conspiracy theory: no way wings should be so expensive

[bragnouff]

I find it hard to believe that all these niche brands are designing and manufacturing their own products from scratch. The overheads are way too high for that. My suspicion (based on no data whatsoever) is that there's a few companies that design and build wings and foils and the various brands are simply selecting from a palette of features and color schemes. At best the brands test the prototypes and request different options from the menu.

That's not how it works. A brand will work with a designer to design a wing. The designer can be a permanent member of the company, or an outsider that is contracted for that job, and who could be contracted by other brands as well.
For instance, Damien Girardin was in house designer for Naish for a while, then he later designed some of the Takuma Wings, and he's probably now only designing the Reedin products. I believe Ken Winner is the in house designer for Duotone. In terms of design contractors, Alain Bernard, Sylvain Perretti, Mat Pendle, to name a few ... have at some stage designed for quite a few brands, including their own. On top of designs they produce with the brand, they have experience with manufacturing, contacts with factories, and the brands will then receive a series of prototypes, that will be tested and refined till the product is right and put on the market. All these designs are protected by contracts, and factories aren't allowed to just copy and rebrand and sell on alibaba. (or they'll lose their future business, and get some heavy fines). Design contractors of course have a portfolio of their designs, which they can reuse and tweak at will, according to whatever terms of contracts they are bound to. That's why you can find some wings from different brands that are extremely similar.

Then there are sub-par brands that will contact some factories directly and get access to some knock offs, kind of generic products that the manufacturers can produce outside of all legal copy issues. They'll produce a wing, but without any clue on the why and how a wing is designed in the way it is, it's likely that it'll be a shit performer. That's what you see on alibaba for just the manufacturing cost. (zero R&D, zero testing,... ) and what you'll see in Lidl in a couple of years. Gear that is outdated, with corners cut in terms of manufacturing.

I'd say, typically, small brands that come out of nowhere, without much legacy in the kite industry, and without much weight, will go for plain off the mill contracted designs, and a very limited series of prototypes to validate the product.
Big brands like F-One, Duotone etc... will capitalize on their history and design experience, or long term collab with desingners and will be able to afford enough prototypes to really push their products, and innovate.
Don't get me wrong, big isn't always better, there are also small brands, kind of one-man brands like Zeeko, with in-house designer, running extra lean, that can equally well put quality products on the market.

[alpaia]

Thanks for taking the time to explain this, it makes sense.

I remember an interview where Damien Girardin said it took them years at naish to build a successful partnership with their kite factory to get exactly what they wanted.
They also had partnership with teijin to develop the "exclusive" quad tex canopy.
And countless prototypes to refine a design and make sure a kite is flawless in every situation.

That also means that a major brand like naish will not change a best seller like the pivot drastically.

The R&D effort has to be amortized so innovation is incremental rather than disruptive.

That is why more disruptive innovation often comes from very small initiatives, like alpinefoil at the beginning was one passionate guy Damien Chaboud who believed it was possible and made it happen.
Y
So there has to be the two (major brands and small innovators)

As per prices, latest stuff will always be expensive... for those who want it
But there is always second hand or last years 30% off to start with.

[OzBungy]

I find it hard to believe that all these niche brands are designing and manufacturing their own products from scratch. ....

That's not how it works. ...

That makes sense for all the more substantial brands that have been around for a while. Less sense for every random brand that brings out a range of wings and "state of the art" foils after having zero presence in the wind and foil market.

Even some of the bigger surf-related brands like Dakine. No kites. No sails. No boards. Now they have a range of wings and foils. Add in all the Euro brands you've never heard of. All of a sudden they've spent months designing and testing and refining and learning all the tricks of manufacturing high-tech inflatable structures and carbon and marine alloys and all the rest. Really?