Contact   Imprint   Advertising   Guidelines

Lou wainman quits wainman Hawaii

Forum for kitesurfers
fdvj
Frequent Poster
Posts: 428
Joined: Wed Mar 11, 2009 9:57 pm
Local Beach: lancing
Style: freeride
Gear: naish nobile
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Lou wainman quits wainman Hawaii

Postby fdvj » Mon Mar 10, 2014 2:46 pm

They can't even drop the Wainman and just call it Hawaii as the company is Polish and Lou was the only bit that was from Hawaii :D

User avatar
tautologies
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 10864
Joined: Mon Feb 16, 2004 5:36 am
Brand Affiliation: None
Location: Oahu
Has thanked: 100 times
Been thanked: 156 times
Contact:

Re: Lou wainman quits wainman Hawaii

Postby tautologies » Mon Mar 10, 2014 6:28 pm

I doubt Waiman has had much to do with anything in thing company except being on the pics. Same thing for Best.
Epic folded before D left..he left because they folded.
CaptainArgh wrote:Yeah, this company will die without him.
Best seems to be muscling through without Shannon with a lot of investment dollars in team, marketing and development. But Wainman has never had that big of a presence. People bought the kites because they believed in Lou's vision for gear.

Think back to when the company was founded. He wanted to make kites and boards that stayed in the market as long as they were relevant, not based on the model year. So if a 2012 board rocked, offer it to people as long as it was relevant. Don't re-invent graphics and technology just to show year to year change that is unnecessary.

I believe the gear was originally designed around his visions, and with that lost, the company is likely to fold. Kind of like Eclipse folded when Dmitri left. Eclipse wasn't named after D, but he was the face of the company and it was where he had taken ideas Airush wouldn't let him develop.

I hope Lou made some money out of the arrangement and moves on to something better. :thumb:
I'm also surprised Lou lasted there as long as he did.

L0KI
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 2817
Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2005 1:17 am
Gear: .
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: Lou wainman quits wainman Hawaii

Postby L0KI » Mon Mar 10, 2014 7:07 pm

Oldnbroken wrote:Franz, Bertrand, Nico, Aaron, Sharon and Drew are all affiliated to Lou, not the money guy.
The design of the kites, twintips and surfboards all are due to direct input from Lou, Franz, Bertrand and Nico (and others).
These people are not from Poland.
The presence of the people in Hawaii and Florida are all important pieces to their current product line and the development of the company from the beginning until now.
The Twintip boards are made in Austria.
I think the surfboards are made in China.
The kites are made in a factory nowhere near Poland.
Most of the testing and refining of the product is directly due to this group of people and much of that happens in Hawaii.
The money source is another story.
I hope something positive happens because the kites are unique in kiteboarding, nothing else feels very similar to the Wainman kites. The Joke TT is also a unique board, does not feel like any other twin I've even ridden or owned.
Some small kiteboarding companies are delivering some of the most interesting kites in the business.
Be a shame to be left with nothing but the big five.

fdvj
Frequent Poster
Posts: 428
Joined: Wed Mar 11, 2009 9:57 pm
Local Beach: lancing
Style: freeride
Gear: naish nobile
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Lou wainman quits wainman Hawaii

Postby fdvj » Mon Mar 10, 2014 7:17 pm

Oldnbroken wrote:
Oldnbroken wrote:Franz, Bertrand, Nico, Aaron, Sharon and Drew are all affiliated to Lou, not the money guy.
The design of the kites, twintips and surfboards all are due to direct input from Lou, Franz, Bertrand and Nico (and others).
These people are not from Poland.
The presence of the people in Hawaii and Florida are all important pieces to their current product line and the development of the company from the beginning until now.
The Twintip boards are made in Austria.
I think the surfboards are made in China.
The kites are made in a factory nowhere near Poland.
Most of the testing and refining of the product is directly due to this group of people and much of that happens in Hawaii.
The money source is another story.
I hope something positive happens because the kites are unique in kiteboarding, nothing else feels very similar to the Wainman kites. The Joke TT is also a unique board, does not feel like any other twin I've even ridden or owned.
Some small kiteboarding companies are delivering some of the most interesting kites in the business.
Be a shame to be left with nothing but the big five.
Like you said these people are affiliated to LOU ! The money guy is from Poland I believe, without this group of people the link to Hawaii is lost. Anyone can test kites anywhere but that doesn't make them from that place.
I also agree that they had a unique element to their approach but I am seeing less and less Rabbit kites around.

