North & Duotone - Your Questions Answered by CEO Till Eberle

[Legless]

You asked and Boards and More Answered... The full story of North - Duotone from Till Eberle CEO of Boards and More himself...

https://www.iksurfmag.com/features/the- ... erle-2018/

Enjoy!

[Kitemanmuc]

I just cant get passed the name. I couldnt back when they made snowboards, can't now. Especially hearing it said in a german accent.

[longwhitecloud]

"We are no longer part of sailing"

Well there you go. That sums it up doesnt it.

World Sailings attempt to steal kiteboarding is crumbling.

Slowly kiteboarding will take back control from the world sailing kiting kooks and their sellout subcontractors the IKA / GKA

By kiters for kiters, from the top down.

The time is coming.. who will be the sellouts$ and who will believe in the grassroots of kiteboarding.

[alford]

Okay great. Why the hell make your loyal customers wait two months to confirm the story? It makes me pissed and I don't have any skin in the game. I think they were hiding and scared shitless by the overwhelming negative response to the Duotone name selection. I find it clunky and actually hard to say. Is it pronounced "Do- tone" or " Do-a-tone? The Ion excuse is crazy too, everyone knows that it is North's line, sorry most Cabrinha riders wouldn't buy Ion, they have NP,
If they just would have gotten out in front of this mess they'd be so much better off for it. To wait until the shit storm settled a bit was a weak move IMHO.

[purdyd]

I suppose they could have called the company Eberle....

[madworld]

Okay great. Why the hell make your loyal customers wait two months to confirm the story? It makes me pissed and I don't have any skin in the game. I think they were hiding and scared shitless by the overwhelming negative response to the Duotone name selection. I find it clunky and actually hard to say. Is it pronounced "Do- tone" or " Do-a-tone? The Ion excuse is crazy too, everyone knows that it is North's line, sorry most Cabrinha riders wouldn't buy Ion, they have NP,
If they just would have gotten out in front of this mess they'd be so much better off for it. To wait until the shit storm settled a bit was a weak move IMHO.

I think they were contractionally obligated to keep there mouth shut and sell as many north branded gear as possible until a certain date.

[dice]

everyone knows that it is North's line

That everyone nearby you knows this doesn't mean that all the Ion buyers know this.
I'm pretty sure the biggest share of kiters don't know this.

[Peert]

Why do you guys assume Cabrinha clients won't buy ion if they find out the brand has some relation with another brand North/Duodenum?

Brand loyalty is not a religion? Is it?

[longwhitecloud]

kites are good gor brand loyalty as they can feel so different... fear of the unknown.. better the devil you know..

not for me, but general punters think like that often regurgitating the marketing words.. just like surfboards... so many opions... how many have you ridden.. 3 lol!

[WMFG]

Why do you guys assume Cabrinha clients won't buy ion if they find out the brand has some relation with another brand North/Duodenum?

Brand loyalty is not a religion? Is it?

If you are referencing the part about re-branding to Ion kites I think this is quite clear.
For sure there are "some" kiters out there that will feel peculiar to say use North harnesses when they fly Cabrinha kites, or a Liquid Force harness with a Core kite, etc, etc. Is this rational? Of course not. But I can tell you having worked in this industry forever it happens.

Other reason to keep Ion separate, Ion is currently selling to dealers that do not have North kites. This becomes more difficult if they were to put the kites under Ion.