As vice president and creative director of Burton, Greg Dacyshyn probably didn't need further evidence that snowboarding style had crossed over into the streetwear world and beyond. But he couldn't have expected what happened when he sent an unsolicited email to a faceless employee at Paul Smith, the English brand and designer known for its high-quality suits and dress clothes. On a whim, Dacyshyn decided to inquire about collaborating with one of his favorite menswear designers. The next day, he received a call, and within a week he was in London working with Smith and his team on a jacket and pants for Burton's Mark XIII collection. Months later, Dacyshyn still sounds excited.

"It wasn't just Paul doing a colorway or some graphics," he says. "He brought his bespoke tailoring feel into a really technical Gore-tex piece with all the details." Burton's Marx XIII line, Ride Snowboarding's sub-brand Cappel, and others, are changing the way guys dress on and off the slopes. Improving fabric technology has made it possible to introduce suede, tweed, and denim into a world where brightly colored and bulky jackets and pants once dominated. But the main reason for this shift is that guys' increased fashion sensibilities created a demand for clothes that function well in the cold, wet snowboard environment yet don't look wack when worn out after a long day on the mountain. "A lot of guys will go straight from the slopes to the bar," says Ride Category Manager Robin Mavis, whose Cappel line features a soon-to-be-popular earthtone washable suede coat. "They don't want to look like everyone else with a bright red snowboard jacket."

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