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Materials are getting more expensive...

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skinny
Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 6:05 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 12 Sep 2004 Posts: 2706
The price of almost everything is going up these days. The price of gas is always blamed. I understand higher costs for production can be a result of something like gas, but thats not the only thing thats contributing to this problem. Take this for example, the glue that I use has gone up by almost 10% per unit, polyester resin is up 300 dollars a 50 gal container. Paint, shipping, advertizing, packaging, all have have had price increases. Still the market price for a skateboard remains the same. Can skateboard manufacturing sustain these increased basic material costs and still be worth doing? It seems there is a double edged sword here, labor can be slashed, materials can be lower quality, but the sad thing is that the skateboard as we knew it might have to change...just to keep up.
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Area 51
Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 8:12 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 11 Mar 2005 Posts: 840 Location: Incredibly distant star
Resin Prices Skyrocket from Transworld Business
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ThePrankMonkey
Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 8:29 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 24 Oct 2004 Posts: 649 Location: LouEvil, KY
well to be fair while the price of everything goes up, its gone up in the past.

now THEY say (dont ask who they is i just dont know, elusive punks!) that the price of gas today is on par with what it use to cost way back in (name a year here) and it all evens out because of inflation. prices go up cost of living goes up and so do wages (more slowly than prices do thats for sure)

now if this hold true (i think it does but does so in a loose relative way) then its not getting more expensive, the numbers are just changing.

i remember buying decks for 50 bucks at the local skateshop and i can still get them for about that price now. that was over 15 years ago so i think we're overdue for prices increases (sorry changing of numbers, its all relative, remember?) on skate products.

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MileHighSkates
Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 9:04 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 28 Apr 2004 Posts: 2708 Location: Boulder County, CO
Selling any non-collector-oriented deck for more than 50 bucks is not easy. It still amazes me that boards sell for what they did some time ago (15-20 years).

"We've seen the enemy and he is us." -- Pogo
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dangersticks
Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 9:15 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 17 May 2003 Posts: 1594 Location: Bombora's, California
MileHighSkates wrote:
It still amazes me that boards sell for what they did some time ago (15-20 years).

They weren't a commodity then. Now anyone can call up a woodshop and make a deck. And of course there's the constant price pressure from overseas price-point manufacturers.

You should have seen the flipper board pricing in January-April '03. Due to enormous backstock, pro boards were $10-12 and the biggest wheel brand was $6 for a box of 4. Obviously offered at a loss to clear out the tens (in some cases, hundreds) of thousands of products rapidly going stale in "distributors'" warehouses.
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Area 51
Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 2:41 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 11 Mar 2005 Posts: 840 Location: Incredibly distant star
Just got the latest TWBiz (May 2005) and there's an article on the rise of petroleum and how it will affect skate wheel prices. Could be seeing an exodus of manufacturing from the US to China for wheels in the coming years, much like we've seen for boards.
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MileHighSkates
Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 3:28 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 28 Apr 2004 Posts: 2708 Location: Boulder County, CO
a51.ca wrote:
Just got the latest TWBiz (May 2005) and there's an article on the rise of petroleum and how it will affect skate wheel prices. Could be seeing an exodus of manufacturing from the US to China for wheels in the coming years, much like we've seen for boards.


Read that, too.

My first set of sealed-bearing wheels were Road Rider 4's. I think I paid $20-24 for the set. That's basically the going rate for non-high-end newschool wheels...
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skinny
Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 6:33 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 12 Sep 2004 Posts: 2706
Fact is a large percentage of urethane wheels are being produced outside the U.S.
I don't care about this sort of stuff anymore really. I am definately heading down a different path, I am realitively sure that I will be fucking up the sweet little honey pot that some people have been enjoying for a while now...including some of the people who will read this.
This will be a consious decision by me, mostly because I help out too many people, with no help in return.
So I guess you could consider this a heads up....

For example there are no Sierra Nevada decks in ColoRaDo skateshops.
I am not hard to get ahold of.....
As long as people are willing to pay someone else to do their jobs (I mean actually making something, instead of just writing a check) this stuff is only going to get worse. Owning a name....thats it, thats all it is.
Why not sweat alittle and build something. I could have a pissing contest about how much time(years) and money (a fukin fortune) I have spent just to get where I am, but who would care? When the ad you run in a magazine is closer to your job description than being an actual skateboard / wheel maker....you deserve to get bankrupted by Chinese made shit that "lowers costs and increases profits".

How long will that be available to you? When your "name" has lost its trendiness whats left? Can you say, "Do you want fries with that?".
Practice it a few times.
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MileHighSkates
Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 7:08 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 28 Apr 2004 Posts: 2708 Location: Boulder County, CO
Consider your target market/audience...

How many 7.8-8.5" (semi-)popsicles are there? Dozens? Hundreds? Figure most street/tech skaters are on a deck that size. Today at the park, I'd say it was 5:1 shop decks to name-brand decks.
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skinny
Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 7:13 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 12 Sep 2004 Posts: 2706
I guess thats the problem here, if you were talking to me....
you don't know anything about what I produce.
1/3 of my decks are popcicle the rest are unique shapes sized 8.25-9.0 with side cuts, and longer than normal wheel bases. I offer custom shapes, and custom graphic choices. Things unique to my designs.
I guess it is hard to see from way up there...
I have pictures posted on my site for everyone to see.
Being educated about this kind of stuff is as easy as looking into it and asking a couple questions.
Selling skateboards to little kids takes different skills than to educated skateboarders.
I guess thats why I can pick up two complete decks for 40 bucks at my local Walmart.
So what would happen if things went back to some resemblence of the old days, where exclusive dealers were allowed to sell a brand.
Think about this what if they started doing that again.....overseas?


Last edited by skinny on Tue May 03, 2005 7:24 pm; edited 1 time in total
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