Just order a couple of containers I’m sure you will sell 100’s of models to the world. You can export everywhere!
Mitch sounds like a really smart business man. He can make you a rich guy!
Sounds like you have mastered the AKU program?
I missed the link to the website until you mentioned it in your post, Deadshaper. Made me curious to check it out.
The one thing I was struck with was the apparent contradiction between this quote:
During trips around the world, we have copied some of the worlds most popular shapes.
And this quote further down:
if we copy boards for a customer we will Not cut that shape for anyone else,
Nor will we sell boards with your unique logo to anyone else.
How exactly does that work. If they’re a customer then you won’t copy but if they’re not you do? Whose popular shapes did you copy on your world travels and how was that done if you honor the shaper’s designs? Are they receiving royalties? How can you copy a shapers popular shape and protect his proprietary designs at the same time? I’m confused…as usual.
so what everyone is trying to basically say here . its okay to make money and support your family as long as your not an asian
as it stands i have to get grip legropes,fins board bags from china through a manufacturer, then a umberella company and then a distributor. may as well just buy them straight off the manufacturer
also i pay 130$ for a blank it cost about $280 for a board to me made not included labour and running costs
if i can get a finished board made to my specs for that price i may as well… . do i care if it affects my competition
not a bit
do i care if it ruins the industry
no
why
maybe spending 20 years learning to be a master jeweller and having no work
because the market decides
market wants cheap jewellery
i dont complain. just get on with it
besides all that i didnt say was going to do a deal. you need money for that
i was making an enquiry to see if mitchs products were competitive
at the very least if any of you wish to condemm me for doing a bulk order of fins legropes and grips
you can blow me
If you can buy direct and have a market go for it. That’s all I’m saying. Where we live in Southern California it’s really saturated with imports. For your situation it may work out. For us it’s hard to break in unless your well branded. Some companies are very success with the China model. It’s not for everyone, however it works for some. I don’t condemn you whatsoever. There is a lot of Hypocrisy concerning this subject as all of us have imported products of some sort in our ownership!
hey ding as you know i have been making a living from hand crafts for a long time. i do my best. but i could be the best jeweller in the world and im still not gunna be able to support my family in napier. consumers want mass market and the rest get sucked in by slick marketing. im interested to see if mitchs prices are actually better then handmaking and selling direct to customer. i know my jewellery is cheaper without the 100% retail margin on chinese goods. the thing with china is all the fingers in the pie
Country For Sale…CHEAP!..INQUIRE WITHIN.
Hey Deadshaper,
Well put. A very well thought through argument, that I enjoyed reading.
Thanks. By the way, I got a message from a friend who has been a glasser in the surfboard industry for over 9 years. He is of Chinese descent and he requested that I ask why he should give up his job to another Asian (or anyone else for that matter) that he has never met nor knows from Adam?
You should have a look at something like jd’s in whangarei paul, my wife always wants to stop in there everytime we go past and it always seems to be busy.Its not shopping for the jewellry i dont think, its more the fact that you are getting your own stuff designed right there with your input.Kind of like getting a custom board i guess.
But we would never go back to a retail store to get any jewellry for her ever again.Its just the fact that you are talking to someone who knows what they are talking about.surely you could carve your self out a good buisness doing something like that.?I guess the cost of setting something like that up in jewellry would be the killer.
I’ve lived this crap over and over and over again. I’m sick of being nice, so I’m just gonna pound it out to the masses here.
The deal is this, the masses want personalized service, to be placed on a pedestal, but at discount prices.
I’m not gonna be anyone’s doormat, thank you. For those people I have two very special words, but snce I am a gentleman I will refrain from going there.
I’m 56 now…maybe a dinosaur to some, but distinguished to others. I’m reasonably intelligent because I’m curious and willing to pay attention to what goes on around me. I’m also a creative person (like sooo many others in the surfboard industry) and I get indignant rather easily. Might also be some of the French in me from my mom’s side. Rather than sit here listening to a bunch of rhetorical crap and just bite my lip. Which is what my father’s blood would have me do…(Quiet Desparation is the English Way), I’d rather be insolent, and biting, and masturbate your concious level.
