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Officially announced: North becomes Duotone

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Re: Officially announced: North becomes Duotone

Postby FLandOBX » Thu Jun 21, 2018 8:56 pm

Toby wrote:
Thu Jun 21, 2018 6:17 pm
Thx for the details Dan.

If you want to change your name, let me know!
Just send me an email to info @
I vote for "DuoDan". :thumb:

I also appreciate the post from Dan-at-North. Helpful details. I have confidence that the new brand will be as successful as its predecessor.

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Re: Officially announced: North becomes Duotone

Postby Toby » Fri Jun 22, 2018 12:07 am

BUM Kiteboarding...

I would love this too!

You know what bum means in Brazil?

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Re: Officially announced: North becomes Duotone

Postby wjb » Fri Jun 22, 2018 12:11 am

RustyChain wrote:
Thu Jun 21, 2018 2:40 pm
I did like the name "North", but I come from sailing and windsurfing, so it had some name recognition. Duotone is not great but when you think of Naish, Cabrinha, and Burton (snowboarding I know) they are just the random names of the guys who founded the company.
Each one of those guys is a legend. Their name carries a lot cachet. Rebrand a Harley Davidson a Smith and Johnson and there will be an uproar. I have been a North rider since 06 and as someone who has given Boards and More thousands of dollars they could have done a way better job with a new name then picking some shitty name they already had the rights to. I see it as a grab for profits and a big middle finger to their customers. People are high if they think they are lowering prices.

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Re: Officially announced: North becomes Duotone

Postby RustyChain » Fri Jun 22, 2018 3:53 am

wjb wrote:
Fri Jun 22, 2018 12:11 am
RustyChain wrote:
Thu Jun 21, 2018 2:40 pm
I did like the name "North", but I come from sailing and windsurfing, so it had some name recognition. Duotone is not great but when you think of Naish, Cabrinha, and Burton (snowboarding I know) they are just the random names of the guys who founded the company.
Each one of those guys is a legend. Their name carries a lot cachet. Rebrand a Harley Davidson a Smith and Johnson and there will be an uproar. I have been a North rider since 06 and as someone who has given Boards and More thousands of dollars they could have done a way better job with a new name then picking some shitty name they already had the rights to. I see it as a grab for profits and a big middle finger to their customers. People are high if they think they are lowering prices.

Remember that part in Back to the Future III when Mad Dog Tannen askes Marty what his name is, and Marty says his name is Clint Eastwood. Mad Dog askes "What kind of stupid name is that?".

They weren't always legends, and it's tough to imagine how it was when they started. I get that it's not quite the same a renaming a major company in the industry.

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Re: Officially announced: North becomes Duotone

Postby longwhitecloud » Fri Jun 22, 2018 5:34 am

kiteboarding 2018... sad

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Re: Officially announced: North becomes Duotone

Postby iriejohn » Fri Jun 22, 2018 7:49 am

Toby wrote:
Fri Jun 22, 2018 12:07 am
BUM Kiteboarding...

I would love this too!

You know what bum means in Brazil?
In English English it can mean this.

Image

:heartface:

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Re: Officially announced: North becomes Duotone

Postby ced1 » Fri Jun 22, 2018 9:09 am

iriejohn wrote:
Toby wrote:
Fri Jun 22, 2018 12:07 am
BUM Kiteboarding...

I would love this too!

You know what bum means in Brazil?
In English English it can mean this.

Image

:heartface:
Nice Branding :thumb:

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Re: Officially announced: North becomes Duotone

Postby dlangpap » Fri Jun 22, 2018 7:11 pm

benkitesurfs wrote:
Thu Jun 21, 2018 7:15 pm
Dan-at-North wrote:
Thu Jun 21, 2018 5:52 pm
Hey guys-

Sorry for the silence on this whole topic but we've been really busy ramping up for the launch of the new brand. Now that the gloves are off I'm happy to answer any questions I can.

First, I think a lot of people on this forum understand the difference, but just to be clear, I've never worked for "north". My checks come from Boards and More, as do all of our team riders, designers, factories, etc. I've used the name "dan.at.north" and the affiliation "nkb" because it's easier for most consumers to understand. Boards and More is an amazing place to work with driven, talented, fun people. This crew has done impressive things for so many years that I have no doubt they'll continue to produce amazing gear, and have fun doing it, under the Duotone brand.

Just to kick it off I'll answer the most recent questions about product launch...

