Kiteforum.com

Is this, like, an auction, man? I'll bid $20!

OK, here are 20 Euro so I beat you. No seriously, what might it be worth ?

I bid $10 000 nz - i really like the brand, its roots, its position as a kitesurfing company and not a water sports company, and my first kite was a 2 line 8.5m freeair. I think I would do a great job with it even in these hard times and over saturated market!

My first kitesurf kite was the 8.4 Airblast in 2001... it was the 5strut version that came with no quick release. Unfortunately, my first harness had a wheel on it where the hook should have been so I lashed the chickenloop to make it small so it clipped onto the wheel. So many great memories of that kite!

It would be pretty cool to buy the Wipi brand and make a modern day Airblast... same proportions, but maybe refined a bit and with a quick release!

would be cool if someone buys the brand and positions it in the roots of kiteboarding...an big air/old school brand, only teamriders who jump high!!!

Retro style!

tungsten222 wrote:Not much to sell here... I did a quick search and found that (for the relevant class 28) Bruno Legaignoux holds the WIPIKA trademark in the US, with priority of 2001. There's no WIPIKA TM registered as a European TM. And there are two german guys holding a WIPIKA TM in Germany with prioriy of 1999.

That's wrong, I own it in some more countries. I have the certificates.

You are a one man agenda Toby you and some of the kitesc00perz as bad as each other. lol

I guess we are talking another level of pricing? Is it a closed bid? Make my bid US dollars 10 000

kookfest wrote:They were let down by poor quality control. Back in 2001-2 they kept selling Mylar leading edge kites, despite knowing they had major problems with blowouts and seam tears. A lot of guys from the early days vowed never to ride Wipika again and told their friends.

Ok, to be more accurate:
- we had no delamination problems with WHITE mylar on ANY of the Wipika kites sold from 1997 to 2000. I "designed" that fabric with Dimension USA in 1996 and they supplied it.
- I partnered with a japanese guy in 1999, in charge of the business side
- I settled myself in Dominican Republic in early 2000 in order to concentrate on design
- Mathieu Pendle (now Globerider) was in charge of all technical matters, in France
- Dimension Polyant GERMANY designed a "copy" of the Dimension US mylar fabric
- they decided to use it because Polyant offered it in various colors, more attractive for the customers
- I was against using their coloured mylar for various reasons
- Wipika was selling 17000 kites at that time
- when they saw that the fabric delaminated, they had so much fabric in stock at LAM (our chinese kite maker) and so much demand that LAM and the japanese decided to keep producing untill they get another fabric and can replace the defective products
- I then decided to stop my relationship with the japanese and LAM
- Polyant never recognized the manufacturing defect, arguing that mylar can't support kite constraints (although we had proven the contrary for 3 years and that they had designed this shitty fabric for the kitesurf market !!!)
- Polyant was never sued because LAM had so much business with them (sails, paragliders...) that he refused to sue

In short, that's the sad story.

WHITE mylar on ANY of the Wipika kites sold from 1997 to 2000. I "designed" that fabric with Dimension USA in 1996 and they supplied it.
- I partnered with a japanese guy in 1999, in charge of the business side
- I settled myself in Dominican Republic in early 2000 in order to concentrate on design
- Mathieu Pendle (now Globerider) was in charge of all technical matters, in France
- Dimension Polyant GERMANY designed a "copy" of the Dimension US mylar fabric
- they decided to use it because Polyant offered it in various colors, more attractive for the customers
In short, that's the sad story.[/quote]
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Hi, Bruno,
Thanks a lots for the info... I worked with Mat Pendle and the Japanese as well as had worked in LAM factory too... However, I did not know the situation between Dimension Polyant Germany and Dimension USA, till your words above. Since they all start with Dimension, are they the same Group Organization, aren't they? Just a copy, then, they must be sued for copyright.
Yah, the numbers of the Wipika kites used to sell and ship are unbeatable high in today histroy and industrial, I can say that.

Henry769 wrote:Since they all start with Dimension, are they the same Group Organization, aren't they? Just a copy, then, they must be sued for copyright.

Yes they are the same group but they design and produce independantly and from what happened to us, it seems they even compete.
Although they had to be cautious, Dimension US gave me some technical information about why the Polyant fabric failed.