No one gets rich making kayaks
Posted by: Celia
on Nov-16-12 9:11 AM (EST)
We have 10 boats (long boats and WW) in the basement and under the porch as well as a canoe. The brands include Valley, Necky, NDK, Pyrahnna, P&H, Dagger, Bell, Wavesport and I am not counting my first Current Designs kayak that I sold. We have experienced the new and used pricing levels of all of these brands, obviously. It is likely that the CEO at the conglomorate level, say Johnson Outdoors, is making a damn good salary and may even have some fat bonuses. But no one who is directly living on making and selling kayaks is going to be the featured client on the next installment of Million Dollar Decorator.
Tiderace is putting out some interesting boats, especially that 15 footer. I gradually went to using my 15'8" Vela as primary on big water because it is spritely and just less fuss. The combination of speed and other handling characteristics in that boat has been darned near impossible to replicate so far, despite the fact that it is a pretty old design now. Perhaps the Pace will do that.
I appreciate hearing news like this. As to things like profit margin, if someone suspects that to be a problem they can always just not buy the company's product and look elsewhere.