Are they closing your account or undercutting your pricing? What are they telling retailers about this?
But you sell at half the price since distributors take 1x margin
I think that’s D2C is a much better model for everyone.
Foils are not these technical complex products requiring local shops to provide regular support on the field like for electronic devices.
When having a problem…
With direct to consumer brands, well you just deal with the brand’s support which is much more competent, and who is owning its public image and reputation.
With brands having shops/distributors, most real poblems are anyway esclated to the brand itself to assess situation, damages, etc. It takes weeks of chains of emails and bullshit.
And sometimes you have shops/distributors who are reluctant to actually escalate the problem and just ghost users or pretend not having answers from the brand.
Gong is an interresting case.
It’s clearly a hard discount brand.
Their prices are half of the competition.
It’s partially reflected in the design and quality of gears (thick mast and fuse, maybe slightly less reliable gears).
But their website, online service, advises, consulting, and after sale service is stellar, like a million times better than any of the premium brands that cost 2 times the price.
The one thing I blame Gong for, is that they don’t participate in events and don’t organize demo days with ambassadors. That being said, most brands, even if distributed by shops, also can barely ever be tried.
4 Likes
Yeah, unless you live near a foil shop that lets you demo the gear it is a pretty pointless markup. I’ve only ever ordered Unifoil from shops out of state that I couldn’t demo regardless so there was no benefit. Would rather get front wings $150-200 less.
5 Likes
I wonder if they made an agreement with current retailers to only discount ~25% for now (certain amount of time; like 6-12 months for example) to help retailers clear their existing inventory and still make a little bit of $.
Eventually, if they end up around $550-$650 for front wings, it’s going to be hard to justify going with another company. Their evo wings are very nice.
Also makes sense now why they didn’t have a booth at AWSI.
4 Likes
I honestly don’t know what is happening going forward. But for now we are selling unifoil lower than unifoil is.
I wish that was true! 
1 Like
Obsolete…. Revisiting the Hyper2 was good fun. And I have a buddy that still loves the Viper.
A different sweet spot for sure. But where do you think those other foils don’t hold up today?
1 Like
Not really the point of the thread, but I think foils have gotten a lot more versatile since then. Current foils turn and glide better than the hyper and are also more pitch stable. Current foils turn and pump better than the viper and also have more speed range. I rode thewe foils a few years ago and at the time some of the sizes were great (I thought some of the sizes sucked) but they just can’t compare with today’s foils from uni or any of the other big brands. You can argue that they are just a different feel than the current stock of foils but I’d argue that some current foils could cover the range of both the hyper and vyper and do it better than either of them.
3 Likes
I agree with you. Undeniable the current level of foils gets the best of previous generations. But the development since 2022 is marginal gains. Don’t get me wrong Love the new stuff but if you cant ride the Progression at speed the Aggression is not going to be a magic bullet to make you Mr Bennetts doppelganger.
But if we are staying post topic. You wanna look at how it goes when the priorities go consumer direct look at what you get from Gong. People mentioned 50% mark.up for dealers try cutting that in half. Being able to demo a foil in my area, hear the knowledge of a dealer that has indepth experience on how to tune it to get the best ride, etc is worth the $200 and hassle of a dozen shit sessions and selling something used to try again. You could always buy Uni on their site. There has to have been bigger motivations for there price/cost cutting.
1 Like
The problem is that many storefronts are barely in existence, resulting in very little added value. That is, they meet with you “by appointment only.” The best thing about foilers in retail is that they foil, the worst thing is that they foil.
2 Likes
The worst thing is that they are surfers.
1 Like
Tariffs surely played a role in the decision here too. How on earth do you choose the MSRP to make money for both you and the retailer when the import duty for your largest market could be 10% or 100% depending on Donnys mood.
With direct to consumer you can let the customer roll the dice with the duty and you only need to worry about manufacturing costs.
7 Likes
Well I woke up this morning and in my email was a newsletter from Unifoil & just checked out their website and picked me up a bunch of gear! The prices are amazing! Thank you Unifoil x mas came early!! Hope everyone else is able to enjoy!!
Yes, fantastic value isn’t it. Just waiting for the evo 135 to come back into stock. Hopefully the rest of the bits I want don’t go out of stock in the meantime! Add a pre-order option Unifoil, you can have my money now then!!
1 Like
Looks like the prices actually dropped again!! Hands down, no better value on the market and a complete paradigm shift. Every other brand is now on notice that Uni is here for it. Will there be a price war?
1 Like
Kind of crazy to think all of the foil makers could have been selling front wings for $450, high modulus masts for $800, and tails for $85 and made their profit this entire time. What a huge unnecessary cost we’ve been paying.
Will be funny to watch the competitors drop their price to match or scramble to adjust their marketing to justify 2-3x price on their foils.
Update: The prices all rose $100+ after I posted this comment, Torque was $824 and now $980
This is beginning to look more like a fire sale….
Wondering the same thing. They would be wise to release a statement to the contrary.
I don’t think there can be a price war unless the other brands terminate relationships with shops and sell direct. Is Uni selling more direct than they were to shops? We don’t know. It’s a long term shift. I’d expect they will need to do a lot more grassroots style marketing to grow and maintain presence in various markets.
The relationships and politics around prices, shops, brands and regions is quite complex. If every brand shifted to direct to consumer models and all shops closed forever the entire foil industry could change pretty dramatically.