Nori Suzuki in the West & the Birth of Teton Bros
When Nori Suzuki and I sat down to chat, I could see the sun tuck behind the Olympic Mountains across Puget Sound outside my window in Seattle. As Nori’s face appeared on my screen, the last rays of light from an early October Monday faded away. It was Nori’s Tuesday morning, and he started that day like he does nearly every day, with a surf check. When I asked about the waves, he shrugged and claimed it got windy. Nori and I are separated by 4,750 miles of Pacific Ocean, but we’re connected by a shared passion for surfing, mountains, and chasing powder. Like the rest of the Teton Bros team, founder Nori Suzuki has built a life centered around the outdoors. While he currently spends his days surfing and skiing in Japan, his journey started thousands of miles away in the Grand Tetons of Wyoming, where he spent summers cowboying and winters working as a ski instructor. I sat down with Nori to dig up stories from his past and learn about the birth of Teton Bros.
Given Nori’s laundry list of accomplishments in the outdoors, I had assumed he had been immersed in nature since childhood. In reality, Nori didn’t find the outdoors until his twenties. He spent much of his youth chasing a different dream, playing soccer at the highest level. He got closer than most, playing in college on a scholarship until a knee injury halted his pursuit of athletic excellence. One day, while flipping through the pages of a ski magazine, Nori found an ad for a Japanese-speaking ski instructor position in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Nori had never been to the United States, he didn’t speak much English, and was a novice on skis. Still, something about the ad spoke to him, and before long, he found himself crossing the Pacific en route to the wilds of Wyoming.
Upon landing in Wyoming, Nori realized he was in a bit over his head when he couldn’t navigate the smalltown airport with his limited English and wound up waiting six hours for his ride because he didn’t know how to call them. Nori got his first glimpse of the wild Wyoming Landscape from the airport, and his life changed forever. Upon coming face to face with the mighty Grand Tetons, Nori was overcome with emotion. “I’ve never felt that way seeing mountains before,” he tells me. “Not even Mount Fuji.”
To Nori, Jackson Hole could not have been further culturally or geographically from Japan. This tiny town, surrounded by mountains, entrenched in feet of snow, and full of cowboys and adrenaline junkies, felt like a different planet. Little by little, he got to know the terrain and the people who seemed hell-bent on exploring every inch of it, on skis, on foot, and on belay. “Everything was new to me. The ski area was so huge and steep. My boss would drop me off every morning at the ski area and pick me up in the evening. I had no idea where to go until some people showed me around.” Those people included members of TGR, Teton Gravity Research, the renowned outdoor media company responsible for shaping modern mountain culture as we know it, and Tommy Moe, Olympic Gold Medalist and accomplished mountain guide. So, Nori spent the next few winters repeating his sunup to sundown ski escapades while rubbing shoulders with industry giants and Jackson Hole legends. Before long, he was an accomplished skier and outdoorsman in his own right.
When the snow melted each year, Nori traded his skis in for a pair of cowboy boots. Working on a ranch in Lander, Wyoming, Nori operated guided horseback rides on a section of the Oregon Trail and drove cattle. Nori was the only Japanese person in the cowboy outfit and the entire town. Most locals in the town confused him for a Native American. Spending his summers working on a ranch, Nori continued to evolve as an outdoorsman. He learned invaluable skills from his fellow cowboys and a few Native American riders who taught him the ways of the land, including how to preserve game and fish, survive in the mountains without camping gear, and ride bareback.
Nori’s exploits in the American West sound like the conquest of some mission-driven overachiever who set out to take the American outdoor world by storm. In reality, Nori landed precisely where he was meant to by having a curious mind and following new passions as they sprung up, which in Jackson Hole often put him in the company of legendary figures of the mountain world. No story summarizes this more than Nori’s first time climbing outdoors in Wyoming. New to the sport, new to the country, and a new face in J Hole, Nori found himself being instructed on the ins and outs of proper belay technique by none other than Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard. At the time, in the late 80s, Patagonia had already ascended to the pinnacle of the outdoor apparel industry, and Chouinard was no less than a living legend. Still, to Nori, at that moment, he was just his belay partner.
Our conversation is fast-forwarded 35 years to the present when Nori noticed a stack of surfboards in the corner of my office and began telling me about his home break. Curious how someone who cut their teeth in Jackson Hole and Niseko found their way to surfing, I ask how the sport first entered his life. Nori replies with a story. “When I got back to Japan, I started a raft guiding company, the first of its kind in Japan.” Nori led white water excursions with his partners for nearly a decade until the death of a close friend in the rapids halted the rafting endeavor. After a long period away from the water, Nori found surfing and was immediately drawn to it. “There’s a lot of commonalities between surfing and riding powder. And when you’re surfing, you’re the only one taking the risks.” He states.
After his stint in Wyoming, Nori worked for the iconic ski apparel company Spyder. Thanks to connections made in Jackson Hole, Nori landed a gig as the brand’s exclusive distributor for Japan. Part of his role at Spyder evolved into product development at the company’s headquarters in Boulder. Nori spent a decade learning the ropes of product development in the outdoor industry. He became well versed in that side of the business, seeing a product through from conception to creation and on to distribution. When Spyder was acquired, he left the brand to set out on his own.
During the early days of Teton Bros, Nori’s wife and cofounder Junko juggled multiple jobs while Nori worked tirelessly to develop the TB Jacket. The pair met when Junko was the director of a snowboard school in Japan and, in Nori’s words, “a total snowboard bum.” After her time living and working in the mountains, Junko “returned to the real world” to work as a distributor for a Japanese ski brand. Junko helped Nori fulfill his dream of starting his own brand and supported the couple as their two dreams became one. Together, the pair developed and tested the TB Jacket, prioritizing breathability, comfort, warmth, and vent access. With decades of experience in the snow, the duo tested and retested the TB Jacket, leaning on their local community of mountain guides to test the TB Jacket in all conditions. The results were the birth of a brand that continues to change how we think about outdoor apparel.