If you are shocked at that statement, then CAN me from Sway’s, send me packing to wherever poor Roy ended up. I never met him, but I’m starting to care too much about a bunch of morons and wannabes that simply don’t get what is at stake.
Do you know what the MOST LOOKED UP WORD ON THE INTERNET IS?
…INTEGRITY…
I’m only here contributing and participating because I care. If all of you within the industry want to be relegated to repairing foreign crap, offshore decent stuff, and third world gems, then so be it…I’m going down fighting. As someone said earlier here what is art without conscience? Oh, wait a minute, wasn’t it Al Merrick that said “there’s no soul in foam”. I guess there’s no soul when Rodin and Michelangelo worked in a medium, or Van Gogh painted strokes of carefully mixed paints with such thick materful strokes that you feel them. I’m ashamed of Al for making such a thoughtless statement. This is a guy that I had a blast fishing with…
If you are young you are merely ignorant. But if you have been around the block and have lived several decades, and are party to allowing your industry to be taken over by a few sellout media favorites, then you earn my utter disgust. If you want to bow down to whoever is willing to pay you the most bucks I suggest you go find the old movie “The Magic Christian” and join the rest of the morons fighting each other for a few dollars in the cess pool of life.
We didn’t put up with this stuff in ‘the good ole days’. (Oh boy, that old song again). Yeah, well there is a reason we hold onto that. If we didn’t like what someone was pulling during a North Shore winter, a few of the boyz (bigger variety usually) came to visit you. Guess what? You got a personal escort to the airport. If you were really a schmuck, you were told never to come back again.
This is vigilanty justice at it’s best. Like in “Unforgiven” when some guy cuts up a whore. Well, women were scarce in those days in the old west and highly valued (like magic custom sticks)…so a kitty was put up and they found a guy (now a pig farmer) to go exact justice.
Where’s the justice in screwing your own countrymen for a few bucks?
Sellouts.
Duke Kahanamoku would be turning in his grave.
im not sure the point you are trying to make here deadshaper?but but for me when you can definately see the difference in the product and service you are getting from a custom craftsperson like that you will pay more if you can afford it.
What keeps us custom board builders alive? Groms!!! The Kids are our future. Off the rack boards from your local shop imported or otherwise are not going to help the Groms advance their surfing. Therefore the Custom Tailored board is going to trive. Every two months a new one as the Gromment grows out of his wetsuit and becomes taller than his last magic carpet you make him another to keep the dream alive. Then all his buddies come in and get a custom for themselves. Then their Dad’s come in for one. The Parents come in and order for the little brother and then the sister. These kids continue to get boards as they go through the changes of life. They have kids one day and you make their boards too.
The Cycle of Life!
The Cottage industry still lives and will continue not as it was however it will continue regardless of the direction of some.
[quote=“$1”]
basically, I have copied shapes from popular guys, and will start with that as a base to work off when making someone boards,
who doesnt have that model themselves to copy.
Much like, people who borrow their friends templates, or take a rocker or outline template from a board they like to ride.
Or who basically do what I am doing, using wood and plastic and thickness measuring tools to make exact copies of their favourite board in their shed so they dont have to pay 700$ for a 6’4 fish that their favourite TOP shaper charges
BUT , respect is held when someone sends me a boards/models for copy that is THEIR model they shaped,
I will NOT use that as a base for anyone else. (I have enough good models allready)
mitch from oz. bullf##ken shit
mitch from china service your own country first. god knows ther is plenty of you.
the more you copy&clone everything you see. the easyer it is for a competant hand shaper to get work
just wait till there is a machine on every corner.
dont send them here there is allready a machine on every corner,
**hey bruce like you i am sick of walking on egg shells around this politicly correct fourum
**
**
**
**
**
hi huie. i used to love making shit but i think these days i like doing stupid grunt work and get money to buy my shit
http://www.facebook.com/v/1122670424939
grunt work rules. no fucking hassles and they treat you good cuz no other fcker is gunna do it
get it done go surfing
Hey Huie,
I’ve followed your posts for some time now… When have you ever walked on egg shells? It seems you come right out and say what you are thinking. Politicaly correct? Moderators here give lots of latitude on your postings. I don’t think you’ve ever been sensored.
