kite prices

[Guest]

Everyone keeps talking about newly released kites, but when are the prices going to accurately reflect what it costs to produce them. It's F*****g ridiculous people should not be paying these prices. Why are there so many differen kites on the market. People seem to be prepared for some guy with a bit of areodynamic understanding to go out and copy someone elses kite and try and improve it a bit. Get real a kite should cost about 200-300 english pounds.

[Royce]

HMMM> Why don't you go try to build one for 2-300 english pounds. Then sell it for more than you paid for it but try to cover the costs below. How much does a sailmaker charge an hour there? Try to build one of those bladders or design a new kite from scratch. Then go pay your design team for the 3 months of testing and recutting then go to Thailand where they make the kites for a month to oversee production then ship them to your distributors from the wharehouse to their wharehouse and then remember to get great insurance and don't forget that you need to sponsor a bunch of good guys to ride or you won't sell anything then remember to advertise in the mags and at local beaches and don't forget the warranty program.....hmmm what else did I forget? The quality you pay so much for? Man I bet I could get you a 2 line Naish that would do just fine for 200 LBS. SAdly there is far more money spent on both design production support and the middle man to get the cost low as we would all like it to be. Look at the other sports and you will se we are destined to be stuck in this price range. Sorry to blab. I am a distibutor and ask the same questions when I see such small profit margins. Why??????

[Guest]

I agree with you Royce,

if you compare with windsurfing sails, which cost only half a kite or even a third, for a comparable amount of work and material, and then try to find out why it is so, I can come up with only one answer: There is a way bigger market in windsurfing sails, so all these overhead costs (design, advertising,...) are divided over a lot more sails.
The answer to the problem: get as many people as possible to kiteboard and buy kites.

greetings from finland!

[jever98]

Royce,

when you look at the industry structure, you will see that a lot of the infrastructure has been in place already. Sure, they are doing a lot of development work, but companies like Naish or Neilpryde are pretty established w.r.t. distribution and production.
My personal impression is that the companies took advantage of the early surge in demand and then managed to keep prices high.
Apparently, though, the market is becoming saturated very quickly. From rumours I heard, dealers are not taking on much stock any more (at least in Germany), and distributors are also pretty unhappy. Just what I heard, though.

[Guest]

I know the cost they are sold to the distributor is $300-350 US per kite with bar and lines.

[Toby]

300-350 is maybe a small kite, bigger kites are more expensive. But these prices are at the factory. As Royce mentioned, now you have to add many things which will raise the price a lot. Unfortunately...

[TheRob]

wholesale kite costs are usually around 5, 6, or 700 dollars U.S. depending on size, and performance. i know for a fact, because i work at a local shop.
later,
rob

[Royce]

Rob, maybee for a 2 linner or an older kite but I wish we paid that little for them. Go find the wholesale on a X2 12 then work out the percentage profit after shipping and state taxes. Work out the insurance problems ie no insurance on the rider and a liability waiver for the rider and down go the prices. Insurance....go try to get 2 million dollars worth of insurance for yourself then imagine how much the kite companies pay in liability for each kite.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Royce on 2002-07-30 15:33 ]</font>