why the high cost for boards

groundclown · Since 12 May 2007 135 Posts Hood River Stoked

The last couple times I went to Fiberglass supply, they had no Carbon to sell me.

I do E-POXY finished Concrete counter tops, and the last time I got "Mirror Coat" the price went up $15 for a 6 Qt. yield

pkh · Since 27 Feb 2005 6549 Posts Couve / Hood Honored Founder

Mike - got any photos of the carbon glide?

boardrider · Since 05 Apr 2006 1034 Posts Ventura, CA XTreme Poster

pkh · Since 27 Feb 2005 6549 Posts Couve / Hood Honored Founder

Shops are a good thing, and retailers couldn't survive without margin, but if you are buying a quiver of gear then you can always ask for a discount.

pdxmonkeyboy · Tue Mar 04, 08 4:53 pm

Boardrider, I'll totally hook you up Bro.
Two big deals coming your way....

#1 2003 fuel 11meter with tattered lines and a busted leading edge bladder. Da kine deal my man- $50

#2. 2002 slingshot drake that I rescued from the rocks this summer at the spit. It has got plenty of soul as it looks like it floated all the way down from Roosevelt. It has what I call "progressive edge design" and it is missing three fins. I want to do you right though my man, $25.

I'll also throw in a big knarly mess of old kite lines that I tried to keep sorted out but ultimately got completely clustered. It would make a good science fair display if the topic was entropy.

Let me know, but lets keep it on the hush hush.

Very Happy

boardrider · Since 05 Apr 2006 1034 Posts Ventura, CA XTreme Poster

JW · Since 28 Jan 2006 227 Posts portland Stoked

how do think they pay for rnd and how much is your time worth with out mark up there would be no kite shops just like ASI the bro deal shop you have to pay the bills .EVERY one thinks they need a deal why?do you go to home depot and ask for a deal no so why do you ask small mom and pop shops ?

gorgebob · Since 25 Jun 2007 259 Posts Portland, OR Shop Owner

Margin to dealers is less on boards than on other hardgoods. Liquid force does offer the Proofs at a better price than most $299 with fins. They also have higher end boards and make a ton of wake boards which they say allows them to offer the better price.. When Cascade Composites was making Slingshot the raw material was a 1/4 of the wholesale cost. There is a lot of set up and constant changes. I have made a couple boards fun project but not a pretty one.

bwd · Since 04 Aug 2007 385 Posts Obsessed

well, a windsurfer costs $1000-2000.
And has many times the material content.
And a more complicated shape.
And everything from tooling to shipping etc. is much harder.

Production kiteboards are priced for what the market will bear.
So bear it, or drive price down,
Wink

or make your own.
bwd

SoOR · Since 10 Mar 2007 56 Posts Ashland, OR

yeah that's true about margin on hardgoods. Its why Adidas and Nike only have small hardgoods business but make all their margin on apparel....you want to see markup - look at how much a patagonia or mountain hardwear clothing is. I know from buddies at Solomon(owned by Adidas) that they just sold hardgoods to have a name in the industry but they made most of their profit/margin on their bonfire/solomon clothing and accessories and especially since winter is a limited selling season they can take it in the shorts on hardgoods. i am sure its the same with kiteboard co's

Pepi · Tue Mar 04, 08 11:51 pm

Bob and Reaper are fairly accurate in their comments regarding pricing of kiteboards.
Take into account 70-80% of our kiteboards are manufactured in the Thailand Cobra Factory who uses the Euro as it's currency(which is 50% higher in value than the USD), add in the cost of oil rising from $35/barrel in '06 to now $100/barrel (which is the base ingredient for all of our kite gear), sprinkle in carbon being sold out worldwide as a result of Boeing and the War, and lastly add in the increased manufacturing demands of other better paying non-kite manufacturing demands and you have board and kite costs likely to keep on rising into the next decade.

As a retailer, it really sucks to have to come into the new season with higher priced gear for customers that want to see lower prices, especially when we as the retailers have no control over the prices we pay, nor the prices we can sell at (at least through the designated selling season, after that, it's no-holds barred closeout race to see who loses the most money dumping inventory).
We've been blessed to have some companies in our industry that are economically diversified to keep their business costs down (add kiteboard prod volume + wakeboard/windsurf prod volume, the result is lower production/materials costs which then trickles down to the retailer and consumer in the form of lower retail prices - Thanks LF and Fanatic!).

It's great to see posts from kiters concerned about retail pricing so that the manufactures may hopefully recognize these concerns as they move into future changes in manufacturing locations and technologies. Quality and hype always needs to be in balance with value and cost.
This year our kiteboards will range in price from $299 to $799, with most of our boards being in the under $500 range. We hope to keep it this way and understand that our customers also expect us to keep it this way.

Pepi

gorgebob · Since 25 Jun 2007 259 Posts Portland, OR Shop Owner

I 'll put together a board building party at the shop for later this spring and everyone can try creating one of their own. Details later.

boardrider · Since 05 Apr 2006 1034 Posts Ventura, CA XTreme Poster

tinyE · Since 21 Jan 2006 2004 Posts not really an XTreme Poster

rich · Since 30 Nov 2005 306 Posts portland Obsessed

a board building party would rock. Though I'm sure that most of us will walk away w/ a better respect for the effort it takes to slap one of those together.

carolb · Wed Mar 05, 08 1:33 pm **I have 2 either 06 or 07 Slingshot SRT's for sale**

I have 2 either 06 or 07 Slingshot SRT's for sale. PM me as I would rather they go to someone good than ebay. They are in SPI now so come and get them! just kidding - I'll be driving them back in spring or I could ship. I'm not sure how to tell what year they are. One I got last summer from Slingshot and one last winter. We've been using them in the SPI waves!