L0KI
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 2817
Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2005 1:17 am
Gear: .
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: Lou wainman quits wainman Hawaii

Postby L0KI » Mon Mar 10, 2014 7:45 pm

fdvj wrote:
Oldnbroken wrote:
Oldnbroken wrote:Franz, Bertrand, Nico, Aaron, Sharon and Drew are all affiliated to Lou, not the money guy.
The design of the kites, twintips and surfboards all are due to direct input from Lou, Franz, Bertrand and Nico (and others).
These people are not from Poland.
The presence of the people in Hawaii and Florida are all important pieces to their current product line and the development of the company from the beginning until now.
The Twintip boards are made in Austria.
I think the surfboards are made in China.
The kites are made in a factory nowhere near Poland.
Most of the testing and refining of the product is directly due to this group of people and much of that happens in Hawaii.
The money source is another story.
I hope something positive happens because the kites are unique in kiteboarding, nothing else feels very similar to the Wainman kites. The Joke TT is also a unique board, does not feel like any other twin I've even ridden or owned.
Some small kiteboarding companies are delivering some of the most interesting kites in the business.
Be a shame to be left with nothing but the big five.
Like you said these people are affiliated to LOU ! The money guy is from Poland I believe, without this group of people the link to Hawaii is lost. Anyone can test kites anywhere but that doesn't make them from that place.
Every kite company has the flying goods manufactured in SriLanka, VietNam, or several locations in China.
The product designers (CAD guy) can reside anywhere and send files electronically, as we all know.
The graphic designer (CAD guy) also has the ability to work from anywhere.
Testing and demoing kites is limited to places that have wind and water and preferably a place that has lots of wind and water all year long.
Then they need people capable of giving the feedback required to conceptualize, test and refine the designs into great finished working prototypes that are ready for the nuts and bolts part of the company to bring the finished ideas to market.
The question really comes down to where the ideas and the shaping of the products came from.
I believe that had far more to do with Lou, Nico, Franz, Bertrand, and several other kiters associated with Lou Wainman than it did with Mike Husky and the Polish part of the company.
They obviously need both sides of that equation to be successful.
I'm not sure that the guys from Poland have come so far as the group at Best that was running the company (including concept, design, testing, QC, distribution, sales, etc, etc.) with almost zero input from Shannon Best for years before he left.

User avatar
CaptainArgh
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 2816
Joined: Tue Jul 08, 2003 7:06 pm
Style: freeride, surf, slicks, dwindr exploring
Gear: SS RPM 6, SST 8/10 and Rally 12
Location: MD
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 8 times
Contact:

Re: Lou wainman quits wainman Hawaii

Postby CaptainArgh » Mon Mar 10, 2014 7:58 pm

tautologies wrote:I doubt Waiman has had much to do with anything in thing company except being on the pics. Same thing for Best.
Epic folded before D left..he left because they folded.
...
Well then I guess I bought into the hype. It was communicated that some of the unique aspects of Wainman products were ideas Lou had that were allowed to develop in that environment. I find it hard to believe that he would have started up that venture with his own name if he didn't have a say in the product design, but I honestly don't know any better. That's just what I was led to believe and made sense based on things we knew about his desire to innovate.

With Eclipse... they had a really bad production run and people who pre-paid were left without kites or customer support. If they would have made it right AND Dmitri stayed...they'd probably still be around. But since they didn't, yup... they were done already. Good point. There's more to the Wainman story and maybe they're out of cash also. Hannah just left them. Any other team riders coming or going recently?

If the only things Shannon brought to Best were his name and the Best girls...he did alright. :) But I suspect he brought a bit more.

eree
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 1261
Joined: Sun Jul 13, 2008 9:49 am
Brand Affiliation: None
Location: shallow sea
Has thanked: 9 times
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: Lou wainman quits wainman Hawaii

Postby eree » Mon Mar 10, 2014 9:33 pm

tautologies wrote:I doubt Waiman has had much to do with anything in thing company except being on the pics. Same thing for Best.
Epic folded before D left..he left because they folded.
CaptainArgh wrote:Yeah, this company will die without him...
...I believe the gear was originally designed around his visions, and with that lost, the company is likely to fold. Kind of like Eclipse folded when Dmitri left. Eclipse wasn't named after D, but he was the face of the company and it was where he had taken ideas Airush wouldn't let him develop...
i'm quite stunned...
are you getting in the real world or are you just bashing competitors outsides from the HI?

anyway, i'm in...

User avatar
william_rx7
Medium Poster
Posts: 165
Joined: Thu Aug 24, 2006 2:16 am
Location: TO
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Lou wainman quits wainman Hawaii

Postby william_rx7 » Mon Mar 10, 2014 9:47 pm

Sadly, no one will remember how good or bad these kites flew, just the gangster rabbit and all the pot-smoking innuendos.
The medium is the message. - McLuhan

Image

User avatar
NYKiter
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 2057
Joined: Fri Mar 22, 2013 9:17 pm
Style: Wave
Gear: .
Has thanked: 11 times
Been thanked: 26 times

Re: Lou wainman quits wainman Hawaii

Postby NYKiter » Mon Mar 10, 2014 10:16 pm

the way things are going pot may be legal sooner than we think and the marketing is spot on :cool2:

Bain
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 619
Joined: Fri Nov 12, 2004 3:57 am
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: Lou wainman quits wainman Hawaii

Postby Bain » Mon Mar 10, 2014 10:17 pm

william_rx7 wrote:Sadly, no one will remember how good or bad these kites flew, just the gangster rabbit and all the pot-smoking innuendos.
The medium is the message. - McLuhan

Image
I hadn't really heard of anybody talking about "gangster rabbits and pot smoking innuendos" until you brought it up. Pretty lame. If you wanna hate, that's all you but don't drag everyone else into it.


Return to “Kitesurfing”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: andylc, Bing [Bot], Dirk, htsc, IvanoKite, KVL, nixmatters, nothing2seehere, rnelias, Sers, xoen, Xtream, zegermans and 384 guests