Liquid force kiteboarding stops business

[xanpet]

I hope it’s a joke....

[revhed]

Interesting, strange?
B S marketing and product failure karma catching up?
Warranty issues?
And what about the now infamous "FUNNY foil" what a P O S!

P O S.jpeg (7.12 KiB) Viewed 3658 times

R H

[Toby]

Doesn’t sound like a joke.
Sad to hear.

I assume Corona gave the final shot to it.

It’s all about numbers...if not profitable it gets closed.
It’s understandable.

Good luck for the future!

[jumptheshark]

Interesting, strange?
B S marketing and product failure karma catching up?
Warranty issues?
And what about the now infamous "FUNNY foil" what a P O S!
P O S.jpeg
R H

Slag them all you want, but the fact remains, Liquid Forve played a big role in cracking open the kite hydrofoiling market in north america. Without their low cost entry that you so loathe the market as a whole would be far less developed.

Going back to the early years, LF have played a significant role in the sport on many levels.

Though I have never really been that into the brand, respect where respect is due. I give them credit specifically for sponsoring some of the more legendary riders, especially throughout the golden years of kiteboarding style.

[Havre]

When I bought my first piece of equipment in 2015 I was close to buying LF (I believe mackiteboarding or something had this "beginners package"). I randomly ended up with Ozone (second hand) instead. So I don't have anything against LF or really any relationship with the brand since that "almost purchase" some years ago. I do feel for the people losing their job, maybe losing access to their favourite brand etc., but at the same time I do believe the industry should see some consolidation. Not that I want it to end up like with cycling where you got Shimano dominating the market hardly ever coming up with anything new - and if you don't like Shimano you can basically choose between one or maybe two other solutions. It would be horrible if we ended up with the same in kiting, but at the same time we really don't need the number of brands we currently got. Some economies of scale will only help both in terms of product development and costs.

[SWO_kite]

I'm actually disappointed. I'v owned several liquid force kites for years now and they have surprisingly good quality. I was actually just looking to buy a small set of P1's.

I realize the kite market is saturated, but yet another brand out of the running. It just gives the bigger brands more power to charge more money for their stuff. $1k for a bar!? Ridiculous.

Perhaps they could have saved themselves if they focused on selling 1 or 2 kites/board models in stead of a complete lineup. My opinion is that kite gear is too specific these days, most riders are just Joe's going out for a boot. Do they really need to release 5 new kite types EVERY YEAR? No. Most of us buy kites and keep them for years. Seems obvious.

[Toby]

The big question now is: who is next ?

[Havre]

I don't think we are even close to having any sort of oligopoly where a small number of big companies can allow themselves not to compete on cost/price.

I guess Decathlon tried some years ago to go full mass market? I would love it if we saw someone moving in to make the sport more financially accessible. Like in every other business I'm sure the niche producers ("Ferraris") will still survive. Or I would love it from the point of view that I would like as many as possible to kite if they want to, but in a purely selfish way this ridiculously expensive gear makes overcrowding less of an issue....

[leeuwen]

I guess Decathlon tried some years ago to go full mass market? I would love it if we saw someone moving in to make the sport more financially accessible..

Decathlon is current selling Kitesurf gear including kites in my country.
E.g. 9m costs 750 and they have a very limited choice (Only size 12 9 7 5). Looks like an extreme low aspect delta shape in the pictures.
Their twintip (seems very basic) costs 300. Weirdly I cannot seem to find a bar on their site.

To be honest you can easily find similar prices on new gear from last year at this price level so it is not really adding much to table.
Also at this price I would personally rather give my money to a dedicated kite brand/company then to this megacorp.

[ralu81]

I have only owned LF twin tips so this is pretty disappointing for me as I do like their boards and have been very durable for me. For me over the years I 've noticed you can always find last years kites at big discounts from most brands, which has kept me away from jumping to the Switch kites of the world. Twin tips seem a little harder to find. You could always find LF twin tips for 200-300 for year or two old "new" boards that you would actually want.