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noepoxy said..
Business is ruthless, what a way to learn a lesson, the model of direct to consumer (DTC) from one distributor didn't work, how can they sell it again to retailers who tried it once already and got burnt, good luck with that.
I tried GF, not for me, way too much front foot pressure, and in late 2023, there are many excellent competitors to get a punters $ and they got mine, be a tough market indeed to make a living from and I wouldn't touch it as a business with a barge pole as too niche and volume isn't there.
With Gofoil in Australia, you lose 50% + as soon as you buy it (speaking from experience), as the demand isn't there in the secondary market. Many long in the tooth foilers have been burnt by this, and that's maybe why you hardly see any foiler using it at your local.
The market is done with brands testing on punters now IMO, the RS range was a prime example, no single foil behaved the same in the entire range, e.g. RS1000 vs RS1075. It wasn't just GF doing this as many others legacy brands did this too but have subsequently lost significant market share in Australia ever since.
It's almost 2024, prices haven't come down since covid, boards are now 3K+ AUD (really the price of a macbook, just insane for a piece of foam and some carbon, do you know what the average weekly salary is here in Aus?). The industry is still rorting customers (windsurfing again?), and retailers are rubbing their hands together and driving their Teslas who get maybe 50-100% markup.
But as they say it's only a rort if you're not part of it! :)
Conditions are key and you can use any foil in 2023 if you have the conditions, don't buy into any hype is my recommendation. It's just like kite surfing a good kiter can use any kite and make it look great and it's a sport all about rider ability and gear is secondary, choose your brand wisely.
Haha nice and blunt, I like it!!
Definitely some truth in parts for sure and GF will have some work to do to get the Aussie market back if they can at all. In the early days they were ahead of the times and benefited for this but just never were able to keep pace with all the new kids(brands) coming through, they had ok wings but nothing that would just blow you away.
I dont think you are 100% right on the prices and need to come down or should have come down as the cost of living has gone up alot and from what i can see nothing has come down so I don't see how foil gear should have come back down in price. Yes there are a few shops(retailers) with nice glossy shop fronts and if people shop in these shops then they really are going to pay a premium for this as having that glossy shop front also comes at a cost which is billed into the price.
Anyone can have a nice car these days but they will also nearly always have a nice 5 year loan to go with it!
If you want cheaper then just look away from the gloss and cheaper is out there! quick example is something like our custom DW boards, they are still $2000 so up to a $1000 cheaper than many of the big name boards
www.oneoceansportsaustralia.com/custom/custom-downwind-foilboard (might not stay at this price forever as the cost and time to make a board is not as cheap as one may think) but it shows the deals are out there if one wants to look.
Agree on the starting a whole new foil brand these days, I probably know and understand this side better than most as I have been starting ONE foils for over 4 years haha. Even we saw how hard this is now and changed the whole thing which meant remolding pretty much everything and making everything we make as modular as possible just so we could focus on the areas we want and grow at a steady pace without the crazy pressure of needing 20 wings just to and then trying to convince people to sell their current gear just to lose money to then buy our gear which then is all a risk for the customer.
Dont think anyone is really trying to rort anyone in this business( not that i can see) and I dont see anyone really getting rich which really is a real shame as I feel maybe that some should make a good living from it if they can and have a chance of getting rich.
Good luck to GF as they may need some to kick start it again in Aus but it can be done I am sure.