I'll have to change my name now North Kiteboarding is no more..

[Toby]

Carved also changed their kite name to Core...they are bigger then ever now.

But, different quantity involved at the current stage...

[SaltWaterDog]

Was that meant for me, Tim?

You would be surprised how the average consumer operates. Your point is perfectly reasonable and logical but people tend to be very particular about their brand loyalty. The corporate graveyard is littered with companies that thought they could do a name change and suddenly found themselves in trouble. Not saying this will happen to North or whatever they will be called, but it would surprise me if they didn’t take a hit because of this. There’s nothing wrong with their products of course, but messing with your brand (intentional or not) is a dangerous move in any industry.

No SaltWaterDog, just a general comment related to the name speculations Duotone and me looking at the sea realising that the North kites are coloured "duotone"

I would say it would be a challenge indeed to convince the North customers that nothing "but" the name will be changed, they might not feel the same about it..

Sorry for the mix up. I’m new to the forum.

The name seems decent enough. Not very catchy but I guess we will see. And I agree, the risk is always in how consumer trust gets weakened in all sorts of unexpected ways. Suddenly people hear a rumor that isn’t true and then all the ripple effects of that requires damage control etc. Impossible to foresee if and how bad it will be. But I think it’s not good for North, no matter how you spin it. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” as they say.

[SaltWaterDog]

Carved also changed their kite name to Core...they are bigger then ever now.

But, different quantity involved at the current stage...

Isn't that a little different though? As I understand it Carved has always wanted to be viewed as a focused custom board shop and Core is the mainstream arm of Carved doing kites and factory made boards.

I also think it’s very different when you do something like a name change in order to grow rather than doing it while you are top of the pile. North has been by far the largest in terms of market share from what I’ve read.

[nixmatters]

DUOTONE is out!

[SimonP]

Two European private equity companies fighting for control in a US court is a bit strange, the judge obviously thought so too. They are destroying a lot of brand value here. They should have cut a mutually acceptable deal much earlier.

[Kozzie]

been in the works for years

[Matteo V]

Great thread. Very interesting to see what kiters obsessed with brands do when you step on their "ant hill".

Always flown Best kites. Loved the designs, but never really cared about who was a Best rider or how cool the logo was. To each his own.

[TomW]

So the lawyers are going to take the money

[foilholio]

Always flown Best kites. Loved the designs, but never really cared about who was a Best rider or how cool the logo was. To each his own.

Subliminally though you ate that flying penis right up.

[Beardytello]

Always flown Best kites. Loved the designs, but never really cared about who was a Best rider or how cool the logo was. To each his own.

Subliminally though you ate that flying penis right up.