Duotone 2020

[iriejohn]

You know what pisses me off, Dan-at-Duotone?

Duotone website: True Kiteboarding. True Windsurfing.

Northkb website: We are true North.

[Dan-at-Duotone]

Hahaha. Me too. Rumor has it that NTG's lawyers are trademarking the word so you might not have to worry about us using it anymore. Apparently the fact that we made this book over ten years ago and have been using the True Kiteboarding tagline for even longer doesn't matter.
download/file.php?mode=view&id=89140

[mmac]

True dat Dan!

[omg]

We in the US are dealing with very low inflation, but it's still 1-2%, so that's almost half of the increase right there. Labor prices in China have been increasing at a pretty steady 8% annually for the past 10 years
For shipping, BDI went from 500 in 2015 to 1700 this year. And remember that we're dealing with forecasts as well, with trade tensions what they are I'm guessing that we're forecasting increased difficulties/costs in production/shipping/importing.

When you consider those numbers one could argue that we're lowering our retail relative to input costs. Like I said, we're always working with factories/suppliers looking for how to improve cost efficiency without sacrificing qualtiy. People love to demonize companies for raising prices, claiming we're fleecing the customer, implying that we're basing our pricing on exactly how much we think we can get the customer to pay. The truth is that we (and every other kite company) work as hard as we can to keep prices down.

As a fairly avid mountain biker I understand all too well the pain/frustration with watching prices go up... Bikes are INSANELY expensive now, and prices go up every year (significantly more than they have for kites), but I appreciate all the small improvements made year-on-year and as much as I hate parting with close to 10 grand for a toy that I'm basically going to destroy, I generally reup every year because dammit I love my toys.

-Dan

Thanks Dan. It's quite surprising what smaller companies can deliver; e.g. Kauper XT's 12meter kite, which doesn't give up anything in terms of quality and finishing, has about 50% lower prices on their kites. May be much less testing etc. with less man power compared to big firms. Nevertheless, makes to you realize what the management costs are for the bigger brands with wider selection of offerings... or the fat in the organizations or both

[Mo]

You know what pisses me off, Dan-at-Duotone?

Duotone website: True Kiteboarding. True Windsurfing.

Northkb website: We are true North.

Soon we will know how True NTG are... Don't worry about it, it is very clear where the reality is

[COOP]

G’day Dan
Have the lines changed on the 2020 bars?

Cheers

[Leon van Bergen]

Jup, here they are; https://www.northkb.com

[Qiter]

Interesting to see that the new North kiteboarding video has a clear Duotone feel to it, i.e. it looks like the Duotone videos with the same scenarios and (almost?) the same spots. (If you switch the sound off, of course..)
If it was not for the North logo on the kites, you could bet the images are from Duotone.
Either their creative director is not very creative or they deliberately play on the similarity and try to get some people confused..

[iriejohn]

You know what pisses me off, Dan-at-Duotone?

Duotone website: True Kiteboarding. True Windsurfing.

Northkb website: We are true North.

Soon we will know how True NTG are... Don't worry about it, it is very clear where the reality is

Mo: "Brand Affiliation: Duotone"

Well, you would say that, wouldn't you?

[wrogu]

Had a go on a Dice 9/12. I was prety impressed. Very good and easy jumper. 12 was really easy to jump high compared to vegas 12m. Good enough unhooked for my basic set of tricks. Loops were odd, I kind of liked them but timing is different to what I am used to - looping vegases. Did not catch me on loops where vegas prolly would. On the other hand my friend had no problems with dice to catch him (he has dices 2018/neos/rebels). I have to work on my timing. I also liked bar feel. It is not so super direct as Vegas but direct enough for me. Turns with less power. Has a lot more hangtime compared to vegas. Very stable in sky (wind was not gusty tho). All in all I was impressed and I think it is a better choice for an intermediate kiter than a vegas is.

Had a chance to try Rebel as well (10m) - very easy jumper, with quite good bar feel for such a kite.

Kites look great in sky, I like graphics a lot, way better than last year.

Duotone will prolly not change lines this year - they use same lines for bridles as they do in their bars. I do not like that. On the other hand there are separate pigtails in newer bars -less wear at the end of lines. Duotone lines tend not to stretch a lot. And sliders move on a thicker lines incorporated into the bridle (rebel).