Alright, who are these ADCO guys making an open call for the Clark foam production manager, or the Clark foam production employees? Anybody know? Are these guys just trying to make a buck off of the situation?
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Alright, who are these ADCO guys making an open call for the Clark foam production manager, or the Clark foam production employees? Anybody know? Are these guys just trying to make a buck off of the situation?
Do you really have to ask? Of course they are trying to make a buck off the situation. Just like Walker and the EPS guys. Hell I think everybody is trying to figure some way at getting a piece of the pie Clark walked away from. I’ve got no problem with that.
However, I think you mean do these people have anything to do with the surf industry or are they just trying jump into something they know nothing about. If you go to their website you will see that they are a company that sells a weird assortment of plastic do dads. E.g. plastic drink coolers, plastic key chains, a plastic labeler, etc. A closer look seems to indicate that they are really only re-selling this hodge podge of goods for others. I see no indication that they actually manufacture anything other than plastic tags for labling. I doubt very much that they have any understanding of surf boards. My guess is that someone there thought, “hey, we have a supplier that does plastic injection molding! I bet we could shoot a few blanks out if we could get some desperate Clark Foam engineer to spill his beans.”
I feel very sorry for the Clark employees, but I doubt ADCO has a realistic shot at turning themselves into a surf board blank manufacturing company.
On a related note, I haven’t heard much about the poeple at Clark who lost their jobs. Has Clark let every one working for him go? Does anyone have an idea of how many people worked at Clark?
Yeah, not too sure if it would be that easy to make surfboard blanks without prior knowledge of surfboard manufacture. there were 2 clark employees at the wherehouse in hawaii. Then there was ted wilson at FG hawaii, who was actually the one who was i think the actual head clark guy in hawaii. Anybody else heard of anyone else stepping up to the plate?
I am part of the ADCO group. I brought the idea of making polyurethane blanks to the company. I am a surfer and have many friends who shape as a hobby as well as for a living. When these guys were faced with the possibility of loosing their livelyhoods, I took it as a challenge to help. It is the small shaper that will lose business, not the large corporations. I know the owner of ADCO and I approached him with a complex problem: Can we supply in great diversity and availibility, 29 models of blanks with mulitiple densities, and a custom rocker program at competitive pricing to the industry? We are researching many poly-foam formulas and have attempted to use as many experts in the business. This is the reason for the open post. We want to do it right. I would not judge to quickly. ADCO is a billion dollar manufacturing company that makes a great number of the items that you are using right now. If you want PU blanks at pre “Black Monday” pricing, and you’re really concerned about the welfare of the Clark employees, maybe you should give it some time to see what ADCO produces.
So when are these blanks going to be ready?
To the general public, not for a while. We are distributing samples to several experienced shapers for feedback. It is goiing to be a careful process. We are not concerned with being the first on the market. We want to get it right.