Surfding,
Do you have as many groms in your area as when we were growing up? In my neighborhood, Malibu and Ventura, the average age is in their thirtys and fortys. It’s not nearly as aggressive as when we were kids. Talking to some kids and their parents, Malibu High has a big Heroin problem. More kids are partying (at least that’s what they call it) than surfing.
I grew up in Huntington Beach. When I was a kid there were about 10,000 people living here today:189,594 - 33% are between 25 - 30 (My boys are in this age bracket). Most of these kids are drug free and into health and fitness. The Grom population is a good 10,000 for each age segment. {5-9; 10-13; 13-16; 17-20}.
This is just for Huntington Beach then you have other big surf populations (San Clemente the next largest). Surfing is huge in Orange County. The parents seem to be really involved with their kids. In the mornings at the Pier you see Surf Moms dropping off their kids to surf at 5:30AM before school. On the week-ends you see parents on the beach in chairs with binoculars in hand watching little Johnny or Jane surfing a NSSA contest. When I was a kid it there was no organized surfing to speak of other than the WSA. We spend most of the summers unsupervised surfing up and down the coast from Lowers to Seal Beach. Now I find the parents really involved. Most of the boards I make are for kids and the parents are more than happy to cut me a check for their kids boards. If the kids are surfing and all hanging out with other good kids it’s money well spent and cheaper than a drug rehab up at Malibu.
Surfing to me is more than about big business it’s a pure sport with so many benefits to ones live style. It takes a custom board to enrich the whole experience.
That’s why I don’t think China will have as big effect on this segment of the market. However there are the bigger brands that will benefit from the overseas manufacturing. The small to medium size board builder has no business going this route and especially if he is copying other models other than his own then this become a moral issue.
I guess heroin and “partying” is allowed as long as you don’t run up too big a bill texting?
Yeah my last post was a rant…this subject has succeeded…I’ve gone 'round the bend. Now I know why people end up going ‘postal’.
Welcome to the machine.
Hey Huie,
I’ve followed your posts for some time now… When
have you ever walked on egg shells? It seems you come right out and
say what you are thinking. Politicaly correct? Moderators here give
lots of latitude on your postings. I don’t think you’ve ever been
sensored.
ha ha i hafta censor myself but i love yous.
**paul bit hard work thats good
**
I’ve been trying to stay off this thread but DS’ articulate rant and huie’s honesty about some of us having to hold back on here have brought me in.
I have personal experience with the ethics of those who seek out low-wage locations for manufacturing. Screw their ‘‘justifications’’ for all of it; they’re money-grubbing pigs who have taken surfing, bent it over, and…
My first experience was when a well-known mega-shop told me they’d taken one of my boards and had it ‘‘copied’’. I think they thought I’d be flattered or something. They told me in a matter-of-fact manner, like it was no big deal. They knew I wouldn’t sue 'em because they have lots more lawyers than me.
The second time a long-time customer (who happened to be an industry distributor) ordered a quiver of boards for himself. Except they went straight to scan in some far away place and started coming back in containers, totally without my knowledge. I found out about when some friends saw some of the boards and put two and two together. Since I don’t frequent mall stores and other mass-market ‘‘surf shops’’ I probably never would have seen them, which is likely what my ‘‘customer’’ had planned.
I wouldn’t trust any of these people any further than I could throw them.