What's the thing with Duotone?

[marten87]

Duotone make excellent stuff but so do few other top brands (Cabrinha, F-One, Naish, Ozone etc). Maybe their marketing is better but I can see things changing after their split with North sails. Very few on my spot anyway so it is probably country related?

That might be country related, but last year I visited Sicily, Mauritius, and Poland (well I live here) and each of those places were dominated by Duotone/North. On the other hand, all those destination are visited mostly by european guys... but there are other "european" brands like F-One, or Core and didn't notice so many of them.

[Toby]

Yes, country related.

Core and Duotone are German or German run.
So tons of them there.
Fone in France, RRD in Italy...

Also depends on local presence. Wherever you have a distributor a brand will be locally stronger.

[knotwindy]

Also, what the local schools teach with. Beginners will tend to keep what they learned on if they think they are getting a deal on price. So there tends to be lots of them in the air and others buy used and see even more in the air. And others see lots of them in the air and think, ‘well those must be good kites, there are lots of them being used’.

[vannibombonato]

I think that there is no kite brand on the market that is even remotely clearly superior vs competition, and if you think about it, this is also reflected in prices: they are all very similar.

Think about the difference vs other markets where you can buy, say, a 150 dollar smartphone or a 1,200 Iphone. Or a 20,000 random car vs a 200,000 Ferrari.

ThIs said, I have been riding North and now Duotone for the past few years, and marketing has nothing to do with it. My reasons are:
1- I believe they are of adequate quality for the price. Just like many other kites out there.
2- i just love the performance of my rebels. Again, I’m sure I could find similar performance in other kites.
3- they are very popular in schools and kite spots, meaning I can easily find replacements if I break something.
4- clickbar: expensive and a luxury, but a clearly superior product vs competition.

By the way, I think Duotone is possibly the worst brand name anybody has ever conceived. To me it sounds like some drug for some very bad illness.

[a99]

Fully agree. Im also on Rebel despite terribal local dealer of This brad in my country. Duotone sounds also something as auto repair part or medicare, very silly name, more to music equipment than sport. When real north will release this year their kite line will be interesting to compare after 5 years who won in this game. I ride my 10meter rebel from 11-12 knots to 40 knots, yes, 40 knots with 74 kg, prolonging rare lines on hi winds and happy. That says all to me. Stability in gust is perfect. So One kite one joy. Still have smaller and biger kites but most love this size.

[Faxie]

I think they're average on everything, except for marketing/distribution and that's mostly what sells stuff. I see the same thing in all kinds of markets I have been a part of...the biggest and most popular brands are average or above average quality wise, but never in the top. They all have big marketing budgets and good distribution though.

[a99]

Faxie, and which brands do you think are top if north/duotone is averige ? Yes north lines are low quality but kites in aerodynamic i think are in top level.

[Faxie]

Faxie, and which brands do you think are top in north/duotone is averige ? Yes north lines are low quality but kites in aerodynamic i think are in top level.

Performance Ozone and PL, quality Core (well...not the bar) and Crazyfly just to name a few well known ones.

I think the Duotones are on numerous aspects fundamentally wrong in design, where fixes are implemented to correct it. Not as bad as it used to be though. Performance comparable to Cab/Naish/Fone/Slingshot. Plenty good, but not the greatest. I've flown Neo, Evo and Rebel. Plus they have a tendency to lag behind all other brands with some things like valves or lines. Fone is like that too. Not something you would expect from a top brand.

If you don't agree that's fine. But no way I'm gonna pay top dollar for that.

[alford]

I recently tried Duotone Neo on Vacation. I thought quality was excellent and couldn't get over how easy they were to pump up! Not a reason to switch brands but I also loved how the kite flew and how the standard bar felt in hand. They have a great distribution network and discounts can be had on new gear. The new name isn't so bad and graphics are nice too, much better seeing live then online. I'd buy their gear no question.

[alford]

Faxie, you wrote "Performance Ozone and PL".
What is PL?