be interesting to see what he does with it.
yawn
no need to be snarky. If not interested, just move on
From what I have heard it is privet equity investment firm that Kelly has a lot of money invested in. They bought into Firewire. They will be majority owners
The Other part is he will invite shapers to produce boards for Firewire. Sounds like he has been sold on how FW boards are a better model for a more environmentally friendly board. CI will now have a long hard road to keep their place in board sales. They should have divested into other products along time ago like Hobie did. Keep the focus on surfing but offer something else to people that enjoy the Ocean life.
…may be in the next future all mainstream boards (so the boards that the kids want…) would be made sandwiched by a machine.
Also, shapers? what s exactly these famous guys could do in that factory? it s all machined…
the success will depend on how much money he would put on marketing and in the new asp.
Maybe Kelly has been reading swaylock’s…
find the ‘enviromentally friendly’ claim by Kelly a stretch - materials have to be freighted/trucked to the factory, the boards made, then trucked/freighted to their global destinations, creating a significant carbon footprint journey from raw materials to delivered boards.
there remains about a 10 year window for the Asia manufacturers, and then 3D printing with advanced polymers will be dialed in, and production will become much more localized.
whatever additoinal name shapers Kelly recruits into firewire are just going to provide their machined shaping algorithms, get a royalty for each sold board. When boards become 3D printed locally, it will be the same thing. Probably a large online clearing house handling al the shapers, purchase the model, shape algorithm gets transmitted to the printer site, pick it up in a few days.
Apparently the money group Kelly is affiliated with first tried to buy CI from Burton, who turned them down. Too bad, Kelly could probably have recruited Merrick back into the design room for some cool next generation designs.
Bad investment…
Even FW’s machine is a POS.
Kelly should have bought in on “Shake Shack”…
Bummer!
“CI will now have a long hard road to keep their place in board sales. They should have divested into other products along time ago like Hobie did”.
Uh, how more diversified can Burton Corporation be? C.I. is (or maybe even, was) merely a small part of the Burton Corporate machine?
“Apparently the money group Kelly is affiliated with first tried to buy CI from Burton, who turned them down. Too bad, Kelly could probably have recruited Merrick back into the design room for some cool next generation designs”.
“Probably”… highly unlikely. I live here, and with all due respect, I don’t think the likelihood (of Al re-engaging) is probable. It’s a been there done that, move on.
Like i said before. “Yawn”. Been here since the beginning. If I want to be snarky chalk it up to seniority… or possibly senility.
“Been here since the beginning. If I want to be snarky chalk it up to seniority”
yawn
Well I wish I had the time to keep up with this $#!t. Some should put away the key board and browse the latest issue of Surfing Magazine.
…or pornhub
Anyone have updated info? Swaylock’s is the only place I’ve bumped into this topic. I’d like to know more, as a matter of curiosity.
I dare say I like that Rusty ad on page 102. The sand on her cheeks is a nice touch. Or could be. Too young for me but I can appreciate a thing of beauty when I see. Rusty has managed his gig well. Smart guy. Used to ride his shapes in the '80s when he worked for Canyon. Lowel
All I know is when waves come more boards get shaped. There has been a noticeable increase in the shaped C.I.'s coming into Haakenson’s sitting on the racks next to mine.
Bring it!
Snooze alarm!! Ha! Ha! But honestly for LC’s sake; the “young dudes”. Buy one FireWire or Libtech after which they wind up in the used rack. Seriously! Nobody buys a second one. They are staying in biz due to first time buyers. Libtech and FireWire are the two brands most commonly seen in the used rack at local surf shops.
90% plus of the boards in the recent Surfing Mag are Poly. Off course 90% of the guys that ride them are skinny ass little white boys with goofy fugging looks on their faces. So go figure.
yes 'enviroment friendly" maybe because the polution rules are very freindly enviromently to manufactors over seas…lol
As far as I can see it is taking the surboards to what they called POP OUTS…
I say its a plight on the industry…
Shapers are a very important part of surfing … I see all them spung boards out there …kinda sad
Any who looks like sell out on life style of surfing . Them firewalls are ok but they have there short comings when surfing…
They not better just differant … and not in the wave I like… Also after a few years of surfing they get kinda junkie… hard to fix So no savings and takes jobs from our fellow surfers/shapper /glassers …
I don’t like spung boards or Surf teck types I think firewall is made at the same factory in Thialand
I see kelly also has a new furnture line at Potty Barn also made I assume over seas… Not counting his new clothing line ,from the company that owns Gugi.if rumor is correct… I wish him luck