with everything we now know, and you don't expect to get that opportunity, but we certainly did and made the most of it," said Gilson.
From the ashes rises a new Gilson Snow.
"We've put in new equipment, new machinery, we fabricated and built new machines, we refurbished the ones that were salvageable, put-up new walls, been running electricity, going absolutely crazy on infrastructure," said Gilson.
Now, Gilson’s manufacturing process is more streamlined than ever.
"We take locally grown Pennsylvania poplar, it has to get cut down to the shape of snowboards and skis,” said Andrew Mikowski, the head of Marketing at Gilson Snow. “From there, we have to print out the graphics that are going to go on … we have to press all the materials down together almost like a big sandwich. Those all come together through heat and pressure to become the shape of the snowboard that people are going to be riding it in."
What was once a tragedy is now remembered as a hopeful beginning.
"I can now very safely say that we are building hands down the best products we've ever made in the history of this company, and we're now doing it at a rate in this beautiful massive new facility that's allowing us to ship to over 50 countries in the world again so, absolutely cranking, very lucky to be here,” said Gilson.