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Naish's designer leaving after 15 years of success

Posted: Fri Aug 09, 2019 12:02 am
by Toby
After 15 years of working at Naish as brand manager and kite designer, Damien Girardin has made the decision to resign from his position in order to pursue new projects.

He is “proud of all the accomplishments made in the past 15 years.”

Simply saying that Girardin is a “great designer and brand manager” would be an understatement; he has played a pivotal role in the brand’s success over the years. Through his seemingly effortless innovation, Girardin has reshaped the industry and allowed clients to view kite design and material through an unseen, new perspective. His original creation of the Sigma series propelled him into the most recent design of the Pivot and Boxer kites, both of which have largely impacted the industry in recent years. Furthermore, he continued with impressive work like the apex binding, largely viewed as the leading, unparalleled kiteboarding binding on the market and the eventual fabrication of innovative control systems. One of his highly regarded projects remains the Quad Tex material developed with Teijin. His work on the latest inflatable SUP range introduced a whole new dynamic to said segment of the brand. His last masterful creation for Naish, the Wingsurfer (coined through the remembrance of his father’s use of the original Windsurfer), has propelled the commencement of an entirely new sport: Wingriding.

Girardin’s constant quest for perfection and incessant intent of providing user friendly material has been a cornerstone of the Naish kiteboarding brand for the past 15 years.

Girardin served as the mind behind and coordinator of countless marketing projects such as the Naish House I and II, Naish kiteboarding TV seasons, and multiple photo and video shoots. He aided in launching unique projects with passion, creativity, and ambition.

“It has been a great journey and I’m grateful to Andy Church (Naish’s General Manager) and Robby Naish for the opportunities presented to me over the years. My gratitude further extends to all of the Naish distributors, dealers, and customers that I ultimately view as those I truly worked for. My overall mission has always been to create an exceptional experience for all individuals, from the moment they purchase my products all the way through their riding time. Additionally, I was offered incredible opportunities to interact with brilliant professional athletes whom I have seen rise from young aspiring pros into world champions, kings of the air, and true legends of kiteboarding.

Although I’ll always cherish the past experiences, I am ready to embark on new personalized projects. I will be pursuing my passions and am excited to work as a designer and marketer through my new company DGD and on other projects. Mahalo to you all, the journey is just beginning!”

Damien Girardin has a Master’s degree in Industrial Design from Université de Aix Marseille and a Master of Engineering in Mechanics and Materials from École Centrale de Marseille.

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Re: Naish's designer leaving after 15 years of success

Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2020 6:51 pm
by Ice101
I’m sure he and Kevin will be a huge loss to Naish but will be exciting to see what they come up with together with their Readinkites venture. :-) will certainly put more pressure on the others to innovate and push their kite design further. Who knows maybe they will price slightly more reasonably as well?

Re: Naish's designer leaving after 15 years of success

Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2020 6:57 pm
by SWO_kite
Ice101 wrote:
Mon Jan 13, 2020 6:51 pm
Who knows maybe they will price slightly more reasonably as well?
I sincerely doubt this. Starting a new company with zero sales will not allow them price hyper-competitively.

Perhaps in 5-10 years if they are still around they could tackle this.

Re: Naish's designer leaving after 15 years of success

Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2020 7:55 pm
by POACHER
ZERO disrespect to Kevin, but I'm more intrigued in Damien's contribution as a designer for this new company. Having Kev as the rider talent is going to be worth keeping an eye on for sure.

Aluula Pivot 2.0.....?

(please?)

Re: Naish's designer leaving after 15 years of success

Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2020 9:51 pm
by grigorib
@2:20


Re: Naish's designer leaving after 15 years of success

Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2020 2:02 pm
by Seawolf
SWO_kite wrote:
Mon Jan 13, 2020 6:57 pm
Ice101 wrote:
Mon Jan 13, 2020 6:51 pm
Who knows maybe they will price slightly more reasonably as well?
I sincerely doubt this. Starting a new company with zero sales will not allow them price hyper-competitively.

Perhaps in 5-10 years if they are still around they could tackle this.
Switch kites did it when they first came out...Worked fine for many years. Who knows what their up to now
I think reasonably priced kites is much needed if you want to recruit new riders to the sport.

Re: Naish's designer leaving after 15 years of success

Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2020 2:28 pm
by a99
It's naive to think that such pro well known rider and winner of Kota and well known designer will sell their new kites for less than 1000usd :) probably will be most expensive brand ever, probably above 2000 usd :) Anyway, from few comments i understand that are thinking people who understand that only new technologies/materials now can give more better result of flying kite, as all today stantart kites had all possible variations of forms and shapes. Now all depends from new materilas as alulla or others. And of course weight of kite as less as possible. If he will do kites only for big airs and pros i think it will be not happy end.

Re: Naish's designer leaving after 15 years of success

Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2020 12:10 am
by foilholio
Another kite brand, HURRAH!



I would have guessed Robby getting old said "Hey kid here's some money and here is how we are going to do this". But the name and a designer from naish...maybe Robby woke up and just had to get rid of them... If any rider was to start a kite brand that would garner my interest it would be Kai Lenny. I am just not certain a rider is ideal for it though.

Good luck Kevin, you will seriously need it.

Re: Naish's designer leaving after 15 years of success

Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2020 4:12 am
by John Doe
This is a bummer for Naish. Aside from all his professional accolades, he was a nice, humble, helpful guy to me a few years back.

I was on Maui 7-8 years ago at an out of the way beach with a very tricky launch, sketchy wind. Some of the locals weren't real helpful, no worries. Damien came over told me where to launch, walked my kite back, tossed it up, pulled it out of the surf when I blew it. And then he did it all again & got me off the beach & into the water. I wasn't on a Naish. Never knew who he was till a few years after that. Nice guy.