Nothing better than getting real world demos and more affordable travel opportunities. I’ve reached out to a bunch of different brands to see who’s offering up free demos this year so locals and visitors alike can track down gear a little bit easier. Right out the gate there’s exellent opportunities to get hands on Five-O wings, Omen boards/foils, KT foils, Appletree boards, AFS foils. There will also be some scheduled events/opportunities to get hands on gear from Duotone, Armstrong, and Code.
If no demo is available, or you want to get your hands on something for more than a session or two, the buyback idea can be used. Maybe this will take off, maybe not? Could be an awesome way to crowdsource gear not just here in the Gorge, but around the world.
Warranty is the Achilles heel. If you could make sure the manufacturer would let a 2nd owner have full warranty that would help. Certified Pre Owned like a Kia Sorento
The shop manages the warranty anyway. If they are the purchaser and then selling it off the 2nd time as used gear. It seems to me like they would get paid 1.5 retail for every piece of gear.
No one wants to put up the up front cost to start it though. Since it would be a payment plan.
I think the best that most shops can consistently offer is a try before you buy program which is still pretty amazing. There’s a couple brands out there with satisfaction guarantees. Ocean Rodeo at 60 days. AFS has a “satisfied or refunded” policy but I don’t know the details. Reps and brands will have a little more flexibility with free demos and this will be especially useful to small brands trying to get a presence and feedback from Gorge riders.
In my mind the buyback will be more rider to rider, not shop to rider. Instead of having people stuck with last years DW board collecting dust or that foil that you loved but sized down from and no longer ride, just send it out with another rider. You decrease your anxiety of it getting damaged as well as their anxiety of not liking it. Win win. If they love it and you don’t need it back then just let them keep it.
I went down the mast adapter path (Stringy) to make demoing foils easier and more affordable.
Seems to me with foils, being able to try airplanes (front wing, fuse, and tail) could be pretty straight forward and have limited wear and/or damage (I have taken an airplane off the shelf and put it back with no way to tell it had been ridden).
And hopefully this will encourage brands to adopt a universal or easy to adapt mast to fuse connection…and boost the second hand market, as in not having to buy a new mast with every foil makes buying a used foil a lot more appealing and less costly if it’s a dud…
Some people are pretty good at keeping their gear perfect while others just assume scratches and chips are normal and treat the gear as such. Interesting difference for sure.
Love the idea. Had been thinking of how to do this since last summer. Was considering buying from BW then putting on consignment as I left to recoup but this is the better way to go.
It’s going smooth so far too. I’ve had two of my boards go out to people who were just cruising through town and we had some good spring conditions to ride. One of my tails is out to someone who just bought a new AFS setup and is testing tail options. I just dropped off the AFS Silk 850 setup to a local who’s looking for his next foil and wanted to try AFS for a week or two before making his decision.
Not sure how it’s going for any of the other companies on the list but pretty stoked to see how it’s started before the season has really fired up!
Hah! Big Winds was/is planning for demos this summer too but I don’t have the final details yet. As long as people are out having fun and getting the right gear that’s all that matters!