American Vendors: We need you to do better

@Moros I paractically do live next door to both enertion and evolve and they still sting you for shipping from china

1 Like

I won’t address some of the points since some of them were addressed by other users already but:

It really sucks but this is something that’s been prevalanet since even before the recent trade war activity. Does this war extend to things such as Plastic and Rubber? @Alphamail, has the recent trade war effect the PU industry in any way?

True but only by 200M (well that still is a lot), and some countries Ban EKS8s (looking at you Germany) which dwindles the population even more from the ESK8 worldwide population. And we sure do love our Premade boards , but there’s a still a present population of US builders.

Lol doesn’t matter to me since I can’t measure for shit in either measurement (I kid I kid but I have the inability to visualize a measurement) :joy:

1 Like

You guys stop complaining and should come to Aus. We have nothing here that doesn’t really come from here. Enertion used to be good and that’s about it. Our battery guys have a ridiculous pricing and every other bits and pieces either have to come from the US, China or Europe with some higher shipping costs Boone really appreciates.

3 Likes

We have not been affected yet with the ongoing trade BS and we sell a fair amount into China. The Chinese want American made goodness

11 Likes

Pfffft…when you guys are done window shopping a bunch of goofy shit like handles and pulley covers, The goods are here. and made here too.

19 Likes

I swear to God I’m gonna get this tatood on my frikkin forehead, Im so tired if saying it…

This ain’t Walmart or Amazon Prime. This market is miniscule compared to underwear, tampons, Pop Tarts, etc. If you want a 6374 motor for 60 bucks, they can be had…they are crap and even make terrible paper weights, but you can get them in the US. @psychotiller and @JLabs and @torqueboards all have fuckin great motors, all of which are available right here in the US.

Sure @okp makes some badass gear, but it’s specialized. There’s not room for 6 people to make $200 risers or evolve 63mm motor mounts. If the market would support it, that’s what everyone would be selling.

This is an issue with sourcing and market availability, nothing more. Go by Dave a beer and ask him why he doesn’t sell lime green motor covers with LEDs and a bottle opener included. His answer will be that there’s no profit and likely because HE wouldn’t use it.

Go get a steak with Dexter and bring the conversation around to “so when are the frilly lace laser cut grip tape patterns in dung yellow coming out?”. His answer will be " dude, WTF is wring with you?".

He Jared, when am I gonna be able get water melon jolly rancher flavored wheels?

I’ll say it one more time for you slow folks…

  1. This is an issue with sourcing and market availability, nothing more
  2. This ain’t Walmart or Amazon Prime

*** I would buy the hell out of some 97mm 75a water melon jolly rancher flavored wheels :grin:

15 Likes

Best god damned flavor ever!!!

Even if any of that crap was profitable I wouldn’t sell it. Lame by the pound is still lame.

8 Likes

No shit :grin:    

6 Likes

I think it’s very easy to get lost in this forum and begin thinking the market for this stuff is huge. But it’s not if anything demand is limiting the esk8 market not supply, in my opinion at least.

4 Likes

Interesting and I’ll even admit that might lack of knowledge really lead to the naivety of this post and topic as a whole, so I do appreciate everyone’s comments since it’s helping shape my thoughts on this.

Again , I ain’t mean no I’ll will against any US vendors since I do love you guys. I’m just frustrated at the rate of diverse offerings that the EU has compared so the US

God…I’m sounding like Donald Trump… someone hit me already.

2 Likes

It’s all good. Just understand there are some great parts to be had in US. I’m really at a loss as to what is not available that is actually important. The only thing that comes to mind is gear drive systems.

2 Likes

Great perspective and I appreciate you sharing it. But it is one-sided specifically for a DIY Consumer which is a very small market. In a business sense, it can be good but can also be bad. Just depends on what your goals are of course. True DIY’ers make their own parts hence the reason why there are so many options available on Thingiverse but those parts will always typically always be a DIY part (not enough scale, niche item, not many people will need or want it as it’s not a complete solution).

Selling smaller niche items or 3d printed parts is a temporary bandaid solution. No need for us to sell that if you can just 3d print it. A 3D printer costs about $200 for a small decent one nowadays.

We’re currently focusing on R&D to change the landscape and provide more reliable commercial products for the DIY Market as well as a Pre-built market.

As a small business, you can’t scale complete diversity… Only large corporations like Amazon/Walmart/etc can scale diversity because they have unlimited man power and capital to do so.

It’s the same reason why Enertion has one board and one board only and it only makes good business sense to do it in that way.

10 Likes

@TinnieSinker does great batteries right here at home for a reasonable price.

America’s not so bad. The finest and most commercially successful electric longboard in the world is designed a few miles from my home in Mountain View, California - and North American-designed products dominate regular longboarding and skate.

I also take heart seeing a focus on platforms and not parts.

Lacroix just set the bar for this; instead of manufacturing 10 different decks with 10 different purposes, Lacroix launched one focused, esk8-only platform and they’ve catapulted themselves from literal obscurity to being reviewed among the best esk8 platforms in the world.

Likewise, Kaly’s remix of the Trampa formula - up-armoring a Trampa for Brooklyn road duty and giving it enough juice to cross Manhattan - platform.

I even think we’re seeing a whole new class of “Super Duty” AT sleds emerge, like the new @psychotiller and @treenutter collab on the Red Ember 44 that’s designed specifically for Psycho Six Shooters on Surf Rodz.

I understand your point; an American firm could easily design a cohesive line of esk8 accessories for the DIY enthusiast.

It seems to me, however, that the wind in the Americas is blowing towards more esk8 platforms, instead of any dedicated focus on parts. I think that’s good. :slight_smile:

7 Likes

Seriously I don’t mind waiting for parts to arrive because truth be told most purchases are made on line nowadays anyway but to be able to walk into a shop and pick up a set of six shooters just makes me jealous as all hell lol I was reading @psychotiller post about new wheel stock and @thisguyhere said don’t ship mine i’ll pick them up wow to be able to do that! lucky bastards!! That said most of the major parts that I do order are shipped from the states. Its not even the lack of vendors over here that gets me its the lack of machine shops where you can get small parts made up. Yes there are lots of fabricators out there but unless you are buying serious amounts won’t do a one off or small order at all. Just not interested.
The market in the US is so much bigger too especially used parts and such. So many times something I really want pops up on here and is stateside. So moral is Revel in what you have guys it could be so much worse!!

5 Likes

Fuck yeah, bruh. Those come with blinking pink LEDs inside, right?

1 Like

You know it :grin:

The first Skateboards in the world were manufactured in the US. I think it’s cool that some segments of the industry are lead in other countries. Skating should be a global experience; with a global community!

7 Likes

@pat.speed y’all also have awol, I wanna try an awol build but they don’t ship to us :frowning:

I quite like the deck, it’s very stiff and has some nice concave. The shape of the co cave is a little different though, it’s not rounded like usual it’s flat