As with most other things involving this new brand, there won't be any huge changes from previous years... We will bring out the Rebel and Dice in August/September with Vegas and Neo to follow as quickly afterwards as the factories (same factories using same production schedules as before) can manage. Twintips and surfboards should be hot on their heels. Evo will follow in November/December and the Mono and Juice in the spring. As always, availability will depend on production speed, shipping, customs, etc so actual availability in your particular country may vary slightly from that schedule.

Oh, there was another question somewhere asking about who the hell this Till Eberle guy is... He's the man. He kites, rides cable, mountain bikes, surfs, snowboards, and runs a company like no other. He's also been signing my paychecks for years now. I'm not fishing for a raise here (though I wouldn't turn one down either) but honestly Till's hand on the tiller is what made all of our brands as strong as they are today. He also knows each employee personally, knows how to inspire them to work their hardest, and also makes sure they take time to recreate outside of work to maintain a healthy work environment. He's a natural athlete, a shrewd business man, and thoughtful manager. If anyone else proposed starting a new brand when our current brand was the market leader I probably would've jumped ship, but he's very capable and I have faith in his insight.

Oh yeah, the question of warranty/spare parts. In case it wasn't clear, we'll continue to support previous gear we've made/sold with the same high level of warranty support and parts availability as we always have.

Anyway, if you need more information, I would recommend you read Till's interview (posted elsewhere but here it is again: https://www.thekiteboarder.com/2018/06/ ... o-duotone/) and if anyone needs clairification on anything feel free to hit me up here or on PM.

-Dan
Thanks for the insight, Dan. I bought my very first North kites just a few weeks ago. I’m very happy with the kites and the click bar.

As others have stated here, at the end of the day, the brand name and the graphics don’t matter, Kite performance is what is most important. And I have all the confidence in the world that Ralf Grossel is one of the best kite designers in the world, so these new kites are going to be every bit as badass as the old North kites.

With that being said, I pay a lot of attention to detail in the brands that I choose to use. This is what drew me to Ion, and eventually to North. This brand change is a shock (especially the timing of it, since I literally just jumped on the North bandwagon when it rolled out from under me), but the reasons for it make perfect sense.

I do feel however, that B&M really let the customer down with the name choice. My perception of B&M was that they were shrewd marketers - they have most of the very best team riders, they make a ton of great YouTube content, and their kite graphics are beautifully done, and thematic. I thought that the company that brought us Ion, and the click bar, would have their finger on the pulse of this market, and would have carefully chosen a new name that would immediately become an icon in the industry.

Duotone will fly. Thanks to guys like Ralf Grossel and the click bar designers. The quality and engineering is undeniable. But my opinion is that you did yourselves a massive disservice by not putting as much thought into the brand name (which will ultimately be the calling card for the B&M Kiteboarding legacy) as you have into every other aspect of your products.
Very well put, except IMO the brand name and graphics matter greatly, maybe not in an accounting firm, but definitely in a kitesurfing and windsurfing company. And sure, you can neutralize a bad brand name with great products but you won't certainly be making your life easier.

To Dan I would like to ask if market research showed a completely different reaction to the one prevalent in this forum?

In any case, love my NEO, Dice and Kontakt and truly hope the transition goes OK.

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Re: Officially announced: North becomes Duotone

Postby benkitesurfs » Fri Jun 22, 2018 9:38 pm

dlangpap wrote:
Fri Jun 22, 2018 7:11 pm


Very well put, except IMO the brand name and graphics matter greatly, maybe not in an accounting firm, but definitely in a kitesurfing and windsurfing company. And sure, you can neutralize a bad brand name with great products but you won't certainly be making your life easier.

To Dan I would like to ask if market research showed a completely different reaction to the one prevalent in this forum?

In any case, love my NEO, Dice and Kontakt and truly hope the transition goes OK.
In the interview with the kiteboarder: https://www.thekiteboarder.com/2018/06/ ... o-duotone/
Till said the following when asked about the choice of name:

“When we were looking for a name for the new brand, we chose Duotone as the internal project name. The longer we worked with it, the more we realized that this name was a really good match for the new brand. On top of that, this name was already registered worldwide by Boards & More.”

Perhaps Dan can clarify this, but it reads to me like they created this internal projec name, and without doing any market research, they just decided to stick with it, because they were used to it, and it was already registered, so they saved some money. It’s incredibly strange to me that something so important, and permanent, was chosen so flippantly.

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Re: Officially announced: North becomes Duotone

Postby PullStrings » Fri Jun 22, 2018 10:01 pm

benkitesurfs wrote:
Fri Jun 22, 2018 9:38 pm
It’s incredibly strange to me that something so important, and permanent, was chosen so flippantly.
Image

Image


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